Mayor Charlie Hales, as of this afternoon, has now had three informal meetings with business interests, law enforcement, and social services providers to get up to speed on homelessness—a difficult subject he announced he’d be taking on during his State of the City speech this spring.
Hales’ office sent me the roster of participants for this afternoon’s meeting, which was listed on a public calendar his office sent reporters earlier this week. If you’ve read my previous posts about these meetings, which the Mercury first reported on, you’ll notice something new: The most recent roster now includes former Housing Commissioner Nick Fish and his staff (former housing policy adviser Sonia Schmanski), members of current Housing Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s staff (chief of staff Brendan Finn among them; still not Saltzman himself), and Sally Erickson, the Portland Housing Bureau’s homelessness team leader.
The list also includes Police Chief Mike Reese and, notably does not include, for the first time, the Portland Business Alliance.
Israel Bayer, Street Roots
Sally Erickson, Housing Bureau
Dennis Lundberg, Janus Youth Services
Commissioner Fish + staff
Commissioner Saltzman’s staff
Marc Jolin, JOIN
Doreen Binder, Transition Projects
Chief Mike Reese
Mayoral staffers
But while the meeting was scheduled last week, I’ve been told the additions of Fish and his staff and possibly others were last-minute. As in, the invitations came today, the morning after the Mercury first reported Fish’s complaints and the same day we ran our story about officials including Fish and Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury questioning the city’s leadership on housing issues.
Bayer told me the meeting was “productive” when I saw him briefly outside city hall and that Hales and his staff seemed open to a significant discussion about resources, not just law enforcement sweeps of camps and sidewalks. Yesterday, we reported that Street Roots wants to ask businesses and local governments to match the city in committing millions toward rent assistance.
WW today reported that Hales, as a result of the meeting, is less focused on something Saltzman said he wanted to work on: finding new shelter capacity. Kafoury, in our story this week, said that was an inefficient way of helping families, one of Saltzman’s passions.
Hales’ spokesman had this to say earlier this week when asked why Saltzman and the housing bureau weren’t part of the initial meetings:
The mayor had focused his first meetings by accepting the help of those outside City Hall, because (he’s often said) it’s too easy to get info from “inside the bubble” and tougher, but vital, to see the issue from outsiders’ perspectives. Also, the City Council can always compel Bureau staff to talk to ’em about any topic. And they do.
Things change quickly in city hall sometimes. This morning, in light of Fish’s remarks, Hales told me commissioners “are always free to weigh in” with their thoughts and he “I don’t take that personally.” But he also said, “When I hear a cry from the heart, I listen.”
He clearly did. And none too soon. Because the media pile-on just got official tonight. City hall gets annoyed with me and Aaron Mesh. They really pay attention when Steve Duin weighs in. And Duin wrote a column today that echoes all the themes in my story in this week’s paper, with the added bonus of calling Hales a latter-day Rudy Giuliani.
Yes Denis, you saved Portland’s homeless by writing a courageous article. That’s just what happened.
Steve Duin lives in Lake Oswego. It’s real easy to criticize another city’s vagrancy problem from one of the most affluent monochromatic towns in Oregon. I’m sure our problems seem quite manageable to him as he buzzes out of town every afternoon putting them completely out of mind. Perhaps Steve could tell us about the generous and understanding homeless programs of Lake O. In short, fuck him.
Fish is a non-entity. It’s funny to see him act like he’s done anything at all in his time on council.
Meanwhile, one of Denis’ friends was arrested for threatening to kill an officer this afternoon in Terry Schrunk plaza. He probably just needs a free house. You won’t see that reported here of course, because the Mercury simply pretends the news they don’t like doesn’t exist.
Oh, snap!
From Denis’ reporting, you’d swear the PBA was some kind of shadow organization bent on world domination. It’s a group of business, owned and run by citizens of Portland, who want a chance to be successful. That’s it.
It’s a good thing that you morons, and online commenters in general, aren’t indicative of popular opinion. Do you get paid to do this shit? Because you all sure do spend a lot of time on this website supporting the PBA and their strong men in city hall and the police department.
No more time than you, Rob.
Lol! Really? Are you aware that the Mercury tracks all of your comments?
Let’s break down the total number of comments posted:
Blabby – 2302
Chuck – 583
Babygorilla – 277
Me – 5
Leaving aside the fact that “No, you are!” is just about the dumbest retort you could come up with, it’s not even true. Go back to your day job losers.
No YOU are!!1!
278, bitches!
@ Rob:
Are you also aware that the Mercury posts the date when you created your account (which usually is the same day one posts their first comment)?
You started commenting 6 days ago. And you’ve commented 6 times. That’s an average of one comment per day. Blabby, to use your example, started commenting 5+ years ago. If you do the math, i believe that comes out to an average of around 1.3 comments per day. To your 1 per day.
If now you comment in reply to this one, that’ll bring your average up to nearly 1.2 per day. Slippery slope, my friend — you’d best keep them fingers off that keyboard, or soon you’ll be one of those moronic “online commenters in general”.
And, to use your other examples, you’re already crushing Chuck and Babygorilla’s average, by the way.
And yes, i’m fortunate enough to be on the clock as i type this, getting paid (not well) to do this fancy math and contribute to this fine little pissing match.
@HIT: FUCK YOU AND YOUR FASCIST MATH PROBLEMS.