Shelter opening spurs special meeting
Pearl neighbors will gather via Zoom on Thursday night
The Pearl District Neighborhood Association is calling a special meeting concerning the overnight homeless shelter scheduled to open Sept. 2 at Northwest 15th and Northrup streets.
The meeting will not be as big as the last special meeting called by the association, a town hall at the Armory attended by 580 people to hear Mayor Keith Wilson’s plan for this and other shelters across the city.
That event produced no discernible change in the mayor’s timetable to roll out 1,500 shelter beds, including 200 at the Northrup Shelter, as soon as possible.
The time for dialogue has become one for immediate preparations.
PDNA President Bruce Studer sent the following message this week:
Hello Neighbors:
Please join the PDNA for a Zoom call on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the opening of the Northrup Shelter. We will review ways to monitor and report issues related to shelter operations, as well as address the challenges it presents for our neighborhood.
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/99395492356
One need not look far for the possible impacts.
Erath Winery, located one block south of the shelter at 1439 NW Marshall St., closed this week after the shelter opening date was announced.
The Oro Apartments, which abuts the shelter site on the north, may be the most directly impacted property. An owner of the building, Paul Rudinsky, a former lawyer with Stoel Rives LLC, camped in front of City Hall yesterday in protest and was promptly arrested.
“The Pearl District right now is the worst I've seen it in four years,” he told KATU. “In the last two to four weeks, it's gotten exponentially worse. And the whole reason being that I think they're allowing the tents and the people that congregate there and even telling people how to find the homeless shelter coming down. So people are coming there looking for resources and stuff, and they won't find it because all it is overnight shelter with no additional resources.”
