91视频

By Claire Rush

The Associated Press

Portland City Council members have voted to allocate $27 million of the city’s budget to build a network of designated camping areas, approving a fiercely disputed measure intended to address a homelessness crisis.

The money will help finance a recently approved measure that banned street camping and approved the creation of six outdoor sites where homeless people will be allowed to camp. Under the measure, a ban on street camping will phase in over the next year and a half as the sites are completed.

Before Wednesday’s vote, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler acknowledged the measure was controversial but added that he nonetheless believes in it 鈥渧ery, very deeply.鈥� Wheeler and other supporters of the measure contend it will make streets safer and connect homeless people with social services.

鈥淲e must end self-directed, unsanctioned camping in the city of Portland,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e deal with mental health issues. We deal with substance abuse issues. We deal with human feces. We deal with naked people running down the street, people who are unable to even acknowledge who or where they are, because their afflictions are that serious. It is beneath us as a moral and ethical society to have that happening in our community. And therefore, we need to do something differently.鈥�

The $27 million will help launch the first three campsites, with nearly half going toward their operational costs for the remainder of the fiscal year. About $4 million of the money will be directed to preparation and construction of the sites.

Wednesday’s measure amended the city’s budget for the current fiscal year to include the new projections.

Public opposition to the measure and the money that will fund it has been heated, with critics saying it will criminalize homelessness and fail to address its root causes.

The initial vote on the budget measure was postponed after a raucous City Council meeting during which some opponents interrupted council members and had their microphones cut after refusing to abide by time limits. The commotion prompted members to leave the chambers and conduct the rest of the meeting online.

During that meeting, resident Shannon Kearns said in testimony that the plan amounted to 鈥減utting money into internment camps under the guise of support for our most marginalized community members.鈥�

The six designated campsites will initially serve up to 150 people, with 24-hour management and access to services such as food, hygiene, litter collection and treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

The locations of the sites and the exact details of how they will work have yet to be confirmed, but Wheeler’s office has unveiled a potential road map in recent Zoom calls with community stakeholders.

So far, the city has envisioned camps that would not allow walk-ins; people would have to be referred by outreach workers. Alcohol and drugs would be banned in common areas. Sites would have only one entrance and exit, and weapons checks would be conducted there.

Service providers running the sites would be responsible for security inside and within a 1,000-foot perimeter. But the budget allocates $750,000 to help neighborhood groups hire private security for areas around the first three sites.

The locations and security of the sites are already shaping up to be contentious issues. Some neighborhoods, including those that are lower-income and those already struggling to address homeless encampments, are worried the sites won’t be spaced out equitably across the city.

A group of residents and property owners from downtown, where many homeless services are located, testified before Wednesday’s vote. One of them, Kat Ulrich, shared pictures of the aftermath of a violent confrontation she and her husband had with a homeless person experiencing a mental health crisis.

鈥淗e punched me in the face,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 went down, came up with blood on my hands and my face, and my nose was broken. Him and my husband were rolling on the ground. Somebody eventually came out with some mace and sprayed the man, and he ran off.鈥�

More affordable housing is needed to truly tackle the issue, according to advocates for homeless people. While mental health treatment services are essential, they point out that not all homeless people have mental health or substance abuse issues.

As the sites are built and the street camping ban phases in, outreach workers will be tasked with directing people living on streets to the designated camping areas. Those who refuse to leave their encampment could be cited, but a citation could be waived if the person takes part in a diversion program that would require mental health or substance abuse treatment in lieu of jail time.

To develop the diversion program, the new budget transfers $250,000 from the police bureau to the Street Services Coordination Center, which provides homeless outreach.

Wheeler has previously said he thinks the $27 million would cover about half the cost to create the sanctioned campsites. The mayor’s office has urged the state to declare a homelessness emergency and support a request from the Oregon Mayor’s Association for a budget package totaling $123 million during the next legislative session. The package would provide direct allocations to cities for homelessness services.