IT WAS ABOUT 9 PM on a blustery, rain-soaked Tuesday night—and, yet, thanks to a horde of Mardi Gras revelers, Old Town was unusually festive.
Precisely what happened next isn’t exactly clear, but the basic inflections of the story, told by a handful of different people, all agree on one point: A group of homeless men had been turned away from their usual overnight spot at Right 2 Dream Too (R2D2)—the camp-like refuge on NW 4th and Burnside—because the small lot, dotted by a few dozen tents, had already been filled by others with nowhere to go.
Shelter space, like it is every winter night, was also tight, and so the men had to make do. They could have crashed on the sidewalk across from R2D2, waiting amid drunken noise and dampness, until a tent maybe opened up in the wee hours. Instead, they split up. One man went in one direction, and the other two went another: east, across the Willamette River and down into the grim-but-dry industrial underbelly of the Morrison Bridge.
Sometime before 5 am on Wednesday, February 22, they were sleeping, covered, when a dark-colored station wagon pulled down SE Belmont. Someone inside leaned out with a gun and opened fire, and then the car vanished as quickly as it arrived. Carter Hickman, 57, took a bullet to the chest, while Albert Dean, 43, was merely grazed—and soon both men were on the way to OHSU.
As crimes go, this was particularly horrifying. And the questions, and the fears, remain fresh: Did the men do something to bring this upon themselves? Or was this one of those rare, random, senseless incidents?
But none of that really matters. Because this was something else: a wakeup call. On the streets, violence and vulnerability are inextricably linked—it’s just that we never really hear much about it. According to Multnomah County’s 2011 one-day homeless street count, nearly half of unsheltered people reported enduring some kind of violence that might otherwise have been avoided behind walls or if they were just somewhere safe.
And that wakeup call comes at a portentous time for Portland. Twin protests over the city’s ban on tent camping—one of them around the clock—remain outside city hall, confronting staffers and politicians with the issue daily. On February 29, after at least one false start, the city is scheduled to present a tepid plan to settle a years-long federal lawsuit over that same camping ban. And March 1 will mark the second month of steep fines for R2D2’s landlord—continuing a code enforcement crackdown on the well-managed safe haven for the homeless that, its backers say, the city really ought to be embracing instead.
LIKE CHASING GHOSTS
Until the night they were shot, Hickman and Dean—better known by some as “Joe” and “Allen,” respectively—had been staying off and on at R2D2 for about five weeks. They had a regular tent near the rest area’s entrance, specially chosen because of their work schedule.
“We’d always put them in the same spot” in C7, said Joe Green, R2D2’s top security man, a couple of days after the shooting. “They always had to get up early to go to work.”
That’s the point of Right 2 Dream Too. It’s built so people who need a night’s sleep, or several, or a place to dry out, can sack out in peace and store their belongings—and then maybe get their bearings enough to find and keep a job and begin the slog back up to self-sufficiency.
Most nights, if its residents can’t make it back early enough, there’s a long line of people hoping to check in by 7 pm. The site holds up to 80 people, and on any given day, two or three dozen of them are new faces.
Joe and Allen and their friend became quiet fixtures at the site, Green and others say. When they weren’t working, they would help keep things tidy and even helped reengineer some tents. They would take meals at Sisters of the Road or at nearby churches.
“There were always the three of them,” Green says. “We would call them our workers.”
Later, an Occupy Portland member wrote that he remembered seeing the men in camp last fall.
But learning more about Joe and Allen was, in some ways, like chasing ghosts. On Friday, February 24, police said, both were still in OHSU, with Hickman expected to live. But an OHSU switchboard operator said there was no record Hickman had ever been at the hospital and said Dean, despite what police said, had been released from the emergency room after the shooting.
Neither man has a serious criminal record in Multnomah County. Court records, in fact, show just a single TriMet exclusion for each, issued on separate days in August 2011. The files list the same cell phone number (it’s not working) and a common address, the Portland Rescue Mission, at 111 W Burnside.
