Mayor Wilson claims he has never seen failure
A successful track record might be an impediment for his homeless initiative
I was not supposed to hear Mayor Keith Wilson’s revealing comment about his quest to rid Portland streets of unsanctioned camping by Dec. 1.
Wilson had asked to meet with a handful of neighborhood leaders in late June at the Northwest 15th and Northrup warehouse that he had recently announced as the first overnight homeless shelter in his grand plan.
I showed up uninvited, joining about 20 others who tagged along as friends of friends who heard about the appearance. Wilson raised no objections about the gate crashers, fielding questions politely and earnestly.
Chase McPherson, executive director of Northwest Community Conservancy, a neighborhood-funded organization tackling crime and public homelessness in the Pearl because the powers that be have proven inadequate, asked the mayor: “What does failure look like?”
McPherson wanted to know how the mayor would recognize indications that things were not unfolding satisfactorily.
“I’ve never seen it fail,” Wilson replied confidently and without hesitation. “I haven’t seen failure on the ground.”
Long before he announced his candidacy, Wilson had visited cities across the country to learn what they were doing so much better than his hometown. His campaign theme was Portland’s homelessness crisis is solvable because other cities were employing strategies that worked.
But how could he know his amalgamation of those programs was foolproof? Tours led by mayors and program managers would have focused on the bright spots. Wilson may never have seen their rougher sides or heard from their critics. Would neighbors of those shelters have told him they feel safer and the surrounding blocks were cleaner?
Even the football coach who installs a new offense knows it will not succeed on every play. It needs to be adapted to the talents of his players and adjusted to various defenses. Only when the coach has learned his offense’s vulnerabilities and how to cope with each one can he be ready for the moment of truth on the gridiron.
Likewise, a mayor who assumes his approach to homelessness is surefire because it has worked elsewhere is out on a limb. Should he face serious opposition, he will tend to put his head down and power through because he knows nothing else.
I fear that is what I see happening to Mayor Wilson now. He grasps for indications that he is succeeding. For instance, he claims on thin evidence that neighborhoods surrounding new shelters are safer than they were before. That feeds a credibility gap, as with President Lyndon Johnson’s claims that we were winning the Vietnam War.
You don’t know how something works until you know how it breaks.
I am particularly interested in what three significant stakeholders expect when the shelter opens and how they plan to manage the influx of newcomers. The first would be the NW Lovejoy Safeway. The shelter will begin to disgorge its overnight visitors at 6 am with a small snack of some kind. The shelter is located 2-3 blocks from the Safeway, which opens at 6 am. No one can forget the situation at the SW Jefferson Safeway and Plaid Pantry and there was not even an organized overnight shelter nearby that business. The Portland Streetcar passes by both Safeway locations, making going and coming to them much easier than approaching the W. Burnside Fred Meyer. What kind of planning / monitoring / changes do Portland Streetcar LLC and Safeway anticipate setting in motion to prepare?
There is currently no firm date for the opening of the new NW Branch Library between NW Overton and Pettygrove and NW 20th & 21st, nor a timetable for the anticipated park that was to be developed on the north side of Pettygrove, opposite the library. What preparation, if any, has Multnomah County Library undertaken to incorporate hundreds of new indigent library "visitors" in order that it doesn't become a day shelter and restroom drug den?
In the absence of all but a couple of day navigation and services centers, these places often become default safe loitering, sleeping, and shoplifting zones.
There are also a few food pantries which are currently over-extended and short of resources in the Pearl and Stumptown neighborhoods. When 200+ dispossessed people suddenly make this neighborhood their home - be it overnight or 24/7 - whose responsibility will it be to feed them?
I also thought of another player that was probably not included in any preparation or discussion: Good Samaritan Hospital on NW 23rd, whose ER already sees more than its share of emergency visits by homeless injured, mentally ill, and drug-affected people.
The presence of a large, all sex, low-barrier shelter inevitably represents not only more people in the shelter itself, but overflow loiterers, campers and dealers surrounding it in order to take advantage of the opportunities the new gathering represents.
I see that simply finding a place to warehouse folks overnight only solves a single transitory dilemma, leaving neighborhoods who were not consulted in the set-up to fulfill all other needs even if they are struggling to provide for low- and no-income people who already call NW Portland their home. If the city plans to "import" or move more, then it needs to seriously consider providing better support and communication to the institutions, businesses, and residents who have become involuntary hosts.
This is a very perceptive article. Mayor Wilson, to my knowledge, has not invited or allowed any meaningful exchange with the community on this subject. As you pointed out in an earlier article, the mayor shot down the plan for a critic who was scheduled to present at the July 28 town hall. Apparently he did not feel "up to" listening to any critics??!! At last week's housing/homeless council meeting, he and his staff high-tailed it away from the audience immediately after presenting, thus refusing to have any interaction with the public. He continues to repeat the same skewed statistics, for example, stating that crime goes down around shelters when in fact, it does not. I don't blame the mayor for sticking to his guns, but I do fault him for his refusal to have meaningful engagement with the community. His staff has dodged all questions from the community, including these: 1) when will he enforce the no-camping laws, 2) how can he guarantee expedited camp sweeps in the 1000-foot impact zone, if the county refuses to clean up the existing and future tents under 405, on any expedited timeline, due to the expired contract with the city and the lack of budget?, 3) how can the promises of expedited handling of livability issues be assured, if there is no mechanism for ensuring such? There are WAY too many unanswered questions, and it makes neighbors very nervous (and very skeptical of the mayor's reliability) when they realize that they cannot get honest answers or any meaningful exchange going with the mayor and his staff on important details and logistics surrounding the shelters.