"City leaders say protesters need to stop camping outside City Hall now that they've been provided with more shelter space. Homeless people and their advocates say they never asked for shelter space. Rather, they want the right to sleep outdoors and looser anti-loitering laws."

Above is what the Oregonian wrote. I find is surprising Matt would agree with this view, yet continue to be sympathetic to the homeless protesters.

The city, including city hall, is for everyone to use and enjoy. When people choose to "camp" in places, they are taking an area that should be for everyone, and hogging it all for themselves. Not to mention sullying it so as to make it less enjoyable for the majority of people.

If this is a debate about the right to be homeless then the debate is DOA. While most everybody would agree you have a right to not have a job or a house, few would argue you can choose to live wherever you want. That would be an infringement on the rights of all people.

So the notion of public property is dead?

I forgot: This is America.

"Randy Leonard says homeless people should be content with sleeping in shelters, no matter what conditions are like."

Randy, 'el shelterbedo no exsisto...' there is not enough shelter beds dood.
that is why when you do your count there is still 1500 people sleeping outside.

100 shelter beds? give me a fucking break. unless the city is willing to provide enough shelter beds for everyone they are acting simmilar to a turkish prison, give 4 people enough food so the rest are jealous of them and wont work in a group with them to revolt.

the answer, for anyone who is not three knuckles deep in their left nostril, is simple and obvious.
end the classist anti camping and sit lie laws. (how many people in housing have ever gotten a ticket for either? you ARE men of the people, right Tom?... Randy?... we already know Sam and Dan arent.)
build enough affordable housing for all. its laughable when you guys call a condo in the pearl "affordable"... affordable to fucking who?
the short term has to exsist for the long term to work.

Randy, please reply and tell us all why you think that a band aid (shelter beds) which steals money from the long term (real sollution) affordable housing will solve this problem?
our city is gushing blood, we dont need a band aid.

Thank you for continuing to report on this, Matt & Amy.

I can't believe none of the other Mayor or Council candidates (other than Jeff Bissonette) have stepped up on this.

Jim Middaugh just sent out the following lengthy email to all those on his mailing list:

I propose that the current Council implement the following short-term actions that will help make immediate improvements, help prevent people from becoming homeless and reduce the impact of city policies that make problems worse for neighborhoods and for people without homes.

1. Increase outreach and services instead of strictly enforcing the sit/lie ordinance. I have heard from neighborhoods and police from around the city that sit/lie has increased the number of homeless people and campers in residential neighborhoods. The ordinance has not been enforced against sidewalk obstructions such as A-boards, as promised. As a result, the city is vulnerable to costly lawsuits and has only moved the problem of homelessness to the neighborhoods. Instead of strict enforcement of sit/lie, we need more funds for outreach workers and services. Clearly, when businesses are obstructed or people are at risk of injury (like under the Burnside Bridge where people park in the morning), people will need to move. But whenever possible, the emphasis should be on outreach, not enforcement. Additional ongoing resources for outreach should be included in the City budget.

2. Increase policing of homeless camps instead of strictly enforcing the anti-camping ordinance. Council should direct the police to work with campers whenever possible to limit the need for complete sweeps. The Portland Police should improve coordination with other security and law enforcement agencies and outreach workers to try to keep camps small, clean, and safe. Often, removal of specific individuals will significantly reduce or eliminate complaints and problems. If coordinated policing of the camps doesn’t work or camps become too large only then should sweeps be used. Sweeps of large or problematic camps should continue to be accompanied with additional resources for outreach workers to help people find other options.

3. Find $500,000 for rapid housing placement services to target homeless couples and people with significant health issues or physical limitations who are sleeping outside or in local shelters. Use the money to fund two full-time street outreach and retention workers with a goal of placing 100 couples or adults with disabilities into permanent housing, with services. It may be possible to use existing BHCD resources that otherwise will be redirected to the so-called "rainy day" fund. That said, the money really needs to be ongoing.

4. Improve utilization of Section 8 vouchers, which are now being turned back at a rate of 40 percent. In this era of historically low rental vacancies, we have to work smarter with renters, landlords and the Housing Authority of Portland to maximize use of valuable Section 8 vouchers. I propose that Council take immediate steps to support landlords and increase acceptance of the vouchers, including:

Creation of a new Landlord Service Team so landlords can get help 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week
Faster payment, faster property inspections and less paperwork
Allocation of an additional $100,000 for flexible client assistance and for workshops and education for all families on the Section 8 waitlist to help them resolve the credit and rental challenges that keep them out of rental housing.
5. Implement eviction prevention/housing stabilization services so they are readily available and accessible by the tenants in our local affordable housing units. Eviction processes are expensive for low income housing providers and incredibly disruptive to tenants. Reducing evictions with training and rent assistance will save money that can be used for providing additional housing or services and keep people from becoming homeless.

6. Reach out to for-profit developers who have condo projects or large rental housing projects, and work to get some transitional units within those projects. Lots of developers are feeling a squeeze, so they may be willing to carve units out of their projects specifically for people who are exiting homelessness or just very low income and at risk, if we can bring in a voucher and appropriate services. Council should direct PDC and BHCD to work with landlords and developers to identify additional units now. With the right package of incentives and services, working with the private sector may provide a significant amount of new housing.

