People living at the Queer Affinity village currently located in the Central Eastside will be relocated to the 2300 block of Southwest Naito Parkway. Credit: Photo by Taylor Griggs
Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan and the team running the Safe Rest Villages project originally said they intended to have six new tiny home villages, an alternative shelter model preferred over congregate shelters by some, up and running by the end of 2021. Nearly two months into 2022, however, the city has not built any of the planned villages.
In the past several months, the SRV team made some headway on finding site locations and securing nonprofit contractors to manage the facilities.
The city said three of six SRV sites have been secured, although there is doubt on whether or not one of these sites should be considered one of the six. This site, at the 2300 block of Southwest Naito Parkway, will be a relocation of the Queer Affinity (QA) village, an existing outdoor tiny home village for members of the LGBTQ+ community located in the Central Eastside.
City staff said they don’t know how many new residents the relocated Queer Affinity village will be able to accept, and they want to add another SRV site to make up for that. Essentially, there are only two currently identified SRV sites that are new shelters specifically for unsheltered homeless Portlanders. With growing concerns from the business community and advocates alike, the city is feeling the pressure to move the project along so more people can move into city-approved sheltering options. The numerous delays in the project also demonstrate the difficulty the city is having with finding places for these shelters to go.
The city is now forming policies about what the villages will look like, including a recently-announced ban on auxiliary, unsanctioned camping in the 150-foot radius of the sites, as well as on the streets between the SRV and the nearest transit stop.
The city says the reason for this ban is to protect residents of the villages, though not everyone is buying the explanation. Considering the difficulties the SRV team has faced finding viable locations because of neighborhood organizations who protest homeless shelters opening nearby, homeless advocates and neighborhood associations indicated part of the reason for the ban is to alleviate concerns from housed neighbors. Ryan’s office has pointed to backlash from housed neighbors as a cause for delays, but maintains the perimeter camping ban is in service of SRV residents.
Is “anti-poverty bias” from housed neighbors limiting SRV progress?
The SRV project has sparked conversations about the efficacy of sanctioned encampments as a means of helping homeless people move off the street and make the transition into more permanent and stable housing. The SRVs will be villages of shelters providing people with a tiny home-style place to sleep and access to basic hygiene needs.
Part of the reason the process of securing locations for the SRV sites has been so challenging is fierce pushback from housed neighbors and neighborhood associations. Many of those who oppose sites have otherwise expressed support for moving homeless people off the streets from unsanctioned encampments, but they raise red flags when an SRV site is proposed for their neighborhood.
When Ryan’s office made its most recent site announcement for the SRV location in the Sears Armory parking lot in Southwest Portland in December, housed people in the surrounding community and people associated with the nearby West Hills Christian School were angry. Some in opposition went as far as creating a website to compete with the city’s Safe Rest Village website that accuses Ryan of “publicly (disparaging) neighbors and (villainizing) those who do not support his plan.”
According to the people who created this site, the problem with these Safe Rest Villages is that their barriers of entry are too low, which will lead to “the most troubled” homeless Portlanders moving in.
“High risk ‘Safe Rest Villages’ do not belong next to schools, parks, daycares or in your backyard,” the people behind the website wrote.
“We’re in this difficult position where people are yelling at us to do something, and then when we do something, we’re told: ‘But not here.’”
— Bryan Aptekar, SRV project communications liaison within Ryan’s office.
Ryan’s team said they aren’t letting neighborhood groups decide whether or not a SRV site will be in their neighborhood.
“There are some things that we absolutely want to collaborate on with the (housed) neighbors in the community,” said Bryan Aptekar, SRV project communications liaison within Ryan’s office. “And there are some things that just aren’t up for grabs, because that isn’t how it’s going to work.”
Still, the SRV team announced earlier this month they will enforce a camping ban within 150 feet around the perimeter of the Safe Rest Villages, as well as on the streets between the SRV and the nearest transit stop.
In the press release announcing this new rule, Ryan focused on how the perimeter camping ban is intended to help residents of the villages, not the housed neighbors.
“Villagers need safety and breathing room to begin their journey toward stability,” Ryan said. “By enforcing a buffer, we will prevent triggering incidents which may lead to relapse. Together, we can give unhoused Portlanders the trauma-informed support they need and make our community safer. We need helpful action for the neighborhoods and for Villagers building resilience.”
Given the contentious back and forth between the city and people who object to the new shelter sites in their neighborhood, some advocates believe the new rule was put into place mainly to placate some of the opposition slowing the SRV team in their quest to find locations for the villages.
Ryan’s staff has been open about the difficulties they say they face. A December article in The Oregonian quotes Aptekar saying that the city has faced “pushback from community members with anti-poverty bias” as one reason why these villages haven’t been constructed yet.
Aptekar acknowledged these difficulties to Street Roots, as well.
“We’re in this difficult position where people are yelling at us to do something, and then when we do something, we’re told: ‘But not here,’” Aptekar said.
