OPINION: Ending unsheltered homelessness in Portland

Published 3:19 pm Wednesday, October 2, 2024

I’ve heard a number of well-founded and sincere doubts about my promise to end unsheltered homelessness in Portland within the first 12 months of my administration.

In the past, I’ve told folks to look to cities like Boston, Boise and Philadelphia, which have a fraction of our unsheltered population. The truth is, we don’t have to look nearly so far for answers to our crisis.

Our city previously solved unsheltered homelessness. In the 1990s, Portland was nationally lauded for setting up a network of publicly and privately operated 10-hour, nighttime-only emergency shelters to care for our homeless. The plan was implemented in 12 months, resulting in one of the lowest unsheltered homelessness rates in the nation.

Anyone who wanted emergency shelter could get it, and Portland’s community safety laws on encampments, derelict RVs, and illegal dumping could be far more effectively enforced.

What went so very wrong? In 2017, the Joint Office of Homeless Services took over the management of shelters, which the City of Portland had previously overseen. They converted most emergency shelters from nighttime only to 24 hours a day. Their intentions were good, but the result was a tripling of expenses without adding a single shelter bed. Emergency shelters that served our community for decades but did not meet the new ideology were defunded, and innovative new operators were not funded at all.

Costs exploded, and our unsheltered population skyrocketed. Portland now has one of the highest unsheltered homelessness rates in the country, and the crisis on the street now impacts every family and business in the city.

Boston, Philadelphia, and Boise didn’t have a magic wand, but they got results. It’s time for Portland to stop doubling down on outrageously expensive, failing five-year plans and implement a proven blueprint. Here’s the good news: the leaders who created that blueprint are coming to Portland.

On Oct. 10, I will host the Ending Unsheltered Homelessness forum on World Homeless Day. I invite every metro-area political candidate and elected official, shelter operator and the public to join. I want attendees to hear from Mark Johnston, Obama’s homelessness czar, who helped 1.3 million people into shelters.

We’ll also be joined by Dave Bieter, former Mayor of Boise, and Dan Steffey, who, as the assistant to Portland Mayor Bud Clark, will share the forgotten lessons of our recent past. Julie Orlando will tell us how she was the first homeless service director in the nation to end unsheltered homelessness and then chronic and veteran homelessness using the innovative “Built for Zero” strategy. The public is welcome, so if you have something to say and a stake in the future of Portland, I want to see you there.

We have the facilities, more than enough taxpayer funds, and the incredible people needed to end this humanitarian crisis rather than perpetuate it. The only thing missing is the willingness to lead every day until we’ve fulfilled this promise to our city.

Let me leave you with a final question: With all the vast resources the City of Portland has at its disposal, do we have the ability to shift just 15-16 unsheltered souls from the street and into shelter per day? That’s what it will take to end unsheltered homelessness in our city within a year, and in doing so, bring REAL change to Portland.

Thanks for all that you are doing for our community.