Opinion | On the verge of investments in shelter, housing and services, city sweeps only serve to impede improvement
Construction fences angled in odd directions shape the phantom of what was a smattering of tents on Northwest Second Avenue and Couch Street.
A cramped row of bicycle racks , devoid of bikes, stand affixed in front of a boarded-up building near the foot of the Broadway Bridge.
Lime green sheets of paper announcing “Notice: Illegal Campsite” are stapled to buildings and poles, announcing an intent to sweep in 72 hours or more.
These are several telltale signs of what is a relentless effort to clear unhoused people from camping in Old Town since the launch of the Old Town 90-Day Reset Plan.
What might look like progress is actually a dizzying display of displacement that, ultimately, compounds problems. It’s hard not to feel exasperated at the shortsightedness, at best, and cruelty, at worst.
Consider these two anecdotes:
One man, who I’ll refer to by his first initial, P., was camped in Old Town until his camp was swept a few weeks ago. He returns to Old Town every day because this is the neighborhood he understands, but in search of sleep at night, he rides the MAX back and forth with an increasing swell of people who have been swept — people who are more agitated, more sleep deprived, more irate at the systems that betray them. The gulf has widened while the city’s efforts shunt any semblance of sidewalk-based shelter to the rolling trains of Trimet and elsewhere.
The same day P. gave me his update, I rode the MAX myself. Lost in reading an article on my phone, I overshot my stop, so I hopped off at a later platform and, as I waited for my train, chatted with a man tasked with cleaning the platform. After he teased me gently for not remaining in the present, he discussed what he saw as increasing numbers of unhoused people on the trains. He voiced frustration at the unhoused people, some of whom were agitated as they struggled to survive. I thought of P., and of all the other people who shifted from the sidewalks where they pitched the tent to the chaos of moving trains.
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When tactics simply displace people rather than link them to what they actually need, the problems do not go away. They grow.
That’s why the Street Roots newspaper is dedicated to tracking these interrelated displacements through its independent Sweep Tracker. Readers deserve to have as full of a picture as possible when it comes to what amounts to resources going toward non-solutions.
As long as incomes are too low to match the rents in our area, the difference has to be made up through public subsidy. That inequality compounds whatever tragedy befalls us — whether a pandemic or a climate in tumult. After all, over half of Oregon renters spend an inordinate amount of their income on rent. While thousands of people live without housing in Multnomah County — 5,228 in the latest Point in Time Count (always an undercount) — many, many more people are unstably housed and likely to become homeless without intervention.
Luckily, two months into the global pandemic in 2020, our region voted for a new tax resulting in a support services measure. I’m proud that people stood up in such a difficult moment. The funds only started flowing last July, and this will be the first full year of revenue, which includes an array of shelter, transitional housing, rent assistance and master leasing (funding for a service provider to rent an entire building to house people), with a large percentage supporting people who struggle with managing mental health or addiction.
All and all, just over $100 million from the Metro Housing Services measure will support this work, matched with funds from the city, county and state and federal governments for a total of $255.5 million.
While I am eager for good, quick options, so people like P. have better choices sooner , the Metro Housing Services measure is sending us in a more hopeful direction — that public funds be spent toward outreach, services and housing.
Meanwhile, our city is doubling down on the spectacle of progress that just makes life harder for people who are barely hanging on.
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