It was only after I made my way to the end of the dozens-strong line of Rescue Mission visitors that someone’s ears perked up. “I know them,” said a stricken-looking younger man, who gave his name as John. “They came from Seattle.”
On his way inside the mission, John offered a heartbreaking detail: He said the men weren’t just friends, but partners who were living “as husband and husband.”
“They’re my best friends,” he finished, before disappearing inside.
“AM I SCARED? I DON’T KNOW”
It’s still unclear, publicly at least, why Joe and Allen were shot. Police, despite offering a $1,000 reward for tips (503-823-4357), are sharing precious little about what detectives have uncovered, including during their interviews with the two men.
Rhetoric at city hall and among social services providers immediately homed in on the possibility that the attack was random—a sociopathic strike against two people who did nothing more than bunk up on a sidewalk under a bridge. That fear was felt on the streets.
Less than 24 hours later, a block east of the shooting, a man named Tim was propped up in a lawn chair keeping watch on three blanket-swaddled companions, one of them a pregnant woman. It was a gritty vigil, with trains lurching past a few blocks away, cars rumbling overhead, and rats skittering for food scraps.
“Am I scared?” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I can get any sleep. Being out here like this, I don’t want someone to roll up and go pow-pow-pow-pow.”
Since then, reactions have grown more measured. But the emphasis on vulnerability remains.
“In terms of this specific incident, we don’t have a good idea yet of what was happening there. But we do know that people sleeping on the streets take a variety of different risks,” says Marc Jolin of JOIN, an agency that works to link homeless Portlanders with services and housing. “Violence, theft, assault. That is not uncommon. We get reports from folks of the violence they experience at the hands of partners on the street, and verbal and physical assaults… from strangers.”
The 2011 street count found more than 1,700 people sleeping outside, and a few thousand more in emergency shelters. The Portland Police Bureau does not directly track how many reports each year involve someone who’s considered homeless. Nor does the bureau track cases in which violence seems to be motivated solely because a victim is homeless. Multnomah County, alongside Street Roots, is currently trying to put a number on how many homeless Portlanders die on the streets—of natural causes and otherwise.
The National Coalition for the Homeless, however, has tracked a modest increase in hate-crime-like attacks against Oregon’s homeless in recent years. Overall, from 1999 to 2009, it counted 37 attacks, 10 of them fatal.
But some attacks never lead to a report. Not that they don’t hurt. The same night Joe and Allen were turned away from R2D2—Fat Tuesday—drunks walking by couldn’t resist pounding on the site’s walls or shouting insults, says one of the men keeping watch that night, Dale Ardway.
INSIDE THE MACHINE
The plight of Right 2 Dream Too—founded in October 2011 by the same organizers behind Dignity Village out by the airport—has added new electricity to the fight against Portland’s camping ban.
And because it sits on private land, hosted by a landlord who’s partially trying to jab a finger in the city’s eye, R2D2 has had time to show off its success. Cops in the area appreciate the eyes on the street. Neighbors, looking past the fact that the site sits under the Chinatown Gate, appreciate the quiet respect R2D2’s residents have for the area.
The place runs like a machine, with security patrols around downtown, governing meetings, ample storehouses of tools, blankets, and food, and strict rules against intoxication and violence. It’s given hope and offered a model for how to cheaply, if still imperfectly, help people in need at a time when government coffers are starving just as much. R2D2 takes couples and pets and undocumented immigrants, and asks few questions—something the shelters in town don’t always do.
And yet the city has declared the place an unpermitted recreational campground—and is bombarding its landlord with massive fines that could drive it out of existence. Getting a permit, and adding facilities like a sewer line to get legal, are too expensive for volunteers who rely on donations to pay for steady bills like laundry, electricity, and porta-potty service.
“We provide walls. We provide security, and they want to charge us money for something they should be doing,” says Ibrahim Mubarak, an R2D2 spokesman and founder.
