There are some homeless folks--like the 55+ year old guys with obvious mental/health problems who walk around my neighborhood--for whom I feel a lot of sympathy. Then there are others, like these two (apparently) young and healthy guys, with seemingly nothing better to do than sit on the sidewalk and ask for change, for whom I feel much, much less.

I'm in the "we need to provide services for these folks" camp for the older folks with mental/health problems, and in the "get a job, you bum" camp for the guys pictured here. If that makes me a bastard, so be it.

Dave, it makes ya more than a bastard. It makes you an un-informed bastard. There area a LOT more issuses to homelessness than a job. Come out and play for a week with us. I am ONE of the formerly homeless people WITH a JOB. I'm stilljust one check away from being there again. Get a grip and get educated.

Hey Dale, shut the fuck up, go hit the booze and the meth and sit on a sidewalk.

Get a grip, gt educated, you sidewalk loser.

Dave, the key word is 'apparently.' There are people who don't want to work...but many people have many more barriers to working than meets the eye.

wow, that degenerated to name calling quickly...
what no one seems to note, and I think this was Matt Davis' point is that it is not Portland's Police doing this but private security, owned and paid for by the Portland Business Alliance. that is what we should fear, private security roaming the heart of our city with guns and a tin badge, pretending to be cops.

That guy in the picture isn't one of the PBA's rent a cops - they don't even work that area. He's one of those security guards that works in the Brewery Block area (I work down there so I see them all the time). These are the same guys Matt mistakenly called out for kicking a homeless man out of a trash can a couple months ago, thinking it was a PPI guard.

Matt, out of curiosity have you called the homeless shelter to ask what they think about people kicking out their own tenants? I wonder if they even know it's happening.

Come live in Buckman for a week. When you come home from a long day's work and you find these guys sitting on your porch enjoying a malted beverage, or you see one of them riding your just stolen bike down the street, you'll wish you had your own rent-a-thug to bust things up.

Chop!

Hey, stop whining losers, why don't you shut the fuck and and get a life. Come out and see what REALLY goes on, or don't ya have the stomach for it. It's easy to sit back and judge if ya haven't seen it. BTW, I don't use drugs or booze. Willing to match blood tests, sucker? Bet ya test positive for a lot of things.

Um, isn't the point of the day access center so that the homeless have a place to go when these guys "move them along"?
As far as the guys who are young and healthy who don't have a medical (or other) reason that keeps them from getting a job they should be able to sit on the sidewalk just as I should be able too. Having a job and or being homeless should have nothing to do with where you want to sit in public space; What's next signs that say people who don't have jobs/homes have to sit in the back of the bus or only to use certain bathrooms?
As for the spare changing, it's up to people who support it - not the law!
Last time I checked I wasn't illegal to ask a random stranger or a company (in person or via phone) nicely for free money.
If I stopped you on the street and said "Hey dude, can I have a hundred bucks Please." I shouldn't get arrested! Or is it that I won't get arrested if I have a home?
Things like this go right along with not being taxed with out representation, being able to defend my self, being able to say what I want as long as it isn't abusive to someone else, being able vote, etc.

Jeff,
I dont know, his shoulder flash certainly looks like the Clean and Safe roundel that PPI's boys wear on their shoulder. as for whether they patrol that area, the PBA's "Clean and Safe" PPI officers do not usually patrol that area, but the security that the Pearl District hires often seem to wander by that area. (not that it is the pearl or anything)

Jeff: the guy has a "clean & safe" uniform on, which makes him PPI. Right? Give me information to back up your understanding and I'll certainly follow up.