OPINION | It is the best of plans, it is the worst of plans: Talk to those impacted before voting to change their lives
The mayor’s office, along with Commissioner Dan Ryan, unleashed the best of the plans and the worst of plans, with no evidence that unhoused people had been thoughtfully engaged in its formation.
So I will start there. Before City Council votes on a plan that will change the lives of people who have the least in our city, they should be brought into the conversation.
I’m calling for Mayor Ted Wheeler and Ryan to talk to people who experienced or are currently experiencing street homelessness in a town hall before they vote — particularly on a plan to create campgrounds that are connected to a ban on camping. I’ve contacted both their offices and schedulers with the invitation to a town hall co-hosted by AfroVillage PDX, Blanchet House, Ground Score Association, Hygiene4All, JOIN, Impact NW, Northwest Pilot Project, Operation Night Watch, Oregon Kids Read, Our Just Future, Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, p:ear, Rose Haven, Sisters of the Road, Street Books. Urban League PDX and Welcome Home Coalition.
These organizations are joining together to help lower the barriers to access civic engagement for people experiencing street homelessness.
This many-layered proposal was introduced last Friday, Oct. 21, and constituents now have to pick and choose at dizzying speed what to weigh in on, creating confusion and a lack of focus.
There’s some gold in there, and it would be nice to focus on what shimmers.
After all, it’s exciting to see some bold, hopeful thinking from city hall.
It’s by reaching beyond what seems possible that we can begin to imagine. So, while they’ve set affordable housing goals that are beyond what’s currently possible — 20,000 units by 2033 — this is the necessary work of drawing a horizon on which we can cast our collective vision.
This plan provides ambition to the bureaus Ryan oversees — Housing, Development Services and the city portion of the Joint Office of Homeless Services. He, of all commissioners, holds the most responsibility for turning the city levers to address the crisis of homelessness. The plan has the potential of bringing the full power of the city bureaus to the goal of housing more people by streamlining and reducing costs of the permitting process to identify any usable city land — including rights-of-way — as well as other private and public lands, and harnessing funding streams.
Another portion of the plan commits the city to studying low-barrier work for unhoused people, something Street Roots has focused on for more than two decades. Additionally, the proposal includes a focus on diversion programs that could remove arrest warrants as well as fines and fees, and supporting people seeking expungement of criminal records, recognizing the role that legal entanglements have in the barriers people face in housing and employment. Again, each of these items sketch out more of an aspiration than a plan, but they are a start.
So what is the problem?
Couched in very real concerns about substance use and mental health struggles, the plan creates large camps and a ban on unsanctioned camping over the course of 18 months. The decision is based on the conclusions of two unnamed outreach workers. These are big conclusions without direct and thoughtful input from unhoused people.
KOIN reported Monday night, Oct. 24, the mayor’s office named its Impact Reduction Team as the source of engagement.
The Impact Reduction Program — directed by the mayor, housed under the Office of Management and Finance — does laudable work, such as the siting of toilets around town, important for unhoused people, line workers, delivery workers and so on.
But the lion’s share of what the Impact Reduction Program does is sweeps.
So the mayor’s office is saying the way they engage with unhoused people over policy is by gathering information through upheaval and trauma?
Surely they can do better.
That’s why Street Roots is working with all the other organizations to put together a town hall. People living on the streets deserve to be engaged by elected officials as others have been in making this policy.
Civic engagement takes effort, and it’s something Street Roots and other organizations work hard to accomplish.
Ballots are piling up in our office, and we’ve been helping people on the streets register to vote. Some Street Roots vendors worked on the city charter process through a workgroup convened by the Coalition of Communities of Color. We’ve teamed up a number of times with Portland State University to survey people living on the streets to inform policy.
Civic engagement takes effort, but we should expect that from our elected officials.
Wheeler, Ryan, come talk with unhoused people about what works to address their street homelessness quickly. Is it the camps that you propose? Or more quick housing that is likely similarly priced (motel and apartment purchases that also allow land banking? Master leases, and other rentals of existing properties?) Or a combination?
And come listen to them address the ramifications of a camping ban. Please work collaboratively with the people on whom these policies focus.
Wheeler, Ryan, you are cordially invited to a town hall. Please RSVP.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. 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.
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