Mubarak says close to 600 people passed through the site from February 1-15, and that security has to kindly refuse, on some nights, up to 20 people. Nearly a dozen inhabitants have found more permanent housing, he says, and dozens more have used the respite to find work.
They’re raising money, dreaming of a bigger lot downtown, close to social services—and pleading with city hall.
“If they close us down, where are these people going to go?” asks Mubarak. “What sidewalk can they sleep on?”
A CHILL FROM CITY HALL
Reaction from Portland City Hall has so far been frigid. Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who runs the city bureau in charge of code enforcement, has steadfastly refused to waive any fines. In fact, his office says, they’re considering whether to ask a city hearings officer for permission to dramatically increase the $641 monthly fine in coming months.
At one point there was hope among organizers that Commissioner Amanda Fritz might broker a compromise—she showed up at a march in support of the site—but that talk has since fizzled.
Portland’s housing commissioner, Nick Fish, also has been quiet about the site. In the aftermath of the shooting, he issued a statement lashing out at the attack, but it was criticized by some advocates for not being more vocally supportive of R2D2.
“The city is making progress in its effort to end homelessness,” he wrote. “The opening of Bud Clark Commons is but one notable example. This shameful criminal act reminds us that everyone in our community deserves a safe and decent place to call home.”
The Commons, which wouldn’t be here without Fish, has been a godsend—for some. It has a day center that’s helped thousands since June 2011, but its shelter has room for only 90 men at a time, and its 130 apartments for the chronically homeless are already full (and they also allow substance abuse). Then there’s the cost: $47 million, making it hardly replicable.
If Fish is sympathetic to R2D2’s model, he’s keeping his cards very close. After protesters filled his office earlier this month, he agreed to sit down with Saltzman and talk about R2D2—nothing more.
In his favor, last December Fish did push the council (over the clamor of the Portland Business Alliance) into backing a car-camping pilot program that could, one day, be stretched to include a site like R2D2. Under his plan, churches and nonprofits would be able to host as many as four cars, with a written agreement from Saltzman’s office directing code enforcers to turn a blind eye.
A dozen or so churches have expressed interest, and the Portland Housing Bureau is expected to release specific guidelines as soon as this week.
But when asked about R2D2 the day after Joe and Allen’s shooting—after the Mercury first reported the men had stayed there—Fish walked very carefully.
Instead, he said the shooting of Joe and Allen was a chance to rally against looming city budget cuts that might threaten millions in cash for things like short-term rent assistance, more social services, and more brick-and-mortar housing.
“I want to know what the options are at this site first,” he says. “You know there’s not support on this council for the wholesale relaxation of the camping ordinance, even though as practical matter we don’t always enforce it.”
The fluid nature of the city’s camping ban—a term of art some of its lawyers disagree with—is glaringly obvious down under the Morrison and Hawthorne Bridges, where some people prop up tarps and other structures that offer more cover than mere bedrolls.
It’s up to officers, right now, to decide when to enforce city rules against tents and sidewalk sleeping. One officer’s wishes on one night may not be the same as another cop’s on another night. Just like violence, that murkiness is another fact of life for Portlanders on the streets.
And whatever settlement emerges from court may not make that any clearer.
A previous attempt at an agreement would have allowed small tent clusters. The latest version, last time the city discussed it on the record, was expected to include only changes in training and enforcement, but not any exemptions.
“There’s no ban in town. It’s happening. It’s tolerated,” says David Woboril, a deputy city attorney who handles police issues and isn’t working on the settlement. “But the city has to manage it.”
Woboril and Fish both said the city worries that large camps won’t always be as well run as R2D2—and will cost the city resources to keep the peace.
“Large camps have a victim problem,” Woboril says. “That’s always the question: Can you do it on a large scale?”
The folks at R2D2 say they, at least, have earned the right to keep trying. Mubarak says activists from California and cities across Oregon have come around to take notes. Cities don’t have to spend big, he says, or surrender the rule of law to let homeless residents help themselves.
