Mayor’s shelter-bed quota not absolute after all
Wilson says enough beds for the immediate need will suffice
For the first nine months of Mayor Keith Wilson’s administration, his grand plan to end unsanctioned camping was tied to an immutable benchmark: 1,500 shelter beds by Dec. 1.
That shelter capacity was supposed to allow the enforcement of the city’s camping ban, which would then legalize removal of the tents on streets and public places that have characterized and contributed to the city’s broad-scale decline.
The analysis behind these benchmarks was vague. Oregon law requires suitable accommodations for homeless people forced from their turf, but how many surplus beds must be available to legitimize a sweep?
Days after he was elected last November, Wilson estimated that 100-200 beds would be sufficient to force campers to move, a surplus he expected to reach as soon as his second month in office.
“You can’t set up the tents anymore,” he told Oregon Public Broadcasting, “You can’t establish a campsite any more in Portland because we have a shelter for you.”
“Once we have 100 or 200 empty beds a night, it stops,” he said, predicting that this capacity would be on line by June, if not sooner.
When June arrived and Wilson addressed two dozen community members touring the soon-to-open Northrup Street Shelter, 1,500 was a hard number.
He refused to be negotiated downward should the 200-bed facility—the largest one opened to date—create more community disruption than anticipated.
“I can’t,” the mayor replied. “It’s a numbers game. … We can’t wait. It’s time to take care of our people.”
Would he at least explain his plans at a community forum?
“I’ll consider that, but it doesn’t help to hear a room of angry people,” he replied.
The day before a July 28 Town Hall on homelessness called by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, Wilson relented and agreed to appear. The 580 who filled the Armory that night were not all angry, though loud guffaws and booing suggested many—if not most—were.
Target moves
By late September, as the shelter bed threshold goal appeared unreachable with two only months to go, Wilson decided that 1,500 was not a an absolute prerequisite after all.
At a Sept. 25 meeting of District Four Coalition leaders, Wilson laid out a different definition of success. He doesn’t need a particular number of beds, just enough empty ones for the immediate need.
Wilson said 1,300 beds will soon be online, but “we don’t need that many. We really want to have 200 or 300 empty beds every night, so … we’ll always make sure that somebody has a safe bed every night. That’s our promise, to ensure nobody’s left outside.,
With that revelation, Wilson had come full circle to his campaign position, a supply adequate for the immediate need would suffice.
That made sense to two neighborhood representatives on the Zoom call.
“I think his 1,500 target was more of a goal to ensure adequate capacity,” Pearl District Association board member Glenn Traeger said. “My understanding is that the key factor for enforcing the camping ban is simply whether shelter beds are available, not a fixed number. If beds are open, I don’t see why the mayor couldn’t move forward with enforcement.”
Northwest District Association President Todd Zarnitz was encouraged by the mayor’s new interpretation of the standard.
“The goal should be to get people off the streets as quickly as possible, not to achieve arbitrary benchmarks,” Zarnitz said.
Some contend the city already has an adequate supply. In addition to the 1,500 overnight beds Wilson proposes, Multnomah County currently operates 24-hour shelters with a total of about 3,000 beds. The latest figures from the Joint Office of Homeless Services are from 2022, when there were 1,400 beds, 19% of which were vacant on average.
John DiLorenzo, the lawyer who brought the successful suit against the city for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing campers to block sidewalks, said Portland may enforce its ordinance against camping in public “provided there is room in the shelter system at any particular point in time.”
“1,500 is an arbitrary number not connected to any law or court decision,” DiLorenzo told the NW Examiner.
Rob Layne, communications strategist for the mayor’s Portland Solutions program, said there never was an “aha moment” when it was decided to relax the 1,500 bed standard, just a growing confidence that the supply was sufficient for the need.
Wilson also recently announced plans to begin moving campers off the street Nov. 1, first with citations targeting people having outstanding warrants or those involved with current crime, such as drugs or weapons.