I moved to downtown Vancouver in 2010. The homeless were here then and are here now. I also see them in downtown Portland when I go over there. The services to help the homeless are downtown because that is where the homeless are, not the other way around. The homeless generally don’t have money for transit and couldn’t access services located in the suburbs.
The homeless need restrooms and showers where they are. Building a Day Center for the homeless near Share House makes perfect sense (“Homeless day center needs site” July 2). Not building it is not going to keep homeless people from congregating downtown.
And now that Share House is limiting the use of their restrooms (“Share Draws a Line,” Aug. 3), the need for the day center is greater than ever. It needs to be built as soon as possible.
Building it might get more of the homeless off the streets during the day as well as giving them access to showers and a place to store their meager possessions.
Being disabled myself, I really hate to see a homeless disabled person packing their belongings around town on a walker.
