OPINION | Most funders of the campaign strategist-led ‘People for Portland’ are anonymous
Awash in mystery, there’s a new campaign afoot. Named as if it’s grassroots — People for Portland — all indications are that it’s anything but.
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“We’ve just launched People for Portland to provide a platform for everyday Portlanders to amplify their voices,” the campaign website claims.
The only names attributable to that “we” are three campaign consultants — Kevin Looper and Dan Lavey, who co-authored an Aug. 22 opinion piece announcing the campaign in The Oregonian, and Maria Smithson, who along with Looper and Lavey, is listed as a member of the three-person board in the articles of incorporation for the newly formed nonprofit filed with the Oregon Secretary of State on July 2.
Not yet two months old, the campaign has already begun rolling out television ads and has conducted a voter survey: deep-pocketed donors likely are rolling this campaign, but except for president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear Company, Tim Boyle — who told The Oregonian he’s one of the donors — no one has gone public.
My curiosity is piqued. It’s not election season, and, according to The Oregonian essay authored by Looper and Lavey, they intend to put pressure on elected officials to bring a sense of urgency to homelessness, policing, public safety and trash.
Look, I appreciate their emphasis on the “humanitarian crisis on the streets,” and on providing shelters or villages “with access to mental health and addiction services.” Street Roots has always supported a diversity of approaches for a diversity of people — while keeping our sights on quality housing for all.
But there’s a few reasons to sound the alarm.
While most of the platform is described in broad strokes on the website, the details emerge through a poll the campaign hired FM3 Research to conduct among voters. People were asked if they supported following:
"Here is a specific proposal that has been made to try to provide shelter for Portlanders experiencing homelessness. This proposal would replace the unsafe, unsanitary tent camps currently located all around the city with 50 new safe, sanitary villages with housing for homeless residents. Villages would have laundry, food, drinking water, spaces for eating and meeting, and lockers to securely store belongings. People living at the villages would be offered an individualized needs assessment that could connect them with substance abuse treatment, mental health care, job training, and options for more permanent housing. People would be required to leave unsanctioned encampments in public spaces if a space in a safe village has been offered to them, but police would not be used to sweep the camps. This could cost roughly $55 million initially and $30 million per year thereafter, paid for by dedicating existing tax dollars collected from the new regional homeless services tax and one- time federal COVID relief revenues – with no increase in taxes." (Source: Portland Key Issues Survey Key Findings | FM3 Research).
Given this wording, one could understand why 85 percent of the people supported it. But there are a few elements worth parsing.
First of all, they’ve created a simplistic binary of “inhumane, dangerous camps” against “safe, sanitary temporary housing solutions.” People experiencing homelessness have diverse experiences of camps, shelters and villages. So while I embrace the possibilities of villages, I’m alarmed by the absolutism, coupled with a redirection of the Metro Homeless Services tax revenue, potentially away from also supporting people in more permanent housing through rent assistance and other supportive services.
Second of all, this langauge reads as coercive: “People will be required to leave unsanctioned encampments when space in a village is offered.”
People who were surveyed may have been reassured by the language that "police would not be used to sweep the camps," but there are clear loopholes. Most of the time, police aren't used to conduct sweeps; the city contracts with Rapid Response Bio Clean.
And how would such a requirement be enforced? Arrest? Forced detainment? Infinite sweeps? While some housed neighbors see the sidewalks as less humane than any indoor option, that’s not always the case for the people experiencing it, and if people don’t move by choice, it’s important to listen and understand why.
Thankfully, when Portland city council passed its June 30 ordinance around the Safe Rest villages proposed by Commissioner Dan Ryan, it included language protecting people from such required movement: “Referral to a Safe Rest Village is voluntary for the referred person.” But that’s clearly not the intent of the People for Portland campaign.
People for Portland also intends to “Restore Cleanliness and Pride.” It’s vague. While the campaign does not explicitly connect this platform tenet to homelessness, I’m watchful, since the two are frequently invoked together — sometimes in outright dehumanizing ways, sometimes around humane concerns for the public health of campers. Kat Watsula addresses the inhumanity of camp sweeps in this issue, and an escalation of sweeps is something worth keeping an eye on.
I’d also like to address the fact that Portland does not guarantee regular and reliable waste removal for all Portland residents in which the resident determines what is garbage and what is not. The trash system is piecemeal, based in part on early 20th century scavenger routes that ossified into a “franchise system” of private haulers assigned to neighborhoods. The gaps in the system are a public health failure.
There’s more to explore in this campaign. I’m hopeful that the campaign champions an expanded Portland Street Response, and I’m concerned that the campaign advocates for increased policing. Clearly, with savvy strategists at the helm and potentially afloat with full coffers, this campaign will demand critical discernment from the rest of us.
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand.
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