At the end of July 2023, the city of Portland plans on opening the first (out of six) mass homeless shelters. The shelter, located in SE Portland, has 140 sleeping pods and is expected to host around 200 houseless people. The shelter will also include 20 tents on wooden platforms. A total of $10 million was spent towards the program, with $6 million coming from Governor Tina Kotek, and the remaining $4 million recently coming from Multnomah County’s annual budget. Mayor Ted Wheeler has stated that after other lawmakers see the effectiveness of these shelters, more are planned to be approved.
In order to get into the shelter, houseless people must have a referral by a non-profit service provider or a city outreach worker. If they show up without a referral, they are given a number to call for one. After entering the shelter, people are expected to leave after six months with the goal being to find them affordable permanent housing.
The shelter will be managed by a California based organization called Urban Alchemy. However, both the organization, and the street ban proposal that was passed alongside the shelter have received criticism.
Portland’s street ban has caused many houseless people to feel as if they have nowhere to go. The ban, which prohibits people from camping in the day, has caused an increase of people camping out by the highways. In an interview done by KOIN6, a houseless person named Alannah stated, “There’s a lot of people that broke down basically…They broke down because they didn’t know where to go, they didn’t know what to do.” So, despite the plans to build more mass shelters, the city did not make a thorough plan for houseless people in the time being. However, the hope is that the new shelters will prevent the houseless population in Portland to increase.
Sources:
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/17/portland-oregon-largest-city-homeless-camp-to-open-july/
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https://pacificsun.com/workplace-violations/
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https://www.feedthemass.org/
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