Joe Green, R2D2’s main security volunteer, was thinking about all the other homeless Portlanders who could’ve wound up like Joe and Allen.
“Without us,” he said, “there’d be a whole lot more lives at stake.”
—The Mercury‘s Sarah Mirk contributed to this report.
Golly. What is Portland coming to when the hordes of homeless panhandling drig addicts who infest our streets arent safe living in tents cities under the overpasses with hundreds of other meth heads? Are we really as progressive as we pretend to be?
Really shithead thing for you to say. Shouldn’t you be commenting at OregonLive?
Not only do we have DamosA back but also a great new troll who is probably on “drigs” himself and talks about “our streets” even though he doesn’t even live in Oregon, or so he said in his tantrum under the New Seasons post.
Sorry, let me give ohnos! what he wants/expects: Hey man, your tough questions are really harshing my mellow. I think I’ll call in sick to work tomorrow.
There seems to be this quixotic notion that R2D2 and other forms of urban camping are going to do anything positive about homelessness. We’ve been through this before where Dignity Village was the panacea for this problem. Things have only gotten worse since then.
You could build 50 more campsites in Portland like this, but the agents of homelessness ranging from disability, mental illness and mostly drug abuse are still present. R2D2 merely covered them up behind some doors (literally, of course). It’s also difficult to see that there really is a camping ban in Portland given the numbers of people sleeping in doorways and parks, so the “ban” part is really just a hyperbole by the advocates.
Like any other development, there are standards, and this campsite blatantly violates the basics of those development standards (unsafely I might add). It doesn’t matter what is being built, whether a strip club or an orphanage — there need not be exceptions. Not to mention a truck coming by daily cleaning out porta-potties is not an attractive neighborhood feature (hence why we have indoor plumbing!).
Also, is anyone else concerned about a business’s ability to do well in the city in the face of unregulated, unmitigated camping and endless homelessness in the city? What about the restaurant(s) next to the campsite? Would people feel bad knowing that a Chinese restaurant went out of business due to mercurial potential diners choosing a place with, shall we say, a bit more ambiance than a homeless campsite next door?
We already went through a campsite in Portland, it was called Occupy Portland and it was a nightmare that the majority of the people didn’t care for. That should put an end to the notion of camping in public.
A better solution is getting more permanent housing, treating illnesses and going from there. That has been the only way. Give the housing to the mentally ill and disabled first. If someone wants to be a druggy loser externalizing their behavior on the rest of the city without being held accountable — then that is their choice in life. Portland can only do so much.
I commend R2D2 for being allegedly drug free, although I wonder if some of its tenants are doing their part to keeping Old Town drug free as well.
Valid points, ws. But people have to go SOMEWHERE – and it ought to be SAFE! R2D2 is helpful, to a small no. of people i feel. But agreed, it’s certainly a massive problem, various problems with concerning homelessness that most U.S cities simply aren’t addressing.
Homelessness doesn’t seem to be nearly as big a social issue in many Asian and European cities. What are THEY doing so differently?
Europe is bankrupt and Asia has labor camps.
Well WE’RE near bankrupt too (in far greater debt, for sure), and we also have labor camps. Yet, most European and Asian cities seem to have far less homeless people than we do.
Okay, just so we’re not overgeneralizing.
DamosA, Cuba has virtually no homelessness. One can make whatever criticisms (some of which I’d surely agree with) of the way government works there, but it’s simply more a part of the culture there that people take care of one another and help each other rather than competing against each other and letting the sickest and most disadvantaged rot and die. We don’t always do the latter here, but it is part of the socially accepted norm. (Some of the laws there also have helped to mitigate the effects of some bad economic conditions)
I think poverty is a cultural problem rather than just an economic one. See Oscar Lewis’s work on the “culture of poverty” (a commonly distorted and misunderstood concept that IMO had a lot of merit).
