The true colors of many people who are in charge of and influence public safety and policy have been rising to the service.
Lets start with civility. That was the topic of a recent summit that brought together policy makers, students, businesses, nonprofits and individuals from law enforcement community. The presentation was meant to educate the public and to spur action on a range of issues related to the issues of livability.
It was disastrous. Presenters from Mercy Corps, Julia West House, Travel Portland and others spent the better part of an hour and a half faulting people who are experiencing homelessness, going so far as to say that services offered to people in Portland prolong people’s poverty. One presenter compared Portland today to New York City in the 1980s — a crime infested urban environment that was on the brink of total collapse unless action was taken.
This conversation came only days before a hearing on Right 2 Dream Too at City Hall, where well-intentioned Portlanders berated the homeless people working to improve their own living conditions on the streets. People experiencing homelessness were referred to in the hearing as being little more than sex offenders, drug addicts and a complete drain on society.
It doesn’t help to have policy makers fueling the rhetoric as they claim to be addressing the lawlessness that is supposedly our streets, promising to do something about it.
Instead of talking about a public health crisis, compassion and the need for both traditional and non-traditional partners to take on the issue of homelessness and housing, we have individuals with dinosaur-like philosophies working to create policies that will do nothing more than split our community and set us back in the fight against poverty.
We aren’t Detroit, or St. Louis, or Memphis, or New York City in the 1980s. We’re Portland, Oregon, in the early 21st century. A place that is experiencing overwhelming economic growth and prosperity. We are experiencing record numbers of affluent people moving into and visiting our city. We are experiencing a changing landscape.
It’s time for civic leaders throughout our city to recognize that decades-old philosophies around urban planning and the poor don’t stand a chance unless we work together and stop demonizing people.
We would also caution those leaders not to take us back to a time when Portland was divided and when ideological lines in the sand and dogma prevailed over partnerships and vision.
Street Roots looks forward to working with a wide range of partners to create a more livable and safe downtown in Portland, and to offer resources to people experiencing poverty.
We do not look forward to continuing to watch people experiencing poverty be publicly demonized and used as a social whipping post simply because they are poor.