PORTLAND, Ore. — Tucked behind rose bushes in Portland’s Central Eastside, Teresa lies in the sun to pass the time. Having been homeless for most of her life, survival skills are second nature, and a big one for street life in Portland, she says, is knowing where to get a tent.
“I've gotten two from outreaches and the others I’ve acquired or purchased myself,” Teresa explained.
“It's helpful, just keeps us out of the rain and stuff,” added Kyle, who is also homeless.
For many, a tent is a lifeline — and that’s not going away any time soon because on Thursday, Multnomah County commissioners passed a $3.96 billion budget with a focus on increasing homelessness and behavioral health services. The budget includes $230,000 for distribution of about 6,500 tents and $515,000 for distribution of five million clean syringes under what’s considered harm reduction efforts.
"We have a humane policy when it comes to distributing tents and tarps or other supplies, so we have about $750,000 in our budget that’s about supplies for folks," said County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.
“The county continues on a path of enablement that is really, really problematic,” said Portland City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez Friday morning. Last week, he sent a letter to the county chair raising his concerns over this portion of the budget, but nothing changed.
“In this area, the county has not been responsive to the city… We are spending a fortune on tent and tarp clean-up, so for the county and for some of these nonprofits to continue to be pumping them into our community is a real problem,” Gonzalez said.
Some county commissioners are also questioning the move to send more tents to the streets.
“I would have preferred we had a much bigger push toward more shelter because that is going to be the most important thing to get people off the streets,” said Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards.
She’s talking about people like Lisa, who's been homeless for four years and desperately wants a tiny home.
“Why, why, why not just build more tiny homes? Why not get people inside if they are going to make it illegal to camp? Why the hell would they give out more tents?!” Lisa demanded.
“I’m sad, a bit outraged, but not surprised about the budget that passed,” said Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran. She was the only one to vote against the budget.
“I’m both sad but proud to be the only one voting no… We are just investing more and more money in the same old strategies, and it's clearly not working,” Meieran said.
However, the one behind many of these decisions — Chair Vega Pederson — had a noticeably more positive tone on Friday.
“I think ultimately, we ended up with a budget that is setting us up for the important work that we have to do as a county government going forward," Vega Pederson said. "I think we have some folks who were never really going to support the budget no matter what was in it, and that's unfortunate because it was a lot of hard work that went into putting this together.”
Some in the unhoused community, such as Kyle, who lives on the streets of the central east side, voiced their displeasure, too.
“Anybody who's like, high up there in the commissioner or anybody up there making these rules, they should be homeless for like two months and just see how it feels to be like us because it sucks,” Kyle suggested.
The money for harm reductions efforts is a small fraction of the overall budget, yet it is drawing attention. Other spending points include millions for more shelter beds, funding for the 24/7 sobering center led by Commissioner Brim-Edwards, and funding for a plan to house half of everyone living on the streets of Multnomah County by the end of next year.
Vega Pederson said a top priority for her is accountability for where and how this money will be spent. She is currently working with the Joint Office of Homeless Services on a tracking system for the harm reduction supplies like tents and tarps.
“Working with my colleagues to see what is the right policy for us overall, and that’s something that will be a priority as we move into the next fiscal year,” she said of those efforts.
KGW wanted to hear from the other top mayoral candidates for comment regarding the budget. Commissioner Mingus Mapps did not immediately respond for comment.
Commissioner Carmen Rubio sent the following statement:
“I’ve had conversations directly with Chair Vega Pederson and Director Field – and they both know that the city would like to learn more regarding their latest thinking related to harm reductions investments. Harm reduction is an important, necessary strategy that saves lives, but it must be adaptable to current challenges. In a world in which we are still building out our shelter system, tent bans will only push homeless community members into parks, doorways of small businesses, and under our bridges. That is not a solution – nor humane. We need adaptable approaches to our challenges as we stand up more Temporary Alternative Shelters Sites and do the outreach needed to get people to relocate to them. Just yesterday the city successfully found shelter space for 11 individuals who were living outside and causing challenges at a construction site. Direct engagement with these folks is what got them into shelter – not tent bans.”
Mayoral candidate Keith Wilson, CEO and president of Titan Freight Systems and founder of the nonprofit called Shelter Portland, sent KGW the following statement:
“We are in a declared homelessness emergency, yet our leadership can’t do basic math. Our latest Point in Time Survey indicates the number of unsheltered homeless people in Multnomah County grew by 887 last year alone. How can adding 1,000 shelter beds in two years possibly reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50%? A budget is a statement of values. Multnomah County’s budget is a commitment to double down on the failed status quo and surrender to the crisis in our streets. Some 300 of our homeless neighbors died unsheltered last year. We are on track to lose an estimated 400 this year alone. Handing out tents, tarps, and sleeping bags is misguided waste masquerading as compassion that will only serve to perpetuate more suffering. The cities that have ended unsheltered homelessness have prioritized low-cost nighttime emergency shelters. We must do the same. In fact, this was our strategy until the formation of the Joint Office of Homeless Services in 2016. We have seen the failed leadership and skyrocketing homelessness rates that have since followed, which are now among the highest in the nation. The unsheltered homelessness, mental illness, and addiction we see on our streets isn’t normal or acceptable. I’m disappointed that the $127 million allocated for the latest Homeless Response Action Plan spends record-breaking taxpayer funds while failing to address the most critical component of unsheltered homelessness.”