- Photographs by Denis C. Theriault
- Mayor Charlie Hales, right, with Police Chief Mike Reese, left, and Central Precinct Commander Bob Day.
In front of a phalanx of reporters, city staffers, and a vocal group of campers and homelessness advocates, Mayor Charlie Hales this afternoon defended his new push to sweep out extensive campsites in and around downtown by trying to argue a seemingly simple distinction:
“This is not about homelessness,” Hales tried to explain. “It’s about lawlessness.”
That was about Hales’ answer when I asked him why the Portland Housing Bureau and Housing Commissioner Dan Saltzman weren’t present at the press conference, where Police Chief Mike Reese and Central Precinct Commander Bob Day confirmed that no arrests were made in a second day of sweeps that saw formerly teeming “hotspots” like SW 4th and Madison cleared out. (Even if everyone merely moved into Terry Schrunk Plaza.)
“We’re not going to wait until homelessness is solved to start working on lawlessness,” he said. “Or else we’ll wait a very long time.”
That was his answer later on when the Oregonian again asked where Saltzman was.
“We’re not here to talk about a housing program,” he said.
Because this was about sidewalks and not homelessness, he said, it was better to have cops at his side and not the policy wonks and social services providers he swore were trailing behind the cops who were working the sweeps, in downtown and under overpasses and bridges in Northwest and the inner East Side. Hales repeatedly stressed that campers who set up shop on public sidewalks—and who weren’t “low-impact,” moving about during the day before returning to a safe spot at night with a bed roll—were violating the social contract governing a “civil” society.
But if Hales wanted to keep the focus on solely on public safety, the crowd made that impossible.
Hales has taken on a subject that confounded his predecessors—where every step and statement is either judged as too insensitive or too lenient. He admitted, and so did Reese and Day, that the city needed to “do better” because shelter space is limited. Right 2 Dream Too spokesman Ibrahim Mubarak pressed him on whether he supported the Old Town rest area’s mission, despite it facing thousands in code violation fines.
“I’m very impressed with what R2DToo has done,” Hales says, backing Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s efforts to find a new home for the site since taking over code enforcement responsibilities, a push first reported by the Mercury.
Hales also was pushed about why he wasn’t doing more to find land for a second Dignity Village (it’s hard to find land, he says) and whether he supported a Homeless Bill of Rights (haven’t seen it, he says).
So he talked about his budget, which fully funded local cash for safety net programs. And he shouted out Nick Fish, former housing commissioner. He also tried to talk up Saltzman, who’s been notably invisible since Hales decided to trumpet not just sidewalks and public safety, which fall under his role as police commissioner, but also homelessness itself, firmly in Saltzman’s two-month-old portfolio.
Leadership in city hall has been a question for some advocates, wondering whether someone would step up as a cheerleader for their needs. That Hales is moving first so visibly on enforcement has troubled some observers.
Asked where Saltzman’s been on these issues, Street Roots‘ Israel Bayer told me “It’s unclear.”
“They’re trying to get up to speed on very complex issues that we’re trying to find answers for,” says Bayer. “It’s unclear who is leading the charge over there. Is it Charlie? Is it Dan? Is it a collective group of commissioners?”
Meanwhile, the work continues.
“Street Roots will continue to work with partners to support individuals experiencing homelessness,” says Bayer. “Regardless of people’s circumstances, everyone deserves a safe place to call home.”
A Saltzman staffer, chief of staff Brendan Finn, was present at the beginning of the presser. Hales said it was appropriate for Saltzman not to show up and said he’s been diligently working on things like expanding shelter space. Hales promised, during the next budget update this fall, to find more general fund money for shelters.
Not that the crackdown, if you want to call it that, hasn’t become the defining image of Hales’ approach to the issue. It’s no secret Hales agreed with the Portland Business Alliance’s call for sidewalk enforcement and it raises the question of whether all the rigmarole cops are resorting to will become grounds for advocating in Salem for a new sit-lie bill.
Hales says the sweeps will likely expand from Central Precinct and mentioned discussions with TriMet. But he and Reese took pains to say, once again, that low-impact campers would be tolerated. Reese suggested getting private property owners’ permission and to “pick up after yourself.”
Big camps, Reese says, are “not sustainable, they’re not safe, and they’re not sanitary.”
Hales’ spokesman, Dana Haynes, says DAs told the cops they’ll need to record someone in one spot all day with a lot of stuff for maybe two to four days, and warn them to move, before charging them with interfering with a police officer. More days makes a charge easier to prosecute in court. Haynes says the hope is to add some teeth to punish those who don’t get the message otherwise.
Day says cops will still use “discretion” when deciding what to track and sweep and that complaints will determine where attention is directed. He says people might think city hall’s protest was broken up for political reasons, but that complaints were the driving factor. He also tried to put the number of arrests in context, saying four were for camping of the five so far, out of 1,700-plus people sleeping outside. (Never mind that the arrests are targeting a smaller subset of people, just in Central Precinct.)
