As Portland’s homeless crisis comes to the foreground of our civic concerns, people are asking again: Why not stow people in the county’s unnecessary and never-used Wapato Jail, in North Portland? It is far from the first time people have suggested putting the homeless up in the building, and the answer is largely the same.

Everyone’s talking about the Kleins, that Gresham cake-baking couple that refused to bake for two women who were planning on being married. That’s because the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa have relented in their stand against more than $135,000 in fines from the case. They paid up this week, it seems, which wasn’t too much of an imposition since their cause netted more than half a million dollars in crowdfunding cash. The Kleins are still appealing in the case.

Sometimes you decide to kill a 12-year-old kid who’s playing with a pellet gun and that’s perfectly fine in the eyes of the law and a grand jury of your peers. It helps that the people tasked with prosecuting crimes are on your side. The Cleveland officer who shot Tamir Rice last November won’t face charges. (Hey, please don’t riot though, Cleveland!)

Other times you shoot your husband, and refuse to perform any sort of first aid when you call 911, as did a woman in tiny Stayton, OR the day after Christmas. She says she was acting in self-defense.

Not all that far away from Stayton, Detroit Lake was reduced to a mere puddle during the summer’s drought. Here’s a cool story about how pieces of the original, now-submerged town of Detroit showed back up.

An inmate who was being trained by state officials to battle forest fires decided he’d rather not, and walked away from a work crew on Monday. Meet Travis Riley.

Sure, sure, ISIS and the Taliban and the Haqqani Network are all dire concerns. But don’t sleep on al Qaeda! The violent organization has been building all sorts of new training camps lately.

Rich kid who drove drunk and killed four people skips probation—and the country—with his rich mom. Where’d they go? Lovely Puerto Vallarta! Rich people, man.


Here in West Michigan, we just got a sleet storm. Plenty of other people are experiencing similarly inconvenient weather are stranded today, as flights all over the country see delays. Holiday travel!

But look at you, Portland! Expecting all sorts of sun (starting tomorrow)!

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I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

4 replies on “Good Morning News: The Wapato Question, “Sweet Cakes” Relents, and Legally Killing a 12-Year-Old”

  1. Stayton, Oregon is tiny? At the risk of appearing pedantic, what is your border between tiny and small? Having lived in a town of about 1,800, Stayton is positively huge! To me, for a town to be tiny it should be less than 1,000, preferably less than 100. I suppose it’s a subjective thing.

  2. Build a shanty town in your neighborhood that runs afoul of at least a dozen laws and scores of health code violations? Sure have at it. Try to use a multi-million dollar, never-used facility intended to housing, albeit for criminals? Too many hurdles!

  3. The real problem is that Multnomah Co Commissioners are dreaming dollars selling the jail. To who, one wonders? A private for-profit jailer?

    The county is responsible for homeless services and they are running as far and fast from the responsibility as is possible.

    Of their 5 reasons: solvable, solved, solved, solved, solved.

    1. Financing restrictions Because Wapato was built with tax-exempt bonds, the county can’t enter into a long-term lease with any non-governmental entity while the bonds are being paid off. Clearing this hurdle is necessary to consider any kind of shelter use for Wapato. Disposing of the state bonds would cost roughly $5 million and would require state action.
    >Now is the time in the legislature short session and 5M is a small amount. The day the bonds are paid in 2016, this is completely solved. What is that date?

    2. Initial Capital Costs If the capital were raised to dispose of the outstanding debt, the facility would require significant investment to bring online. Commissioning and replacement of identified systems approaching life-cycle is estimated to be at least $5 million in 2015, these costs will continue to increase annually as systems age. The $5 million does not address the capital costs necessary to meet current requirements for operating an efficient homeless facility.
    >Forget that. It doesn’t need to be perfect and the “life cycle systems” have never been used, so are fine.

    3. Operation Using the flexible public-private partnership model that the county and city currently use to provide shelter beds, a 100-bed shelter costs roughly $700,000 each year to operate. Nonprofit providers ensure the shelter is staffed around the clock and provide basic safety and services. Because of the size of the facility — built as a 525-bed jail, operating a shelter at that scale would require significant ongoing resources.
    >A nighttime use only shelter would cost a fraction of that. See the Multnomah shelter with private busing each morning and evening.

    4. Incompatible with nearby businesses Housing a shelter of any size at the Wapato site is prohibited by city of Portland code. Even if that land use hurdle were somehow overcome, the site poses significant operational challenges. Overcoming these challenges would pose significant upfront and ongoing costs to taxpayers. Nearby businesses would need a shelter operator to develop a transportation management plan to ensure that their industrial uses of the street grid (logistics, shipping, etc.) didn’t consistently come into conflict with a surge in pedestrian traffic generated by a shelter. In addition, there would need to be outreach to local Neighborhood Associations.
    >Nighttime only shelter solves.

    5. Accessibility Getting to Wapato without a car is difficult. Wapato is located in an industrial park northwest of the Saint Johns neighborhood that is a combined one hour transit ride and three-quarter mile walk from Portland’s downtown core. The bus that travels closest to Wapato doesn’t run on the weekend. Additionally, Wapato is 22 miles from downtown Gresham, a community that is seeing an increase in homelessness. Transit and transportation improvements to overcome these challenges would take time and significant investment.
    >Nighttime only shelter solves

  4. A facility that can accommodate upwards of 500 beds, has a functional kitchen, and has already cost taxpayers a boatload but has yet to be used, in no way can serve as a homeless shelter because reasons …

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