Everyone needs to watch the doc I Am by Tom Shaydac (last name spelled wrong i think). We should all be nice and not shoot each other. However, it is no surprise this happened randomly on Fat Tuesday, when the douchiest of the douchy come out to party and fistfight. This seems like it was done on a drunken lark by a couple of asshole suburbanites, but that is just my speculation. Seriously you all, watch I Am.
After the Occupy Portland rally I went to vist R2DT. I told them hi I am Robby and I want to volunteer. A very nice person let me in and showed me the rest area. It boggles my mind that up to 70 people can/do/will sleep there on any given night. But they do. Then today I read this sorry and all I can do is cry. Because of lack of space at R2DT or a shelter a gay couple had to sleep under a bridge. A couple who I am sure only wanted to sleep together like most others at night. Then some dick head takes some shots at them at 5am. I am happy they both survived and I hope to see them at R2DT. Thanks for the story Denis.
I would like to add to my comment. I like the idea of R2DT being out in the open. To me it serves as a VISABLE reminder that homlessness is a HUGE problem in this city. Also it’s located very close to both Street roots and Sisters of the road and other service providers. By doing so R2DT has helped transition some people into housing. But for all that success at very little cost to the city people still don’t understand why it’s there? I guess the big question is while at R2DT people are safe and sleeping. Yes in tents in a water logged gravel pit but hey home is where you hang you hat right? Where do you tell them to go when R2DT get closed?
What is to stop some crazy fuck from driving past homeless tents and taking shots?
Will having a legal place to put up a tent stop it?
“I think poverty is a cultural problem rather than just an economic one.”
Well yes, you’re pretty much right. Economic factors do have a major effect on poverty, wealth, and class over-all [in this country]. But the way [our entitled] culture is set up, does have an even more significant role here.
And just one thing i wanted to address (after having read the article in its entirety) – anyone who’d trample through dt banging on the walls of R2D2 yelling stupid shit at helpless people are fucking shitheads, and hopefully will drop the fuck dead early just like Andrew Breitbart! I hear folks bitch and whine about homeless folks dt alot – mostly from Pearlies and cops. But notice how crime in dt always has an up-tick on the weekends. I’ve said this before when the debate to ban high-content booze dt was on, and i’ll say it again – MOST crime that occurs in dt Portland can be attributed to weekend club/bar hoppers who tend to wear spray tans and are addicted to RedBull.
Prove i’m wrong on this.
@12, Gee, I don’t know, a larger and more visible (to anyone) community with more potential eyewitnesses? You’re tedious, at best.
@Iceprez…yeah. Followed closely by St Patricks day. The day when any sensible Irish American stays home
Geyser, you clearly had a good education. But where in the hell do you pull these astonishing world facts from? Have you actually ever left the state of Oregon? Yet you pontificate with great authority. You are not entirely wrong about Cuba , because living in a shack with out running water or plumbing does not constitute being “homeless”. In fact there exists both a serious lack of housing and a major poverty issue in Cuba. Are you a shill for Castro, or just some asshat Art school grad that is getting their facts from fantasy, or a perception of the world that does not jive with reality?
I’ve been all over Cuba, among other places. Your ignorant comments about shacks say more about you than about really existing conditions there or anywhere else. Your ridiculous ranting about art school has no bearing here, despite your urge to apply it to every topic. A comment thread is really no place for exhaustive references and documentation. If anyone doubts what I’m saying, I don’t really care to carry any big burden of proof. Let people do their own research.
I already said I’d surely agree with many criticisms of the Cuban government, so your “Castro shill” thing is weak and pathetic. I said that about the government in the first because I knew some dim bulb is bound to start spouting off about Castro as soon as anyone says anything good about Cuba.
FINALLY, look, I told you before, I’m not interested in your stupid, bellowing posts. I’ve been ignoring you since then, and I expect you to ignore me. Otherwise, if you’re going to keep braying at me and trying to keep some stupid flame war going, you’re the one who’s going to look stupid and pathetic. Comment about the topic at hand, not about me.
