Warm inside, cold shoulder outside
Multnomah County only concerned with what went on inside the warming center
Multnomah County’s overnight warming center at Northwest 14th Avenue and Hoyt Street sheltered more than 100 people during the cold snap earlier this month. But Chase McPherson, executive director of the Northwest Community Conservancy, said the spillover effects on the neighborhood weren’t pretty or well-managed, if they were managed at all.
The county’s contract with Do Good Multnomah covered only activity inside the shelter, not drug-dealing, vandalism or public defecation and sex acts happening on the surrounding streets and sidewalks. McPherson said shelter seekers gained access to a restroom for 13th Avenue businesses and left it unusable for employees.
McPherson said county project managers did not talk to the affected business owners until he drove home that necessity.
“The county doesn’t care what happens outside their doors,” McPherson told the Pearl District Neighborhood Association Safety & Livability Committee last night
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Multnomah County employees and the nonprofits they hire are homeless enablers. They don’t care about taxpayers that pay their salaries
The most important comment on the enabling done by local governments and nonprofit organizations came from the amazing
Kevin Dahlgren a few months ago. And I quote “If the people we are ‘helping’ are in the same position 5 years from now, have we really helped them?” Nothing makes more sense than that!!