Northrup Shelter impact update
Pearl volunteers assess state of affairs in the district
The Pearl District Shelter Oversight Committee released its fifth report on conditions surrounding the Northrup Street Shelter last week.
The committee, chaired by Linda Witt, has gained traction at City Hall, and the mayor’s Portland Solutions team now meets with the volunteers to better understand the challenge and possible strategies to address it.
While many claim conditions are improving as a result of the city’s impact reduction efforts, Witt is not as optimistic.
“We’ve seen an explosion of people sleeping outside in the Pearl,” she said. “It really does feel like one step forward, two steps back.”
Bring back Officer Krumpke from West Side Story—triple the number of officers on foot and Segway patrol 24/7. Cops in cars cruising the perimeter of Jamison Square aren’t working.
Create an ODOT hotline like Portland’s 311 to call out campers and drug markets now flourishing north to Vaughn Street.
Hire new service providers who can tackle our problems Systematically! Not with one-off solutions. Create a seamless safety net for houseless, hungry, mentally ill and drug addicts. Survey Pearl District residents and businesses regularly about safety and their ideas to deter bad behaviors.
I recommend everyone fed up with The Pearl being a dumping ground for the homeless issue/Wilson’s far from perfect shelter plan continue to email or otherwise reach out to the mayor and district 4 councilors. The Pearl showed up in a big way to protect the Impact Reduction Program, and now we need to see impacts mitigated in our neighborhood. There is zero reason the areas around these shelters shouldn’t be getting extra and targeted attention so we aren’t dealing with camping, homeless trespassing and drugs/crime AND hosting hundreds of people in overnight shelters. Enough is enough.