I’m very happy Joe and Allen are okay! Thanks for the update, Denis.
R2D2 is nothing remotely bad, compared to the fuck stains that come out for the NW 2nd & Davis weekend club hopping. I fucking loathe those single celled transplants, yet the police department continues to allow these “it’s” to drive home drunk. I wish they’d all just drive off a cliff.
Just a thought BUT how about we try to find common ground between everybody that lives/plays/uses/ downtown Portland? Homeless and non homeless people live downtown. Lots of people spend money eating/drinking etc… In downtown. And plenty of people pass through downtown on buses/max/streetcar or bike/walk. Money spent in downtown no matter by who helps spur the economy on… Stupid people do stupid things all over town. Just saying.
1) Regarding other countries, there’s plenty of homelessness out there.
No need to go very far, Vancouver BC (Downtown Eastside) has one of the largest skid rows in North America, and arguably one of the largest open-air drug markets (world’s most livable city anyone allegedly). They also have heroin injection sites and groups that hand out thousands of crack pipes to addicts to stop Hepatitis C.
Personally, I think there’s some knee-jerk homeless advocates (and critics) out there who are clueless on the topic. Though I am pontificating a bit more than I should on the topic as well. I am no expert, but I feel approaching the situation from many perspectives is key to addressing the issue best.
2) We need to seek a balance between homeless needs and the ability to have a vibrant downtown and business atmosphere in the city. I see a lot of vacancies out there.
As much as people don’t want to admit, businesses produce tax dollars and tax dollars go to city services which educate kids and provide social services to the poor. Turning the city into one large homeless camp zone is more than likely going to reduce spending and investment in the city, ultimately making homelessness an even bigger problem or worse yet, a problem that doesn’t get addressed to its fullest. To me, this is not a difficult scenario to see unfold.
People and businesses will take their money elsewhere.
Should a business have to deal with campers sleeping in their doorway (private property) and areas around their business? Should citizens have to deal with open-air drug use in their parks? Absolutely not on both accounts.
But as a society, should we defund social services, turn an eye to mental health needs, and avoid providing affordable housing to people? Of course not. These are all good things that positively deal with homelessness and poverty.
Here is a great documentary on homelessness in Vancouver BC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPfyCndg1Fo
If anyone’s interested, type “Downtown Eastside” into YouTube and you’ll see videos that make Old Town look like Disneyland — videos that are very disturbing. This is not where any city should want to be, and my personal opinion that Vancouver’s monstrous drug abuse problems is due to lack enforcement of drug use (not so much in the criminal justice sense of locking people up in jail for using drugs which doesn’t work well, but not holding people accountable for being addicts through positive community intervention).
Homelessness is not a US problem only. Getting rid of capitalism and Republicans isn’t going to get rid of the problem.
Those who are quick to blame poor people for homelessness might want to look at the decline in affordable housing since the Reagan era. Western Regional Advocacy Project has an excellent report on this. And closer to home, affordable housing money is being stolen from those it should serve and put into high-end developments like Headwaters in SW Portland. That is a crime.
As long as “camping” is illegal, the homeless will be considered criminals, just for not having a place to sleep. As long as they are considered criminals, then many people will consider themselves justified to attack the homeless, both verbally and physically. Criminalizing the homeless is an act of dehumanization, taking a segment of population who have done nothing wrong and making them less than normal.
The solution to homelessness isn’t a single entity. R2D2 and the Bud Clark Commons are just two of many options we should take to help the homeless, but most advocates are blind to the many issues. But we can’t find any real solutions as long as we label the innocent guilty.
StekeK:
Per the article from the city attorney, nobody’s getting arrested in town for sleeping outside:
“‘There’s no ban in town. It’s happening. It’s tolerated'”
People will get shooed away and shuffled around by police for sleeping in certain areas, but arresting people for the sole reason of sleeping outside does not appear to be a tactic employed by the police, nor a crime that the city or county would pursue even if a cop wanted to enforce the rule stringently.