On a peninsula that juts out into the Columbia Slough sits a homeless camp that underscores the contradictions, challenges and beauty of living outside.

The area, known to some longtime residents as "Tweaker Island," is not an island and doesn't really contain any "tweakers." Instead, it's home to a fluctuating family of roughly 30 men and women, a community built around a core group of older homeless people, many in their 50s, struggling to make it together among the blackberry bushes across the slough from the Portland International Raceway.

The peninsula has come under scrutiny in the last couple of months because it's very close to Moore Island, a Portland city park in the middle of the Columbia Slough that's become an object of fascination for the Portland Reddit community and a man who goes by the name "Drone Man," who films the area anonymously from above, using his drone.

In July, I kayaked to the island with a Portland Redditor. Two people were living on the island at the time and we didn't actually go very far on land. It turns out that the much larger camp is the one on the peninsula, though it appears Drone Man refers to both as "Hobo Island."

The fate of the campers on that peninsula, like the fate of most homeless people in Portland, is in limbo.

The campers are technically trespassing on private property. Arclin Surfaces LLC is listed as the owner of the land but Bureau of Development Services enforcement program manager, Mike Liefeld says, due to a lease on the property, there are some questions about who is legally responsible for the land.

"We did verify that there was illegal camping," says Liefeld. "We cited a violation."

The bureau continues to work through their process. That means they will give the owners some time to figure out who is responsible for the land and then give those people time to comply with the city's rules, which do not allow for camping outdoors on private property. "It's not to be cruel or inhumane," says Liefeld, but because of the hazards of outdoor camping, that include fires and waste disposal issues.

"It's difficult based on where we are right now," says Liefeld, "because we don't have a lot of great solutions or alternatives."

On Tuesday, Mayor Charlie Hales reversed his "safe sleep" policy, which allowed tent camping and sleeping on streets on public property. But he also told The Oregonian/OregonLive he does not want citywide sweeps of camps, and homeless campers who don't cause many problems for neighbors and have nowhere else to sleep will probably be left alone.

The campers on the peninsula aren't on public property and, depending on the outcome of the Bureau of Development Services actions, it's unclear how long they will be able to stay there. But for now, they continue to work together to survive on the little piece of land by collecting cans, finding about-to-expire food in the dumpsters at local grocery stores and hustling for a few bucks. They also feed each other, help each other build bikes and encourage each other to get help when they need it.

In late July, photographer Beth Nakamura and I spent two days hanging out with the people of the peninsula. Click through the slideshow above to explore life on "Tweaker Island."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker