Despite a wide variety of services, homelessness remains a challenge
Portland continues struggle to move the most vulnerable homeless off the streets into housing 


By Marit Tegelaar

The Occupy Portland movement gave the homeless an opportunity to join the masses at downtown Lownsdale and Chapman squares and receive food and shelter without having to jump through hoops.

Though Los Angeles, San Diego, and Seattle allow homeless encampments - known as tent cities -, Portland believes the risks of concentrating the homeless population in one area are too high.

City officials were right.

Homelessness-related mental health issues and drug use led to dangerous circumstances and incidents of crime in the camps. While the city has long recognized that homelessness is a serious problem in Portland, the Occupy movement gave rise to a renewed interest in the topic.

Upon the eviction of the Occupy camps, the homeless people returned to sidewalks across the city.

Last January, volunteers counted 1,718 people sleeping outside or in abandoned buildings, and 1,009 more in the shelters. The numbers have dropped since Portland kick started its “10 year plan to end homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County” in Jan. 2005 by allocating a large portion of its budget for the next decade to homeless services. This year, $12,813,091 of the Portland Housing Bureau’s total budget of $99,260,710 will go towards homeless services. 54 percent of this budget comes from taxpayers’ money.

Though the program is currently half-way completed, the success is much less apparent throughout Portland streets. Only 63 percent of the plan’s goals, which included moving homeless families and chronically homeless persons - those who cycle through the homelessness services- and criminal justice systems multiple times- into housing and providing permanent housing units, were accomplished.

A challenge for business owners

The large number of homeless people sitting and panhandling on the sidewalks has been an issue especially for business owners trying to retain customers.  All business owners pay a yearly property tax, amounting to approximately $4.5 million. This money is used to keep the sidewalks and parks clean and safe to support retail. According to local business owners, they lose customers due to the aggressive panhandling that takes place in front of their stores.

Megan Doern, the spokesperson for the Portland Business Alliance, which manages the Portland Chamber of Commerce and serves as the voice for businesses in Portland, admits there are tensions between businesses and the homeless population. These tensions were amplified by the occupation of Lownsdale and Chapman Squares.

Doern emphasized, however, that businesses are engaged in policy discussions to fund programs to get people out of homelessness. “It is easy to write the black and white story,” Doern said. “Here are these sad homeless people and the businesses hate them. It is just not true.”

Despite the wide variety of programs available, Portland has struggled to move the portion of the homeless population that is experiencing mental health issues or struggling with drug addiction off the streets and into housing.

Central City Concern

Central City Concern (CCC) provides housing, health care, and employment services to the homeless. It helps those who are ready to leave the state of homelessness and reintegrate into the community.

While their programs have been successful, having placed approximately 400 people into jobs over the last two years, Dedee Wilner-Nugent, deputy director of community partnerships and strategic development at CCC, said the need is still “significant.”

Wilner-Nugent explained that the increase in the number of graduates -those who successfully complete three months of volunteer service- has been outnumbered by the impact of the declining economy and the war in Iraq. While CCC provides mental health services, Wilner-Nugent believes that “the only way to truly end homelessness is to stay ahead of these [drug use and mental health issues].”

In exchange for services, CCC requires that its participants stay alcohol and drug-free and give back to the community through volunteer service.

While Doern believes CCC does fantastic work, she thinks that these requirements keep many on the streets.

“There are barriers [to receive services],” she said. “They are low barriers, but they are barriers.”

Doern said these barriers affect primarily the most vulnerable homeless persons who are dealing with mental health issues and addiction and are not ready to leave the state of homelessness.

Sidewalk obstruction ordinance

Aware of the fact that it isn’t possible to move everyone into transitional housing, Portland has attempted to regulate homelessness in the streets by proposing sidewalk ordinances. Earlier versions of proposed ordinances, known as sit/lie ordinances, would have made panhandling and sitting or lying on the sidewalks illegal. Yet, under Oregon Law, panhandling is a protected form of free speech. Consequently, each of these ordinances was found unconstitutional.

In 2009, Amanda Fritz, Portland’s City Commissioner, convinced other commissioners to postpone the decision on yet another sidewalk ordinance. She believed a decision had to be made based on thoughtful consideration and public process, rather than on a simple up or down vote.

Public meetings were held to talk on how to best share the sidewalk.

“It was the first time people were listening to each other,” Fritz said.

Eventually, a 13-point sidewalk management plan was developed. The proposed ordinance established a 6- to 8-foot zone – depending on the size of the sidewalk – around downtown businesses, where sitting and lying is not allowed. This “sidewalk obstruction” ordinance was built around the American Disabilities Act. Not panhandling, but allowing a thorough fare for people with disabilities, was the concern that ultimately allowed the City to bypass the issue of freedom of speech.

While initially there were concerns that the ordinance would be discriminatory toward the homeless people, Fritz has received positive feedback from stakeholders, including business owners.

“It is not perfect for anybody,” the Commissioner said, “so nobody is like ‘This is the greatest thing ever.’”

 Yet, Fritz feels that there is more of a recognition that we are all in the city together and need to find a way to share.

The ordinance has proven to be a tool for police officers to engage in conversations with people obstructing the sidewalks and refer them to services where wanted. It has not been used as a tool to give out citations. The latest data from Oct. 2011 show that officers gave out three verbal warnings, four written warnings, and no citations.

Michael Boyer, Crime Prevention Program Coordinator, also said the ordinance is not blatantly enforced.

“The most important thing is having something there for officers to use at their discretion,” Boyer said.

Referring homeless people to services and moving people out of homelessness into housing saves the city money that would otherwise be spent on emergency services and decreases the number of people living on the streets.

Ending homelessness

No matter what Portland does, however, Fritz does not believe in ending homelessness.

“The challenge of homelessness is that you don’t have to be a resident of Portland to get services in Portland,” Fritz said.

On a visit to Forest Grove, someone jokingly told the Commissioner that Forest Grove doesn’t have a homeless population because they just give everyone a Max ticket to Portland.

Fritz believes there may be some truth to that.

Moving the approximately 2,000 people who are living on the streets in Portland into housing will not end homelessness.

“Tomorrow, next week, there’d be another 2,000 people that would come and Portland taxpayers can’t afford that,” Fritz said.

Moving people off the streets and into homes will continue to be a challenge and that the city will have to continue to mediate between the parties involved.  

Besides the businesses making efforts to support programs for the homelessness, the shelters are doing their part to make the city liveable for everyone.

“I understand people have their comfort zones,” Pat Daley, house manager of the Blanchet House of Hospitality, said, “but we’re good neighbors.”

Until the root causes of homelessness, addiction and mental health issues, can be caught early enough to prevent people from entering homelessness, the community, businesses, and the homeless people will have to find a way to share the streets of Portland.