Throughout the past few years,
we've learned from a lot of people who
are upset and frustrated with crime,
homelessness, and trash in their area.
It affects just about the entire city.
Police have told us that they have a
hard time walking along the sidewalk,
getting into work, getting into school.
You've told us that.
You told us you're afraid to
leave cars parked on the street.
We've heard it all from all over the city.
Back in November, business leaders in
the Central Eastside industrial area,
just on the east side of the Willamette.
Over there, well,
they decided that they'd had enough.
They got together to talk about all
the things they've been frustrated
with in the past few years,
and they brought city leaders in to listen.
One of our employees on his way
into our central kitchen was held
up at gunpoint, gun in his face
as he walked in to make ice cream.
Like everyone in this room,
we deal daily with feces,
human on our shoes.
We deal with break INS.
We deal with assaults.
Well, that was a few weeks ago
and city leaders heard them.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced
the Central Eastside would be the next
area in the city to get a 90 day reset.
Those 90 days, by the way,
mark your calendar.
They start today.
It's similar to a plan that city
leaders did in Old Town last year.
After business leaders there complained
about crime and homelessness,
the city stepped up police patrols
and cleanup efforts and swept hundreds
of homeless camps out of the area.
The city says they have a similar plan
now tailored to the east sides needs.
Altogether,
they have about 30 different goals.
They plan, for example,
to improve lighting over the
street and under the bridges,
to increase police presence,
to remove garbage and graffiti,
and to move out campsites
that are in the way.
In the next 90 days,
we're asking the SCC to address
the unsanctioned campsites through
the legal posting process that are
most impacting the neighborhood.
This includes campsites
engaged in criminal activity,
camping along the right of way
or on private property and
abandoned vehicles and RV's.
Our outreach teams will be
performing additional outreach
to posted campsites to ensure.
That they're aware of our clean up plans.
Those contacted by outreach teams are
offered an immediate available shelter bed,
a ride to that shelter bed with
their immediate belongings,
and complimentary storage
for additional belongings.
Homeless camp sweeps are not new.
The city's been doing them for some time.
While they push campers out of 1 area,
they often end up settling in a
different area and then people in that
new area start to get upset and asks
the city to pay attention to them.
So is the city planning to do
90 day resets all over town?
I I wish we could do this for
the entirety of the city,
and I wish we could do it in the
context of the service hubs being
live and operational across the city,
because then everything would flow together.
So that term service hubs,
that's what the mayor is calling,
is planned to open six large outdoor
homeless camps all over the city.
They would hold up to 250 people each,
and he's hoping it will solve
a lot of major problems.
The mayor thinks that if the city can
get these camps or service hubs open,
then it will reduce
unsanctioned camping overall.
We offer everyone the
opportunity to go to shelter,
we offer to take their belongings,
we offer to store their belongings,
we offer to collect and store additional
belongings, and we create low barrier
opportunities for people to be able to
come inside off the streets from the
problematic camps that we are removing.
Overwhelmingly, people decline 2 out
of 10 according to a recent survey.
That we did with city outreach workers
said they will not come indoors.
And by that I mean shelter,
motel rooms, housing of any kind.
They prefer to be outside.
People may not want to go to
an indoor congregate shelter,
but we're betting a lot of people,
based on what they told us,
would go to a different
location that is outdoors,
that has stability,
that has hygiene,
that has navigation to critical services.
The mayor did not provide any
kind of timeline about when the
camps or service hubs will be open
or where they will be located.
He did say though that he will
announce some of them soon.
At the same time,
the city still is not open to all
their planned safe rest villages
yet all six were originally
expected to open two years ago.
As for the central E sides 90 day reset,
we'll keep track of that.
We'll let you know how that goes.
Business leaders say they are confident
it's going to help turn the tide on
the issues that they're dealing with.
Hopefully it will,
but when we talked with people in Old Town.
At the end of their reset a while ago,
business leaders then said
improvements had begun but there
was still work to do.
We
have made some critical decisions to
get us started and now
we must stay the course,
ever improving the process and work.
Maybe they are making an attempt,
but I'm not seeing it yet.
The tents get wiped out.
Two days later, the tents are back.
We can't walk down the streets.
We are unsafe.
I've I've been assaulted on the street.
I don't even call the police now.
I wouldn't go outside at night,
period, to cross the street.
It's that dangerous.