PORTLAND — Leaders in Portland and Multnomah County announced Monday that nearly $40 million is being allocated to address the city’s ongoing homeless crisis.
The investments will go toward creating 400 more shelter beds, increasing the number of outreach workers, expanding behavioral health services and funding community cleanup programs.
“We didn’t get here overnight. The houseless crisis has been chipping away at the city’s soul for over a decade,” Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan said at a news conference on Monday. “There’s zero denial about the impact of this crisis on our street and (that) it’s having on our city.”
Portland, like other major cities, is in the midst of a homeless crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Residents, advocates, businesses and organizations have urged the city to do more to address the issue — in the form of additional housing, mental health resources, cleanups and increased public safety.
“Anyone who’s traveled Portland’s streets knows that our city is overwhelmed by unsanctioned encampments that often pose health and safety and environmental risks to those who, not only live within them, but also to those businesses and neighborhoods that live immediately adjacent,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said.
But after announcing the shared $38 million spending package — made possible by an unforeseen windfall in revenue, primarily from business taxes collected by the city and county — leaders are optimistic they can help more of Portland’s residents who are experiencing homelessness.
Officials say that nearly half of the spending package will be used to buy or lease property to create hundreds of additional shelter beds citywide. Currently the county has about 1,750 shelter beds and motel rooms, which can serve up to about 2,000 people. The county’s 2019 point-in-time count — a yearly census, of sorts, of the area’s homeless population — indicated 4,015 people were experiencing homelessness, with half of those individuals “unsheltered” or sleeping outside.
Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said officials have identified properties of interest and are in active negotiations with four sites, however the exact locations were not being disclosed at this time.
“If we can have something up and running in a month or two months, that’s urgent and that’s fast,” Kafoury said.
Millions of dollars will also go toward funding new teams of behavioral health specialists and outreach workers to assist those in crisis and connect individuals with resources.
Officials say more behavioral teams and outreach workers will be deployed to Old Town, in downtown Portland — a part of the city that has seen sprawling encampments and increased violence, violence and mental instability.
Last month, officials from four cultural institutions in Old Town sent a letter to city leaders, demanding immediate action to keep visitors, staff and volunteers safe following “rapidly deteriorating conditions”.
“We’re seeing a rapidly growing number of people who are enduring private, painful and acute behavioral health needs — made profoundly worse by the trauma of homelessness — every day, outside and in full view of the public,” Kafoury said.
Investments will also be made for additional hygiene sites and cleanups across the city — including at encampments and on “dangerous terrains” along highways and on steep embankments.
Wheeler said that the goal is to increase encampment cleanups by five-fold.
Prior to the pandemic, the city’s impact reduction program — which is responsible for coordinating the cleanup of unsanctioned campsites — was removing 40 to 60 sites a week. Wheeler said that for the last year and a half, only three to 10 sites have been removed a week.
