Homeless shelters raise resistance
Neighborhood leaders insist that spillover impacts must be mitigated
District 4 Coalition Chair Jessie Burke used her president’s report time last week to talk about the proliferation of homeless shelters in her backyard—Old Town.
Todd Zarnitz, president of the Northwest District Association, is forming a task force in reaction to the independent announcement of two homeless shelters coming to the edge of his neighborhood.
Northwest District resident Laura Curry testified before the City Council this week about the substantial harm to livability in her corner, which she called a “drug-infested dumping ground” due to the city’s toleration of intolerable behavior.
Burke, who showed an Old Town map with social service agencies colored in red to illustrate their over-concentration in her neighborhood, announced that she would fight a proposed BottleDrop redemption center that could be adding to the impacts on local streets. She suggested the zoning code should be amended to limit social service providers in close proximity.
Mayor Keith Wilson’s plan to expand homeless shelters across the city may also face intense resistance wherever a site is chosen.
Neighborhood leaders say they are not opposed to facilities for the homeless, but they should be well-managed, and impacts on the immediate neighborhood mitigated. They point to existing facilities that go unnoticed because they are well-run and limited in size.
If that is the standard, the mayor’s campaign to end street camping will go slower and be more expensive than promised.
Unfortunately many of the honeless are severely mentally ill from drug addiction and or schizophrenia or other severe disorders. What is missing is how to deal with those individuals. Many are so paranoid the couldnt possibly tolerate a shelter and wont ever go inside for a free meal. Others when intoxicated or withdrawing are so unruly and incivil that the shelter can not handle them. These are the individuals that I believe cause communities the most angst, yet the city has no realistic plan for them or the communities with our unbalanced mental health commitment laws. I am proposing the Portland Oregon Civil Commitment Plan which would provide short term limited to 6 week hospital care with very rigorous attention to both the liberty interests of the severely mentally ill with the rights of communities for a safe, civil, and beautiful public square. Portland lacks a foundation that functions to address these community issues.