Portland
, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) is expected this week to roll out a plan that would concentrate some of the city’s homeless people
, many of whom presently live in tents that line sidewalks, into government-sponsored campsites throughout the city.
Wheeler’s plan would ban camping on Portland’s streets but allow homeless people to camp at one of three sanctioned sites, which would each be built to accommodate hundreds of people and their tents, according to local news.
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Local leaders immediately met the plan, which the mayor has not officially announced, with skepticism
. Some questioned where the campsites would go and whether the city or the county would ultimately fund their construction.
The proposal comes as homelessness in Portland becomes a key issue in Oregon’s gubernatorial race, with anxiety over crime and deteriorating conditions in the state’s largest city creating a situation in which voters may elect a Republican governor for the first time in 40 years.
Christine Drazan, the GOP candidate for governor, told local news she was supportive of at least the prospect of the Democratic mayor taking steps to address the homelessness problem.
“Location, security, and management of the new initiative are unknown at this time which leaves some major issues unanswered,” she said in a statement
. “But I am encouraged to see the city taking action.”
Democratic candidate Tina Kotek described the plan as a “good idea,” while independent candidate Betsy Johnson said the mayor should have started addressing homelessness much sooner.
Portland’s homelessness crisis has become so ubiquitous that the city is currently fighting a lawsuit from disabled residents who say they can no longer navigate sidewalks because of all the tents.
Lawyers involved in the lawsuit uncovered the county’s role in distributing 6,550 tents and 27,000 tarps to homeless people in 2021.
A similar effort to redirect homeless campers from the streets to sanctioned homeless campsites has proven complicated to execute in San Francisco, which has suffered from its own homeless problems.
Each tent reportedly cost the city nearly $60,000 a year to maintain. In objecting to the Portland plan, one county official noted that at a price that high, the city should look for actual housing solutions.
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Homelessness and the anxiety it has created among Oregon residents have helped propel Drazan to the top of recent polls.
She has said she would call a state of emergency in Oregon to marshal more resources for the homeless problems plaguing major cities. She has also pledged to crack down on crime, taking repeated aim at Portland leaders for allowing violence to proliferate after the 2020 civil unrest.
