I was very supportive of Mayor Wilson's plan to set up this overnight shelter in the Pearl and other neighborhoods as an inexpensive means to significantly reduce street camping, which was turning into a real plague in Portland. But it was supposed to be only a first step -- not an end in itself! What comes after opening these overnight shelters at night in terms of solving our problems with homelessness during the dayis much harder and will cost money. Even favorite solutions like "Why doesn't somebody just call the cops? Lock 'em up! Force those druggies into treatment programs, or else!..." cost serious money. Who pays for this? And what are these homeless people supposed to DO anyway -- live their tiny lives inside their tiny houses? I'm trying not to be too disillusioned, but Portland seems to coast on its reputation for progressive virtue while doing everything in this half-assed way.
How can we get them to fix it (honest question). As someone who has sent them messages now for months with supporting evidence (pictures, descriptions of incidents, etc) and earnestly asked the mayor and District reps to please step in and help us, I receive no response. These people just simply sit there and collect their paychecks and then go home to their shelterless neighborhoods - they do not care.
It seems like you have done everything reasonable to try to get a response. Please keep asking- especially the mayor. It’s almost campaign season and there will be opportunities to ask council members seeking re-election as well as other candidates what they think.
Bob, dare we say that the only way to "fix" the problems of the feral is to remove any and all ways that we make it easier for them to pursue their strange set of choices and to make life on the streets so uncomfortable that they'll (1) get serious about their responsibility as citizens and (2) go somewhere else, such as Lake Oswego, that might allow them free reign to rule the streets. Anything else is merely playing into the hands of the "therapeutic" professions who will "treat" the problem...approximately until the cows come home.
I’m not holding my breath but it would be nice if our elected representatives agreed that everyone has the same rights as those dealing with homelessness, drug addiction, and/or mental
Illness. I shouldn’t have to, when walking down the street with young grandchildren, have to sidestep needles, or, like today behind Good Sam, people smoking fentanyl.- causing us to turn back.
Who promised to close off those bike parking alcoves and why haven’t they done it yet? I have yet to see a bicycle parked there but I continue to see garbage, feces, graffiti, loitering, using and passed out/sleeping people who apparently can’t make it five blocks to the cyclone fenced, gravel lined Oasis Vacant lot without a shuttle.
This is the consistent experience of people living near shelters throughout Portlandia. Good Neighbor Agreements made, promises not kept. We've heard these stories time and time again ad nauseam. No wonder people want to move from this city! Our City and County Governments are untrustworthy, except for high taxation and an ironclad guarantee that they will not follow through with their commitments.
Wilson was selling BS from the get-go on the crazy (not to local media) idea that storing the bums in little concentration camps overnight would "end" homelessness. Voters, with no credible alternative, bought it.
As anyone who has read the new charter (surely, you have!), the mayor is, essentially, powerless; he can propose and the socialists will dispose. And the idea that the socialists will do anything about the bums is farcical; they're raw material for a growing industry benefitting people like them: young, over-educated, NGO types. Can't throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Balance the liberty interests of severely ill with societal interests for safety, civility and public beauty. Litigate civil commitments in local hospitals, require substituted consent for those committed. Maximun commitments for six weeks. No more needle distribution. Arrest those who break public laws. Shelters without the above are the reason the property prices are low and crime is up. It will cost less to provide the above than pushing housing first policies. Portland needs 1250 acute care psych beds and has 250. The tremedous loss of commercial real estate could have financed the above and would have been but a small fraction of it. Police should arrest people who break the law. Prosecutors. should convict them. Judges should punish them. Doctors should treat the severely mentally ill in hospitals. We dont need creative ideas. Stick to the fundamentals. There are 400 unfunded jail beds.
I was very supportive of Mayor Wilson's plan to set up this overnight shelter in the Pearl and other neighborhoods as an inexpensive means to significantly reduce street camping, which was turning into a real plague in Portland. But it was supposed to be only a first step -- not an end in itself! What comes after opening these overnight shelters at night in terms of solving our problems with homelessness during the dayis much harder and will cost money. Even favorite solutions like "Why doesn't somebody just call the cops? Lock 'em up! Force those druggies into treatment programs, or else!..." cost serious money. Who pays for this? And what are these homeless people supposed to DO anyway -- live their tiny lives inside their tiny houses? I'm trying not to be too disillusioned, but Portland seems to coast on its reputation for progressive virtue while doing everything in this half-assed way.
Welcome to the real way politics works in the Rose City.
The data speaks for itself. It’s clear the city created a problem. It’s clear that the city needs to step up and fix it.
How can we get them to fix it (honest question). As someone who has sent them messages now for months with supporting evidence (pictures, descriptions of incidents, etc) and earnestly asked the mayor and District reps to please step in and help us, I receive no response. These people just simply sit there and collect their paychecks and then go home to their shelterless neighborhoods - they do not care.
It seems like you have done everything reasonable to try to get a response. Please keep asking- especially the mayor. It’s almost campaign season and there will be opportunities to ask council members seeking re-election as well as other candidates what they think.
Bob, dare we say that the only way to "fix" the problems of the feral is to remove any and all ways that we make it easier for them to pursue their strange set of choices and to make life on the streets so uncomfortable that they'll (1) get serious about their responsibility as citizens and (2) go somewhere else, such as Lake Oswego, that might allow them free reign to rule the streets. Anything else is merely playing into the hands of the "therapeutic" professions who will "treat" the problem...approximately until the cows come home.
I’m not holding my breath but it would be nice if our elected representatives agreed that everyone has the same rights as those dealing with homelessness, drug addiction, and/or mental
Illness. I shouldn’t have to, when walking down the street with young grandchildren, have to sidestep needles, or, like today behind Good Sam, people smoking fentanyl.- causing us to turn back.
Who promised to close off those bike parking alcoves and why haven’t they done it yet? I have yet to see a bicycle parked there but I continue to see garbage, feces, graffiti, loitering, using and passed out/sleeping people who apparently can’t make it five blocks to the cyclone fenced, gravel lined Oasis Vacant lot without a shuttle.
This is the consistent experience of people living near shelters throughout Portlandia. Good Neighbor Agreements made, promises not kept. We've heard these stories time and time again ad nauseam. No wonder people want to move from this city! Our City and County Governments are untrustworthy, except for high taxation and an ironclad guarantee that they will not follow through with their commitments.
The GNAs are toothless. No penalties. No accountability. Eyewash.
Wilson was selling BS from the get-go on the crazy (not to local media) idea that storing the bums in little concentration camps overnight would "end" homelessness. Voters, with no credible alternative, bought it.
As anyone who has read the new charter (surely, you have!), the mayor is, essentially, powerless; he can propose and the socialists will dispose. And the idea that the socialists will do anything about the bums is farcical; they're raw material for a growing industry benefitting people like them: young, over-educated, NGO types. Can't throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Balance the liberty interests of severely ill with societal interests for safety, civility and public beauty. Litigate civil commitments in local hospitals, require substituted consent for those committed. Maximun commitments for six weeks. No more needle distribution. Arrest those who break public laws. Shelters without the above are the reason the property prices are low and crime is up. It will cost less to provide the above than pushing housing first policies. Portland needs 1250 acute care psych beds and has 250. The tremedous loss of commercial real estate could have financed the above and would have been but a small fraction of it. Police should arrest people who break the law. Prosecutors. should convict them. Judges should punish them. Doctors should treat the severely mentally ill in hospitals. We dont need creative ideas. Stick to the fundamentals. There are 400 unfunded jail beds.