1 week Ago
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Mayor Keith Wilson marked his first 100 days in office with an ambitious promise to end unsheltered homelessness within a year. But it remains an open question whether the city's $93 million budget deficit will get in the way.
Just weeks after Wilson took office, city officials revealed that Portland is staring a down the barrel of major potential cuts to city services. City Administrator Michael Jordan released his proposal in February, and as deep as the cuts in that plan seemed, they only accounted for $35 million of the gap. The rest will be on the mayor and city council .
In a recent appearance on KGW's "Straight Talk," Wilson outlined progress made on his campaign promises and what challenges lay ahead for Portland. RELATED: Portland City Council president debriefs on first 100 days of new government Homeless plan faces funding hurdles Wilson, who founded the nonprofit Shelter Portland before taking office, campaigned on ending unsheltered homelessness within 12 months — a goal he remains committed to despite financial constraints. "We have, it's 1-year goal because we're not here to talk about 3 or 5 years when you have thousands of people suffering, you must act," Wilson said.
"In fact, I set up a core value in my emergency meeting, and the core value, one of them is action. It's not waiting and overthinking it." Wilson's current plan to end unsheltered homelessness is expected to cost $28 million, as both the city and the county face budget deficits.
So, he's looking outward for help. "The way we take that pressure off is having our community to come together in our time of need," Wilson said. "But it's not just Portland trying to help Portland, it's the entire state is stepping up.
" In the interview, Wilson said he had secured $15 million from Metro to assist with the plan — but Metro has not yet voted on whether to give these funds over to Portland yet. That vote will occur in late April. If Metro votes yes, the funds go to Multnomah County , which has already voted to send them over to Portland.
Metro is not able to directly sends funds to a city. Wilson has not yet said where he expects the other $13 million to come from. Shelter and enforcement.
What to do? Wilson's strategy focuses on getting to where an emergency shelter bed is available for every person who needs one, so that Portland's no-camping codes can be fully enforced. His plan heavily relies on the use of congregate shelters — which tend to be one big room with rows of beds — and leaning on community partners, like churches, to be sites. Overall, Wilson wants 1,500 emergency shelter beds by the end of the year.
Congregate shelters, however, have been historically unpopular among many homeless people in Portland. In late January, Gina, a homeless woman in downtown trying to keep warm, told KGW that she purposely avoids congregate shelters . She said people steal, and that even going to the bathroom could mean that everything a person owns will be gone when they return.
The lack of privacy or a feeling of personal safety or security is just one reason some avoid these type of shelters, particularly for those who have suffered abuse in the past. When questioned about people's reluctance to use congregate shelters, Wilson was firm. "A tent is not .
.. a tent is just fostering suffering on our street.
There's nothing good that happens when somebody's in a tent," Wilson said. "There is no good way that person can get up and go to their job the next day, day after day. "What we need to do is connect them with day centers and services.
There are individuals that may not want to come in, and we respect that, but we have to enforce our no-camping codes, which means there's no tents or makeshift shelters or RVs on the street. We have to recognize that businesses must be able to survive and thrive, and we need to provide those resources so residents can survive and thrive at the same time." But later in the interview, in a significant policy shift, Wilson said he has pulled back on police arrests and citations of homeless individuals, saying that he told Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day that "it's not something I'm supporting.
" "We cannot arrest our way out of unsheltered homelessness," he said. "So, I've really kind of pulled back the officers from doing that because all you're guaranteeing when you arrest somebody and or cite them or take them into jail is you're ensuring that person's gonna be homeless for another day." Instead, Wilson plans to triple the city's outreach workers from five to 15 in his upcoming budget in an effort to better connect those experiencing homelessness with care.
One way he's hoping to do that is by reconnecting people to family members. Navigating a $93 million budget deficit To fill the deficit, the mayor asked for 5% cuts to all bureaus that receive money from the general fund, except police, fire and emergency communications. Larger cuts are expected to Portland Parks & Recreation and Permitting & Development, which may include the closure of a community center .
"We're gonna be less staff at the end of the day, which is unfortunate," Wilson said. "We're really being cautious on who and what departments we're funding, we're looking at streamlined services." However, Wilson indicated he's working to preserve programs with strong volunteer components and community support.
"When you cut programs that have large volunteer services, when you are stepping over $5 to get to a buck," he said. "In other words, when you have hundreds if not thousands of volunteers that are stepping up to cut a buck, and when those volunteers go away, you're cutting the community's action in helping that community." Wilson confirmed public safety funding remains a priority, citing response time concerns: "A response time for a police officer at 24 minutes or 22 minutes, when 10 years ago it was 6 minutes.
We've got to make sure that people are confident that somebody's rested and ready and well resourced to show up." The newest "Straight Talk" episode airs Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
, and Monday at 7 p.m. "Straight Talk" is also available as a podcast .
You can also watch episodes whenever you want on the KGW+ TV app..
