Comments

1

"the tragic nature of the circumstances..."

Note Ms. Weeke's slippery use of the passive voice, as if all this senseless cruelty just sort of happened.

Make no mistake, Margeaux... the "tragic circumstance" of forcing poor and disabled people to wander the streets with all their possessions in triple-digit heat was an intentional strategy by our Mayor and Council.

2

The city doesn't give a rat's ass about homeless people when the mayor and city council have done absolutely nothing to help, despite Wheeler running on a platform of affordable housing and helping low income people. I can barely afford rent on my 1 bedroom and I work 70 hours a week. This is ridiculous. There need to be rent caps, landlords need to be help responsible, and the focus should be on building more affordable housing NOW.

3

โ€œThe city had secured 40 shelter beds for Laurelhurst encampment residents. The city has reported that eight Laurelhurst campers had made shelter reservations. Yet, as of Thursday evening, none of those campers had arrived at the shelters.โ€œ

4

"Campers have asked the city to suggest an alternative place where they can legally camp, with many of them on years-long waiting lists for affordable housing."

They say this, but nowhere is ever a good enough place to camp even when they do suggest spots. Affordable housing wait lists aren't their only alternative, either, theirs shelters and places like that lot full of huts off I-5 they could go to, but they don't do that. Why? Becasue that would mean following the rules of that camp and not doing drugs. We could have camp spots for all these people and they'd still come up with excuses why they want to just continue doing what they're doing. The alternative is frankly insulting when you think about it, too. These people and their advocates are to the point where they're basically demanding we give them nice secluded places to indefinitely live on however they want. That's insane and entitled! They don't want to do anything proactive, just take handouts, they're fine living how they're living, and that's the main problem. As inhumane as might seem the obviously right move is to make it harder to exist outside the established systems.

Take the trash problem for example. These people do nothing all day except amass more garbage in their direct vicinity. Why can't they be cleaning? Why can't they use trash receptacles? With all the free time these people have there's no excuse for them to be making such a mess. Most people work all day and still manage to clean up after themselves, why is it so acceptable for these people to create trash piles? Imagine if these people did have housing, they'd be literal garbage dumps... I had a thought recently while driving by a mess of a campsite. "hey, there's some people not doing anything. And there's a trash pile. Why can't we pay these people to clean the trash pile instead of having clean up crews do it? Boom, money in their pocket, trash cleaned up. Two birds one stone". But then I finished my thought and realized that even if the city offered to pay them per hour to clean up their own messes they probably still wouldn't do it. Think about that. I feel like it's a good case in point for the whole situation.

5

"Nearby housed neighbors have flooded City Hall inboxes with complaints about the perpetual camp, alleging the area fosters crime and health risks."

Alleging?

Uh... the final straw with the city deciding to disperse this camp was two campers having an argument and brandishing weapons. Neighbors have also reported these people carrying handguns and rifles. They've also reported people trespassing on their property, passing out on their porch, pounding on doors in the middle of the night, and campers stealing things. Then there's the trash, the used needles, leaving human waste in the park.

Sorry to say it, but a lack of affordable housing doesn't cause this type of behavior.

6

I had to read your comment twice, @4. Yikes.


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