The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue, respond to a request for comment or address a concern you want to call to the attention of the community. Letters to the editor will always be edited for space, style, grammar and issues of clarity. Please include your full name and identify the neighborhood in which you reside. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. You may also mail your letter to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230. Deadline for the January issue is Friday, Dec. 15.
Homeless problems grow
To the Editor:
Long advocated by Chair [Deborah] Kafoury, Multnomah County commissioners voted 4-1 on Nov. 9 to sell the never-used Wapato Jail. Built at a cost of $58 million in 2005, Wapato sold for $10.8 million. With the sale, Kafoury threw away $47.2 million hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
The $10.8 million was slated toward “Supportive Housing” in 2028. Ten years! Over 4,000 homeless people are on the streets now! Last winter four people froze to death in Portland, and one woman gave stillborn birth under an I-205 overpass, and Wapato sat empty. Life on the streets is unhealthy and dangerous, and city/county efforts are inadequate.
During the past two years at meetings and public testimony, many suggested the county develop an expanded program using the 525-bed Wapato as a central intake station: evaluate, triage and temporarily shelter individuals while seeking appropriate treatment and housing. We now learn homeless advocates will meet to brainstorm the possibility of a comprehensive program at Wapato [that works to] end the cycle of homelessness.
At a recent crime prevention forum, homeless issues were paramount. Two Portland policemen and a deputy sheriff related the frustration they experience when confronting vagrancy and property crime by the homeless. Jailing them is often halted due to lack of jail space. Inverness and the Justice Center, with a total 1,713 beds, are not enough. Multnomah County commissioners, are you aware of this?
Shocking to Mayor Wheeler was Columbia Sportswear’s announcement it would move its headquarters from downtown if Portland can’t control homeless criminals. Wake up, city and county!
Harriett Heisey
Wilkes community resident
Wapato Jail sells for $10 million
To the Editor:
The city of Portland [sic] spent nearly $60 million dollars to build the Wapato building, and, after 13 years, it had a return of $10 million dollars. Statements that Wapato could not be used for addressing homelessness because “it did not have the political support” or “did not have the proper zoning” were common statements made by officials. Considering that the city [sic] has the power to address both politics and zoning issues at will on practically any city project, I have come to the conclusion that the sale of Wapato was already in negotiations and, hence, not really considered for addressing the homeless situation in Portland.
It reminds me of a businessman that I worked for in New York in the 1990s. He borrowed $30 million dollars from a bank to complete a housing project, but by the time the project was completed, there was a recession and he was unable to pay back the loan. As a result, no bank would loan to him, and he lost his business. What happened to the people who made the Wapato decision 13 years ago? We continue to see a growth of the homeless population in our area as the new policies and enforcements push more and more of this population from downtown Portland.
Shahab Nahvi
Wilkes community resident
The advocates and our elected officials in Portland continue to do the town a great disservice by putting forward disingenuous arguments and not just about Wapato. They appear to be unwilling to do anything to address the crime and other livability issues that accompany large populations of homeless people. They act like the homeless population is comprised solely of people priced out of the housing market and lump the criminals, addicts and mentally ill with people who are down on their luck which keeps us from developing any viable solutions and actually helping anyone. Part of the solution to the homeless crisis is to get the criminals off the streets. If the criminals are removed from the homeless community, it would be easier to address the housing needs of the remaining homeless population.
And the homeless advocates – instead of hosting fancy fund raisers every month like the events I get invited to held by Human Solutions – should be held more accountable. Every neighborhood should have community representatives from homeless outreach groups that we can actually call to address camping/livability issues directly with the homeless individuals in order to get them into housing and whatever other services they need to get them off the street, which leaves the police to focus on the small percentage who create most of the problems.
It’s not enough to just dump some facility in our neighborhoods, declare they’ve added some bed space or some services, have a groundbreaking ceremony to pat themselves on the back and then never check in to see how well their facility is actually working to address the problem. Since the Hansen Shelter opened have Kafoury or any of her minions bothered to come back and meet with the neighborhood to see how things are working out? Has Stacy Bork fulfilled her promise to be readily accessible to the community and address problems? The answer to both questions is “No.”