----

We need to stay focused on a difficult truth – we have a shortage of affordable, safe housing. No amount of sit/lie ordinance enforcement will change that fact.

We need to be honest too. I don’t blame the police for trying to keep the doorways of businesses clear and to protect neighborhoods from large camps. They have a hard job to do and are as frustrated as anyone about the lack of housing. But, we are implementing the wrong policy right now. We don't need more enforcement, we need more investment.

The bottom line is there is not enough housing and services for people who need and desire to get off the street -- period. The current approach of using sit/lie enforcement combined with sweeps is exacerbating the problem.

We have a plan to end homelessness and we’ve been the most successful city in the nation -- since 2004, thousands of the chronically homeless have moved from the street to supportive housing. We know what works and we know how to do it. We need to keep investing, not pull back to short-term solutions like sweeps and shelters.

We can end homelessness if we keep investing in housing.

Enforcement may provide an immediate remedy for moving people away from public buildings and businesses, but it simply pushes people with no where to go to other neighborhoods; for example, from downtown to Buckman. That’s not a solution; it’s simply sidestepping the issue. Similarly, temporary shelter is just that – temporary. As soon as we close it, people will be right back on the street unless we create more permanent housing.

Instead, we must create a thoughtful and assertive plan in the short-term and we must continue to follow the plan that our community put together to end homelessness. We must continue to invest in transitional housing so people can heal and make change in their lives and we must continue to build more permanent housing.

Being homeless isn’t a crime. Jail is a very expensive housing alternative. The answer to camping and homelessness is housing.

Combined with new sources of funds for housing (document recording fee, etc.) and additional ongoing City resources for housing, these actions will reduce current tensions and allow us to continue to make progress on ending chronic homelessness.

Police noted that the crowd, which had grown from a couple of dozen to 100, consisted of fewer true protesters and more young people who seemed to be there for the thrill of it.
This is one of the more ignorant lines I've seen since the protest picked up.

I can't believe none of the other Mayor or Council candidates (other than Jeff Bissonette) have stepped up on this.
I've been down there almost daily.

Hey Burris, as much as you'd like to be relevant, you're a non-factor...stfu.

"The issues that we’re protesting about affect all of us,” said Max, who joined the protest last Thursday but kept his last name off the record. “These vague vagrancy laws affect our rights to sit or be in the city where and when we choose, they infringe on all of our civil rights."

Umm, no. No they don't.

D,
yes, they do.
from 14A.50.030 Sidewalk Obstructions.
"6. Assembled with others to participate in or observe an expressive event if the assembly has lasted less than eight hours, unless the person refuses to comply with a lawful order of a peace officer, the City Engineer or the City Traffic Engineer to move so as to moderate the impact of the assembly on passage along the through pedestrian zone;"
which intereferes with:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
which most of you will recongize as Amendment 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791
or at least in my humble oppinion it does.
thanks
Patrick

Tom Potter is an old beat cop who helped develop community policing when he was Police Chief under Mayor Bud Clark. His has strong sensitivity to the emotional pulse of the community. His strongest base of support, when he was running for Mayor, where his Neighborhood Association connections.

Most police officers prefer dealing with more serious crimes than some guy with nowhere to sleep. At the same time many neighborhood associations are fear based when the subject of homelessness comes up. Folks tend to take the most outrageous incidents people have seen and use emotion to embellish it. Police cannot help but become biased through the emotional communications of those meetings and continually dealing with homeless people when they are in crisis. We are one of the last remaining groups it is legitimate to be prejudice against.

Now the most influential group at city hall is the Portland Business Alliance (PBA). They have had more meetings at city hall than any other group. Mike Kykendal became a V.P. for PBA about the same time as Tom Potter became Mayor. He is a former deputy D.A. for Multnomah County and has been a close friend of one of Mayor Potter’s top policy people Austin Raglioni.

One of Mr. Kykendal’s goals in lobbying city hall was to get the title 14 sit-lie law enforced on Portland city streets. Mayor Potter set Ms. Raglioni to appoint the Downtown Public Safety Action Committee (PSAC) tasked with developing a new enforceable sit-lie law.

The PSAC was appointed by Mayor potter originally but became a open meeting and they pushed the work of Sit - Lie into a sub committee called Street Access For Everyone (SAFE), the irony is all along it was meant to exclude some folks from the streets.

SAFE included people from both sides of the issue, attorneys and representatives of elected officials. They came to a set of conditions, most of which had been suggested earlier in the PSAC meetings, “Five Strategies for a more livable Portland” which needed to be met before the Title 14 Obstruction as a Nuisance sit-lie ordinance would be enforced. The Mayor's office agreed it wouldn’t be enforced until all five parts were implemented.

The Mayor's office has broken their promise reached by consensus of the SAFE group appointed by the Mayor through Austin Raglioni, friend of Mike Kykendal.

The best laid plans, developed through community involvement, can be kicked to the curb by a lame duck Mayor when the interest of his policy makers and their lobbyist friends take control.

The Mayor ran for office claiming to increase public involvement, listen to the voices of the excluded and empower them. In the end the SAFE committee has been a sham. We have once again been conned.