Multnomah County’s homeless population hit an estimated 3,057 in 2022.
After a two year hiatus due to COVID-19, the Joint Office of Homeless Services conducted a regional “Point in Time Count” to estimate the size of the unsheltered population in the tri-county area. They tallied 3,057 people sleeping outside—as opposed to shelter or temporarily staying at another person’s house—which is a 30 percent increase since the last time unsheltered residents were counted in 2019.
Portland City Council spent 6 hours listening to public testimony about a plan to ban street camping and force unsheltered Portlanders into city-run outdoor encampments.
Amount of that time reserved for landlords and business lobbyists to comment in support of the ban: 1 hour
More than 200 Portlanders showed up or Zoom-ed in to City Hall on October 27 to give commissioners feedback on a sweeping proposal to ban street camping and force unsheltered Portlanders into city-run outdoor encampments by 2024. While the vast majority of speakers criticized the program, a privileged few from the business and tourism communities vocally backed the idea. Shortly after the meeting kicked off, it became apparent that those supporters had been hand-picked by City Commissioner Dan Ryan to testify before everyone else who had signed up, giving those who tuned in early to the meeting the impression that all members of the public were in favor of the deeply controversial plan.
Ryan never publicly ‘fessed up to the strategy, instead looking blankly into the crowd when City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty asked her colleagues why so many people in support of criminalizing homelessness had been fast-tracked to the beginning of testimony. The proposal later passed a City Council vote, with Hardesty the sole “no” vote.
Portland City Council approved $27 million to fund the initial rollout of the city’s outdoor encampment plan.
Portland City Council voted 3-0 in late November to push through a budget package that laid the groundwork for the council’s plan to criminalize street camping and build mass encampments to hold unhoused Portlanders. The bulk of the funds go toward building and operating three of the proposed six outdoor encampments, yet it’s not enough to keep these sites operational for the long-term.
Portland City Council cut $8 million already promised to the Joint Office of Homeless Services to fund the encampment construction.
City Council didn’t just have a mountain of cash lying around to be dumped into this dubious new project. The funding package required commissioners to pull dollars from other funds, like $8 million already promised to the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS). This unexpected cut threatens to shutter two homeless shelters in the next year. In short, the city chose to sacrifice 250 shelter beds in exchange for the ability to build a large outdoor holding pen for unhoused Portlanders.