PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland voters will elect a new mayor and all the members of an expanded city council in November, and homelessness will inevitably be one of the biggest topics throughout the course of the election. With that in mind, KGW is sitting down with each of Portland's mayoral candidates to see how they plan to address the crisis.
Three of the top candidates in 2024 are sitting city commissioners: Carmen Rubio, Mingus Mapps and Rene Gonzalez. Rubio has been known to support shelters and sees the partnership with Multnomah County as critical to making meaningful change.
KGW reporter Blair Best sat down with Rubio about how she would address the homeless crisis if elected. The following excerpts from that interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Rubio: We need to step up and step in and roll up our sleeves and finally piece together a true system that works.
Best: What about this current system in your eyes is not working?
Rubio: The current system, in my opinion, is not a system. I feel like we have a collection of really great programs and efforts, but it’s not knitted together in a seamless system across all jurisdictions. For a long time the county has been doing the problems and going at it. We’ve had a piece of it, but not really in a way that is at a high level, systemic — and I believe that what the situation calls for now, with what the landscape is now, we need to all assume responsibility for this issue, and that’s where I feel it’s really necessary as the city, as leaders, we need to lean in — not retract right now.
Best: If elected, will people still be sleeping on the sidewalks?
Rubio: Probably. I mean, this is not something that is going to be solved at all overnight. It took us decades to get into a situation where we are in a crisis, and it will take us a long time to get out. My hope is for a functioning system; that we have the on-ramps for people to find the supports that they need, should they want to — that we have a system that’s functioning, it’s there and ready to receive them… I believe in shelters. I believe that we need to deal with the immediacy of the urgency on the street right now. That hasn’t been a practice consistently in other places.
Best: How will you handle the people who choose not to go into shelter?
Rubio: You know, that is a more challenging thing. We have, obviously we have (a) choice. My role is to make sure whatever we do, that it is done centered in our Portland values, it is done with accountability and also compassion. So, that’s the lens that I would bring.
Best: What do accountability and compassion look like when responding to homeless people on the streets?
Rubio: I think it means we have the role of making sure and enforcing that the rights-of-way are accessible to everybody, and so that’s one way that we have to be ready to use the levers that we have, but we can do so without it being a hammer.
Best: Outreach workers are a really critical piece…
Rubio: Absolutely.
Best: in all of this and currently the city employs six. Do you think that’s enough to handle the crisis we’re seeing?
Rubio: I absolutely believe we have completely underfunded Portland Street Response, and I am one of those folks who really sees the value of Portland Street Response being the connective tissue of the work (between) the clear roles of the city and the clear roles of the county.
Editors note: Portland Street Response is the group in the Portland Fire Bureau responding to people experiencing a non-violent mental or behavioral health crisis.
Rubio: We need to clearly commit to it at the top, and give it the capacity it needs to stand on its own and demonstrate what it can do, and also be available and accessible to all four corners of the city.
Best: So, do you see it as outreach workers need to have more of a presence on our streets as opposed to law enforcement?
Rubio: I believe that we need both. I think that it’s not an either-or situation for me. I do believe that we can do multiple approaches at the same time, because everybody’s situation is different and every incident is very different. But I do believe in outreach workers, as well with clear goals and a clear understanding of what their role is.
Best: The city can only do so much…
Rubio: Correct.
Best: when it comes to homelessness they have to rely on the county and the state…
Rubio: Yes.
Best: how would you approach the relationship with the county?
Rubio: The county relationship is critical; we’re interdependent, whether people want us to be or not. That is how it's structured, so we have a responsibility to make it work. I completely reject the premise that we can take our toys and go home. We can’t do that. We’re leaders, we’re elected to serve the public, and the public counts on us to work it out and to figure it out. That’s our job. So we need to stay at the table, and keep staying at the table, until we work through these intractable problems, but together.
Best: If elected, would you continue to have the city fund the county’s joint office of homeless services?
Editor’s note: Portland gives about $40 million a year to the Joint Office of Homeless Services. The office oversees and coordinates the local, state, and federal funding to address homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County.
Rubio: Absolutely. And the reason I say that is because we do not have the ability to, like I said, take our toys and go home. We have to actually figure this out, and those funds are our lever and our leverage to making sure that we’re good partners — that, together with trust and leadership.
Best: Do you feel like the county has been using those funds appropriately?
Rubio: I feel like the county is starting to be more open and more responsive, not only to the city, but also to the public demand. So in that respect, we still have more work to be negotiated, but it is moving in the right direction.
Best: What do you have to say to voters who have completely lost faith in our local government’s ability to handle this crisis?
Rubio: I say that I hear you and I see you and I understand the frustration — I hear it every single day. I hear it in businesses that I go talk to in the community and neighborhoods. My own neighborhood, in my own family even, there's frustrations expressed about it. And I will say that you are right, we have not had a system that is functional, that is meeting the moment, and that’s where our work is. It's unprecedented. Yes, we could not have expected it post-COVID — yes, but is it still our responsibility to stay at the table? Yes it is.
Watch interviews with each of the top candidates for mayor on the KGW YouTube page or KGW+.