Balancing compassion with accountability
Dear Friends:
I hear you.
I know you are exhausted and discouraged by the trash, graffiti, excessive encampments, public use of illegal substances, and all sorts of biohazards in our streets – and want to see changes.
Today I joined my Council colleagues in voting for a camping ordinance that balances compassion, common sense, and accountability.
Earlier this year, I stated on the record my hope that we find another way forward and that we repeal a legally questionable policy and replace it with a more pragmatic and humane solution.
I believe this policy achieves much of what I had hoped for – because this version of the ordinance was crafted in collaboration with numerous community providers and government stakeholders, and it aligns with training that has commenced with the Portland Police Bureau.
These issues are complex and challenging. We all want structures and rules to be in place that ensure everyone can use public spaces safely – no matter where you live or sleep.
We CAN do these things – and at the same time, we don’t have to forget who we are to do it. We can lead with compassion and common sense when putting rules in place that we are ALL accountable to.
We can continue to work hard every single day to provide shelter and a pathway to services for unhoused Portlanders – and, with this policy, also bring a level of accountability to those very few cases of people who consciously refuse to abide by reasonable restrictions.
We have seen improvements as a City, and while we still have a ways to go, I believe we are on a productive track.
I believe in getting upstream to resolve pressing problems at their root – so we must continue to think big and keep stepping up housing production through bold moves, and increasing support for those with mental illness and substance abuse disorder, while holding the line when it comes to people committing crimes; otherwise, we will be right back here in another 10 years.
This ordinance, while not perfect, is a thoughtful one. We have learned a lot of lessons through this process, and I hope that we continue to make progress on these livability issues using our lens of Portland values, and in deliberate, thoughtful ways.
At your side,
Carmen
Yes, I am "exhausted and discouraged by the trash, graffiti, excessive encampments, public use of illegal substances, and all sorts of biohazards in our streets."
Do you want to know what else 99 percent of Portland's law-abiding voter-taxpayers are sick and tired of, Commissioner? We've had it with activist journalists in our local media who constantly parrot the Homeless Industrial Complex line in passages like this one:
"Homelessness experts, service providers and advocates say it is inhumane to criminalize homelessness when there are not enough shelter beds to serve all who need one."
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2024/05/portland-mayors-scaled-back-homeless-camping-ban-approved-enforcement-begins-immediately.html
"Criminalize homelessness"? "Not enough shelter beds to serve all who need one"? Give me a break.
Let's be clear. It is not a crime to BE homeless, but the truth doesn't matter to these folks. It's what some homeless people choose to DO that's a crime.
As for there not being enough shelter beds, it is well established that when the city removes a homeless encampment (with advance notice and personnel to assist the campers), the campers almost never accept the shelter beds they are offered. What elected officials and the "homeless experts, service providers and advocates" who make up the Homeless Industrial Complex refuse to admit because it ruins their narrative of the homeless as pitiful victims of capitalism is that most homeless people want to live on the streets and do not want to rejoin society.
Do you know what's really inhumane? It's been inhumane as hell for our bleeding-heart progressive elected officials and the usual "homeless experts, service providers and advocates" to subject the good people of this city to unchecked homelessness year after year because their ideology treats us as the bad actors who want to "criminalize homelessness" and the homeless as the pitiful victims of capitalism who must never be made to do anything they don't want to do.
Well, at least the Commissioner gets that the people she represents now (and hopes to represent in the future) are pissed. Now Rubio just needs to cut her ties to the parasitic Homeless Industrial Complex, admit that the homeless crisis is the fault of addicts and the mentally ill and see to it that they're removed from our streets and neighborhoods as soon as possible.
If this had happened a month or two into the camping crisis, you might have expected congratulations. But it's taken four years! And what is this wonderful new policy? Is it written down? It's clearly expecting too much to be given an opportunity to read it ...