It’s been a good week to be homeless in Portland—compared to
the usual Boschian nightmare. Not only did Mayor Sam Adams and
City Commissioner Nick Fish permanently annihilate the
unconstitutional sit-lie law last Friday, September 11, but two
days earlier the mayor announced an out-of-court settlement that paves
the way for a $46.6 million Resource Access Center (RAC) for the
homeless to be built in Old Town. Even better? It’s gonna be “fast
tracked.” Woot!
What was the holdup? An advocacy group of Pearl District developers
and urban renewal consultants calling themselves the Friends of
Urban Renewal (FOUR) lodged a challenge with the state’s Land Use
Board of Appeals last year, after city council tried to expand the
River District Urban Renewal Area—which happens to include the
Pearl District—to include Old Town. FOUR questioned the legality
of using tax revenues from the booming Pearl District to build
affordable housing projects like the RAC.
Never mind that Portland is currently top five in the nation in
unemployment, hunger, and homelessness, according to Fish. These richie
rich “friendly” developer types planned to draw out their appeal
against the RAC until mid-2010, while more than 1,600 people a night
continue to sleep outside with no shelter beds available. At a city
hall “memorial for affordable housing” on Monday, September 14,
advocacy group Soapbox Under the Bridge laid down graves for the 1,612
rooms of affordable housing lost in Portland’s downtown core since
1994.
“In the world through the eyes of Jesus, the business community has
as much responsibility to look after the poor as churches or synagogues
or mosques,” said Reverend Chuck Cooper, from the United
Methodist Church in Gresham, delivering a mock eulogy. “If you do not
care for the poor, your own soul cannot be saved. And that is not just
the individual soul, but the soul of a city, the soul of a state.”
I hope the greedy developers were listening to that speech.
Meanwhile, Fish was anxious to credit Mayor Adams and the Portland
Development Commission for brokering the legal settlement, which
means the city will take “a modest haircut” on money available for
development in the expanded River District from $549.5 million to
$489.5 million. But credit should really go to him, I think, for much
of the negotiation behind the scenes. It’s a major breakthrough,
tactfully achieved without courtroom drama.
Matt, You do a good job at reporting every City development on the topic of homelessness, factoids. There is a big distinction between tolerated camping, Dignity Village, shelters, transitional housing, subsidized SRO’s, other affordable housing and residential treatment. How they all work together would be a good feature article.