The plan, made up of five resolutions, would create six large city-approved campgrounds, build 20,000 units of affordable housing and allow Portland leaders to ban indiscriminate camping on city streets. Following an amendment introduced by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, the council agreed to limit the size of the encampments to 250 people instead of the previously proposed maximum of 500. The proposal, which would ultimately require everyone living on the streets to move into shelters, has proven deeply controversial. Critics, including many homeless service providers and activists, denounced the resolutions as a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize homelessness. Advocates have cautiously praised the plan as a necessary step in cleaning up the city — if the city can actually build the number of shelters needed to clear the streets of tents. The plan was drafted by Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Dan Ryan. Ryan oversees the Portland housing office. Rubio and Commissioner Mingus Mapps voted yes on all five resolutions. Only Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty voted against some of the resolutions. Members of the Leaven Community Land & Housing Coalition attend a Portland City Council meeting Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Portland, Ore., to oppose a resolution that would ban street camping and create designated areas for homeless encampments. The resolution has sparked intense debate in the city. Claire Rush/AP Hardesty, who faces a tough re-election bid next week against a challenger who has called for a tougher approach to camping, voted no on the resolution aimed at banning it — by far the most controversial part of the package. He called it “cruel and inhumane.” “I had a lot of people tell me that it would be the politically smart thing to do to vote yes on this resolution. And frankly it would be easy for me to do that,” he said. “But to say that we will magically wave a wand in 18 months and there will be no more street camping is not realistic. These resolutions do not contain code changes, do not identify funding or land, and do not have agreements between jurisdictional partners.” Both the shelter and housing portions of the plan are likely to be extremely expensive. The city’s budget office said city-approved campgrounds could cost between $3 million and $6.8 million a year — and that’s if the city builds just three campgrounds that serve 150 people. City budget writers said the affordable housing could cost about $9.8 billion to build. The proposal will also require partnerships with Metro regional government, state leaders and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, among other stakeholders. It remains unclear whether the council will get the support and money needed from other agencies to make their vision a reality. Both Multnomah County and Metro leaders have said they support the mayor’s goals to reverse the region’s homelessness crisis, but have yet to commit to any funding. Wheeler said Thursday he hopes the package will force regional leaders to work together, calling it a “necessary first step.” “We should have a strong mental health safety net and we don’t,” he said. “I hope this conversation – if anything – pushes the conversation to the forefront where it should have been years ago.”
More, smaller camps
Thursday’s meeting was an opportunity for council members to introduce changes to the plan after nearly 200 people testified on it last week. Public testimony had stretched for nearly seven hours with Portlanders bitterly divided over the plan. Hardesty and Rubio introduced the most consequential changes Thursday. A majority of the council supported Rubio’s amendment to make the camps smaller. Instead of the city trying to build three camps with a maximum of 500 people, Rubio proposed six camps with a maximum of 250 people. Homelessness service providers have warned that shelters with 500 people could quickly become unruly and unsafe. “My goal here is to make it very clear that we recognize and are listening to the concerns about the size and because of the compelling testimony that we’ve heard,” Rubio said. Wheeler was the only council member to vote against the change, saying he wanted to “maintain the flexibility behind the original proposal.” Hardesty introduced 10 amendments. Some of her demands – such as requiring camps larger than 150 to get special approval from the council and pushing for the new shelters to be built within six months of securing funding – were not supported by any of her colleagues. Other amendments — including her request that encampments be spread evenly throughout Portland and built with facilities to address the needs of people with disabilities — became part of the final package. Her introduction of the proposed amendments included a jab at Ryan, who had previously opposed the mayor’s idea of building large homeless encampments. As he introduced a change regarding the size of the camps, he read an email Ryan had sent to Wheeler on Oct. 7, 2021, in which he said he had “serious concerns with the idea of creating large population outdoor camping zones. ” Ryan’s email was a response to a memo sent by mayoral aide and former mayor Sam Adams that outlined a plan to create up to three 1,000-capacity homeless shelters. “I’m curious commissioner, how did you change so drastically in a year?” she asked Ryan, who was next to her in the boardroom. “This was a thoughtful dialogue with a real plan that involved many other stakeholders in the dialogue and with the services. So we’re in a different place today than we were when this was written,” he replied succinctly.
Concerns about rushing
Thursday’s vote comes despite pushback from the ACLU of Oregon and Street Roots, a homeless advocacy group, to delay the vote. The ACLU had sent the city council a legal notice earlier Thursday warning that the plan could be illegal. Federal courts have said municipalities can’t ban involuntary camping if they don’t have enough shelter beds available. City leaders hope to circumvent the decision by building enough shelter beds for everyone living outside. In Thursday’s legal notice, the ACLU warned the board that they could violate the landmark Martin v. Boise, Idaho, decision. The group also accused city leaders of prioritizing the voices of businesses and real estate and “stifling the voices of everyday Oregonians and directly affecting the homeless … violating the neutrality of opinion required by the First Amendment.” The charge refers to the filing order from last week’s council meeting. Ryan had asked some Portland realtors and brokers to speak at the start of the seven-hour council meeting to support the measure, but failed to make clear that the speakers had been called to testify. While it is common for commissioners to invite someone to the board to voice their opinion on pending decisions, it is usually clear that these individuals have been invited to speak by a board member. “This was not a fair, democratic process – dangerous for people experiencing homelessness,” said Kaia Sand, executive director of Street Roots. “Money seems to buy access.” Sand joined many homeless advocates Thursday in asking the council to delay the vote until there is more time for people, especially homeless Portlanders, to weigh in. But others, like Jason Bolt of Revant Optics, a lens manufacturer based in Portland’s industrial Central Eastside, urged the council to move faster. He said he wanted the council to pass the resolution in hopes it could improve safety issues near his business. He said his employees can no longer use the sidewalks near his premises because of a spice shop, caravans and tents blocking the sidewalk. He said his complaints have been ignored by city leaders and the police do nothing about the encampment when he calls. He warned that he was seriously considering leaving Portland if the camp was not dealt with within the month. “It’s just a safety thing for me. I understand that there are people who live in these situations [who] they also have security issues. …. Let me be really clear. This is not us versus them,” he said. “But we have to think about Maslow’s hierarchy, right? If we don’t have security, we can’t be creative.” “Nothing on the table today is going to solve your problems 30 days from now,” Hardesty warned him. “I know,” Bolt replied. “It was a chance to talk to you.”
