Public comment at city council meetings has recently centered on one topic: criminalizing Portland’s homeless population.
One group that’s been especially vocal? The “Montavilla Initiative,” a conservative spinoff of the Montavilla Neighborhood Association.
Montavilla Initiative members have vilified the police bureau for not responding to low-level crimes they say have been committed by homeless people in their steadily gentrifying East Portland neighborhood. The group also recently filmed individuals who were entering a syringe exchange site and domestic violence shelter, with the stated aim of documenting their “bad behavior” to share with police.
To sell others on this narrative, the group has perpetuated a familiar, but dangerous, myth: That most homeless people don’t want to be helped.
