The organizers for a dispute resolution meeting in East Portland last Wednesday didn’t realize how many people cared about a simmering debate between a local church and its up-and-coming neighborhood. For the past few months, St. Francis Parish along SE 11th has been accused of attracting drug dealers and petty thieves. Six days a week, the parishioners ladle out soup and hot meals for upwards of 300 homeless men and women. Their motto is “serving a meal in dignity and peace.” But some Buckman neighborhood residents say it attracts the wrong element–drug dealing, stabbings and car camping.
Fed up with the perceived den of derelicts, residents have threatened to shut down the church’s services. On September 30, motivated by complaints, the police delivered a notice to St. Francis saying they had 120 days to clean out the riffraff or shut down.
To avert such drastic measures, the Office of Neighborhood Associations set up a mediation meeting last week at Norse Hall in East Portland between neighbors and church managers. What had been expected to be a cozy–if not slightly heated–debate, turned out to be a roof-raiser. The crowd was so large–more than 200 people–that the meeting was switched from a small meeting room to the main hall to accommodate everyone.
“It is a situation where everyone needs to hold up their end,” says Susan Lindsay, co-chair for the Buckman Neighborhood Association. “[The church representatives] have to recognize they have a potential impact on the neighborhood,” adds Lindsay.
Already the church has promised to close an adjacent park for six months. In the past, that stretch of lawn has been open to homeless men and women to loiter during the daytime. But in spite of this concession, a November 30 deadline still looms with the police.
Friction between residents and the homeless has been long-running. In August, a homeless man tried to set fire to a nearby social service building. This act, and a perception that other criminal behavior was on the rise, led to the neighbors’ urgency to remedy the problems. Moreover, neighbors were able to leverage a city ordinance, Title 14, which allows the police to shut down the facilities if the perceived problems aren’t abated. If the owners fail to clean up their act, the ordinance permits the city to ultimately shut down and seize their property. Title 14 has become an increasing annoyance for the homeless and their advocates. This summer, Mayor Katz added language to Title 14 allowing police to ticket any person loitering in a public space (the so-called sit/lie ordinance).
Lindsay, who belongs to the neighborhood association, adds that the problems between residents and homeless are indicative of larger issues. “Clearly the city needs to step up with their services to the homeless.” She goes on to explain, “you cannot crack down with the sit/lie (in Old Town) and not create problems elsewhere.” Anyone wanting to volunteer at the soup line should call 234-2028.