The view on the ground
Jason has been camping near the Queer Affinity village since before the shelter went up. He said he and the people who camp near the shelter have tried to help people in the village, not threaten them.
“We can jump in to protect them,” Jason said.
Jason has been camping near the Queer Affinity village since before the shelter was established.
He said because he and the people he camps near are familiar with the neighborhood, they know who might try to instigate conflict with people in the villages.
Jason said when the Queer Affinity village first opened, the people camping nearby were able to access some benefits, like WiFi, coffee and food. Over time, the city started clamping down on the relationship between the village and the nearby campers, and those benefits fell to the wayside.
Darlene Garrett, who co-chairs the Downtown Neighborhood Association’s Homeless Action Team, said she has been supportive of these villages since they were announced, but has fielded concerns about the impact the SRV site on SW Naito Parkway will have on the International School of Portland and Bridges Middle School, both of which are located nearby.
Garrett said she thinks it’s a good idea to ban auxiliary camping around the SRVs, but is skeptical that this ban will be enforced, because she felt the camping ban around the nearby schools hasn’t been enforced in the past.
She also expressed concern that people who have set up unsanctioned camps at or near the Naito Parkway site won’t be able to live in the village, displacing them. She thinks neighborhood groups should have a role in the referral process, saying she has spent a lot of time getting to know her unhoused neighbors in downtown Portland.
“If people are camping downtown, we’d want to be able to make a referral,” Garrett said. “There’s a giant pool of resources of people wanting to help.”
While Aptekar said this type of intervention from neighborhood groups is a non-starter, there will be outreach organizations that are able to do referrals, particularly the nonprofit organizations contracted to oversee the villages and run the wraparound services there.
The SRV team recently announced they’ve secured a group to oversee the East Portland site.
Cultivate Initiatives (CI), an East Portland-based homeless advocacy and outreach organization, will manage the SRV site located at the Menlo Park “Park & Ride” near Southeast 122nd Avenue and East Burnside Street.
Caleb Tel Coder, Director of Strategic Partnerships at CI, said that he thinks it’s important the organizations running the SRVs are rooted in the communities where they’re located.
“We have relationships with neighbors who are excited for this SRV because they’re in this neighborhood already, and we want to help them get to a safe place,” Tel Coder said. “It’s for the people who are here, and I think that’s important.”
The CI team says they aren’t thinking about any politics emerging from the SRV discussion: they’re ready to mobilize to help people in their neighborhood. The site managers won’t be in charge of enforcing a camping ban and they say focusing on helping the people in the villages instead of any contention taking place outside will allow more people to benefit from these shelters.
Is something better than nothing?
Activists were already sounding the alarm about the potential risks of sanctioned shelter sites like the Safe Rest Villages. To some, shelters like this are simply a way to herd homeless people out of sight and justify criminalizing people who are camping without city approval. To those skeptical of the intentions behind SRVs, the auxiliary camping ban serves as an indication the city is open to using sweeping tactics in tandem with SRVs.
“A trend we’re seeing … (is) cities pivoting toward using services and shelters as a means to further police and control poor and unhoused people in public space,” wrote homeless advocacy organization Stop the Sweeps PDX in a statement to Street Roots.
Skeptics were further concerned by recent news that Portland mayoral aide Sam Adams proposed forcibly moving unhoused people into large shelters staffed by unarmed military personnel with the partial goal of criminalizing all unsanctioned camping, making people choose whether they’d rather live in a shelter with nearly 1,000 other people or risk legal ramifications. Currently, to criminalize unhoused Portlanders for sleeping outside could place the city in uncertain legal territory with the landmark Martin v. Boise case, as there are more unhoused people than there are available shelter beds.
Although Adams’ idea was quickly shut down by other officials following public backlash, the fact the idea was even floated is worrying to activists. Mayor Ted Wheeler proposed a similar, albeit scaled down, version of Adams’ plan sans military.
Jason said he thinks this is the direction the city is headed in.
“It’ll either be these tiny homes,” he said, gesturing to the QA village across the street, “or the outdoor shelters with 1,000 people in them.”
Jason said he’s been able to control his current environment and make it a place where he can stay safe and sober. He doesn’t want to be in a place where he doesn’t have that control.
The SRV team disputes the idea that the existence of these sanctioned shelters will mean the criminalization of everyone who doesn’t want to live there. After all, they’re not denying that only a fraction of unhoused Portlanders will be able to live there at a time.
All of this back and forth is frustrating to the SRV team, nonprofit contractors, potential residents and people who live in unsanctioned encampments, alike. Aptekar said he realizes that, to some extent, these villages will be a drop in the bucket. But they’re still worth trying.
“We definitely recognize that there are less places where people can camp. That’s why we’re building villages,” Aptekar said. “Yeah. It isn’t enough. We know that. But it’s something.”
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