And since that’s working out so well officials decided to house another 175 homeless folks right across the street from the Hansen Shelter in the new Blackburn building. During the ground breaking ceremony for the Blackburn building no fewer than 12 people got up to congratulate each other on how they’re solving homelessness and addiction while 3 drug couriers were circling the block on their bikes. The Blackburn building will have outpatient addiction services leaving people trying to clean to head back out and be tempted to resume bad habits as soon as they leave their day treatment. Even the homeless speaker they brought in acknowledged he used to buy drugs on that corner all the time so I’m sure it’s going to work out great…. having an outpatient treatment facility in the middle of Drug Central. For the people trying to get sober and for the folks who have to use that Max stop to get to work every day. Because of course, there was no mention of increased police patrols or how they will address issues that are certain to arise when you have over 375 homeless folks in one block.
Why use Wapato, when they can just put it all out here – one facility at a time, with no accountability to the people who live here.
My name is Sharon. Two years ago I became homeless when my boyfriend of ten years died suddenly. I was left broke and broken. I live on the side of the road with my two dogs, Blaze and Miss Charlie.
I am unemployed but manage by the grace of God.
This Blackburn building is nothing short of senseless spending. Put ME on the appropriation a committee.
Yea that’s using our tax dollars wisely. NOT!
NOT ALL FOLKS WHO DON’T HAVE A LANDLORD, are dope feands [sic] or alcoholics. So many have nothing left and nothing left to lose. The doors are closing all over the place. A place like the Blackburn project doesn’t begin to touch the homeless problem. You can’t sugar coat the bullshit. Of course appropriate housing is conducive to good health. They went to college to learn that? Sounds to me like you all just want to suck the state fit. A reality unit, please. And only ninety units of transitional? Really? What a joke. And just exactly is transitional housing in your opinion?
Thirty four permanent housing opportunities. So I guess the thirty four get to stay healthy and the rest get put to the curb for round two?
We,( and yes, I am speaking for the majority of homeless folks), need SO MUCH MORE THAN POLITICS. We’re the brunt of your jokes, and some articles I’ve read, generalize and patronize us all. We’re disrespected in a million different ways. Being a single woman out here increases the odds of our challenge. Sometimes it’s all I can do to get through another day. While you are sucking up the bullshit with the coffee the state slung for, how many times? That money and effort, in my opinion could have been much better managed.
I challenge you to spend a day with me and my dogs in my world. See through MY EYES. Not some muck raker [sic] or right wing liberalism screaming equality for almost everyone.
And you actually print this shit. Were the majority out here and funny nobody told us what was up. How much grant money did you manage? Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back for a job well done. Well it was a job well done all right but NOT for health and homeless issues. Narcissist and Republicans concocted this facade and you fell in like a rat in a trap. Print something about homelessness that’s going to make a difference. Something that matters. Come off your high horse and HELP US OUT! Stop talking and start doing.
Your [sic] only taking up paper space for lack of anything better to print. You should be embarassed [sic] to endorse this bullshit. And just exactly paid for the ground breaking ceremony? What a joke. Donate that money for an outhouse with toilet paper for a week. Or a tank of water that we can use freely, that’s clean. Have one of those rich bastards donate some property instead of spending for a new one. Let us be on the appropriations committee. Well squeeze the quarter so hard you’ll hear the eagle scream. We can move mountains with chump change. Can you? Now how the hell did Mine Hole as wind up being a rep for stake holders. Must be someone’s kid. Trying to save someone’s face or ass. Still in recovery is a double negative and he isn’t “suffering” . We’re not all drug addicts suffering for another hit. Something that will bring hope? There is no hope. Where’d you get this guy? If he wanted his name in print I could have made him a shirt. Hope is distant. How can sucking someone’s ass be something to be proud of?