“I’m not about arrests,” he says.
Art Rios, an advocate with R2DToo, mentioned Hales’ ongoing advisory meetings with cops, the PBA, approved providers like JOIN, Central City Concern, and the PBA-affiliated Transition Projects Inc. When, he asked, will Hales invite the homeless in for advice?
Hales said he’s always looking for new partners.
Rios was skeptical.
“I’m waiting for my email.”
(words you cant say about mayors of major cities on a public blog)
It’s hard to find land? Apparently not for corporate development.
It’s hard to find free or cheap land, George, especially if it needs to be close to services (e.g., downtown).
We could tear down the PBA offices and put a shelter in its place. Two birds, one stone.
I think they should let the homeless live downtown as long as they agree to have their bodies, shopping carts, and cardboard boxes shrink wrapped in the logos and slogans of local businesses.
“Is that a Macy’s star shooting heroin in that doorway?”
“I don’t know but I’m pretty sure that Trimet stop just lit a crack pipe…”
Now that’s killing two birds with one stone.
Duh are you say that everybody that do drugs on the street , in front on doors way or at bus stops are Homeless. BIG DUH that shows how much you know. Homeless people know where to go. they live on the streets . Man do you need to be educated. You must the the kind that hide behind doors doing drugs on the inside and then point your finger at the homeless people. You’re very sad.
Regarding that lower photo to the right, I was there (in the pic actually) and caption “More police contact on SW 4th. No one was arrested.” Yes – no one was arrested – because they had simply been told to move what was on the sidewalk – the only reason it was there was because the landscapers came and then they had to turn on the water after they finished trimming. They (workers) warned people and so they moved things to the street until it was finished – which was just about the time Mayor Hales was to speak – then a cop car drove up and told them to clear it – which they did (I was there) and they moved their things back in the TS Plaza, which is legal. I see several assumptions within this article, but perhaps I heard things differently – I’ll have to watch the video I made of this talk.
@Ibrahaim: I’ll have you know that I’m a middle class white guy, I can do my drugs in public and the police ignore me.
Hales’s campaign of “Move Along” is just fucking dumb. It’s not going to work, but I guess he’s gotta kowtow to the PBA after they backed his candidacy. Even though it’s now clear that he didn’t need any help from anyone to win (fucking thanks a ton Jefferson).
of course this will not work, “move along laws” and “sweeps” have never worked.
repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different result is just silly.
Charlie Hales can go fuck himself.
FUCK. HIMSELF.
D’ya hear?
Good job Charlie. Keep it up.
Yes well, Mayor of London Boris Johnson can go suck a banger sausage on the Tower Bridge–how ya like those apples, his Lordship Sir Matthew Charles Davis the IV?
I don’t why I feel this way about the Mayor of London though as I keep my bloody nose out of what’s going on in a city I don’t live in thousands of miles across the pond.
So piss off you wanker, unless you want to take a ‘oliday back in the city that you ever so gracefully blessed us years ago with your journalistic presence–in which case your British pounds are welcome in our strip clubs and Thai restaurants…
@Matty Chuck: How do you really feel about Mayor Hales?
It’s not about the homeless, it’s about lawlessness, says the Mayor as he moves to criminalize the homeless. What a disingenuous piece of shit. And these street kids that everyone thinks should be driven out or locked up? Are people aware that the vast majority are run aways from horribly abusive situations, often times from the foster system? These kids have no where to go and are the most vulnerable population out on the streets. That they’re treated like scum by the cops and the city because they’re bad for business is reprehensible.
“Are people aware that the vast majority are run aways from horribly abusive situations, often times from the foster system?”
As are a fair amount of all violent criminals. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated as criminals.
It’s pretty strange, even for Portland, that a very reasonable request of not having having homeless reside in front of city hall or in large drug-infested encampments is met with “Hales is criminalizing the homeless!”
Rob Banks- Disingenuous piece of shit? Hardly. WW did a story this week about some chick that is sleeping down there with her 3 year old. She claims that they, meaning her and the small child with her, are choosing to be homeless. Aparrently a 3 year old is living as a bum because that is the choice she made for the both of them, and she claims that they have never been happier. Right, and Hales is the piece of shit.
Kids living on the streets are far more likely to be victims of violent crime rather than perpetrators of it. If you want to target violent criminals, why don’t you start with the Police Department?
I think ‘Homelessness’ is the chosen profession of many, if not most, of these folks.
Good Job Charlie.
@ill, I read that article too and was appalled by that dumbass chick too.
Hales and most of City Council are whores to the Portland Business Alliance and should be recalled. We might let Amanda stay, but the rest are FUBAR. I think I might have to move away. I hate to watch the demise of a once progressive city. Ya’ll enjoy your graft & boondoggles and keep persecuting the poor. I wish my kids had not chosen to move here.
@Ill Paxton, she has a right to make such a choice. I do not think it is a good one for someone with such a small child, but it is not for me to judge. I think they (WW) cherry picked for that piece, but that story really made me question such a choice