The crack Mercury news team covering homeless policy in Portland could exercise their journalist skills by asking the following questions and reporting on the answers:

Why this small unimproved building?

How does 24,833/27,750 sf magically become 30,000 sf?

Why does the County continue to cold cock Homer Williams and his Harbor of Hope which is exactly the same program?

Why is the County not doing this project in the 10,000 sf building at 408 SW 5th (McCoy Building) it already owns and is already move-in-ready? Do they have an under the table deal to sell that to the Menashe family?

Where are, and how many shelter beds, tent sites, and transitional housing units are there for individuals who use this program?

Does “peer-led” mean Right2Survive is employed?

Why does the County continue to thumb its nose at Jordan Schnitzer, characterizing his building as some kind of modern-day Azkaban?

Mental health and homeless services keep being put into downtown based on the justification that that is where the clients are. The better question to ask is do the mentally ill/homeless belong in the highest value area of the city? I don't get to build a quarter acre single family home downtown. Build the services out of the central city.