Today, 31 volunteers cleaned the blocks surrounding the houseless support organization JOIN PDX at 1435 NE 81st Ave. SOLVE Oregon coordinated the event and provided cleaning supplies. Crews focused their efforts on the neighboring parking lot for Eastern Cathay Restaurant and other nearby streets.

JOIN sponsored this event, with many staff from the host organization joining community members in cleanup efforts. The cleaning event kicked off at 10 AM and ran until 12:30 PM. During that time, volunteers filled dozens of trash bags with litter and gathered piles of discarded car parts. SOLVE-trained staff collected over fifty hypodermic needles and safely disposed of them.

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SOLVE event coordinator Peter Brewer said that his organization appreciated the support from JOIN. He recognizes that this section of Portland suffers from intense litter and indicated that his group intends on returning to this location more frequently for future cleanups. Upcoming events will appear on SOLVE’s online calendar.

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Images courtesy SOLVE Oregon.

Update: Volunteer count updated from 27 based on final counts from SOLVE.

Disclosure: The author of this article volunteered for this cleanup even.