Portland Restricts Daytime Camping
Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about the city’s proposal to revise and reinstate a ban on camping in public space.
The ban was approved with a 3-1 vote with only Carmen Rubio opposing. She only wanted to delay implementation to give everyone more time to prepare.
This happened despite hours of moving testimony as to the cruelty and harm that enforcing this camping ban would entail for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.
Both Mayor Wheeler and District Attorney Mike Schmidt suggest that the ban is unlikely to end up in jail time for our unhoused neighbors. Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association, the bureau’s union, has stated that we can’t arrest ourselves out of this crisis.
However, these words are small comforts against the backdrop of a rising reactionary politics in Portland, in Oregon, in the US, and worldwide. The growing vitriol against unhoused Portlanders is only one symptom of this phenomenon locally. The $3.1 million dollar reduction in Portland Street Response’s budget is another.
How much will we spend on instituting the policy priorities of think-tanks like the Cicero Institute? Evidence and research show what works–housing with supportive services, services that are made more successful by the stability of housing.
Last week, the waitlist for Section 8 housing vouchers opened in Portland for the first time since 2016. When we throw money into temporary, largely cosmetic band-aids, it’s diverted from clearing the clogged pipeline to housing. Facing wait times of a year or longer, it’s no wonder people become impatient with shelters and cynical about their ability to find stability.
Sisters of the Road has always stood against the forces that would stigmatize, criminalize, traumatize, and dehumanize people regardless of their social standing. While we fed people in our cafe, yes, it was also a place where people could find community across cultural barriers.
This sense of community and belonging is the greatest antidote against the despair of trying to survive a society that leaves so many people behind.
This new camping ban and the politics that fuel its widespread acceptance will continue to hurt our unhoused neighbors. Even if it is not used to put them inside a jail cell.
We know that Sisters will be needed as a space of healing from this rising harm. We will be working as hard as possible to bring that space back in our new, permanent home.