Mayor Wheeler's New Plan - Public Housing Homeless Campuses

Wheeler Outlines Ambitious, Unfunded Plan to Build Massive Camping Sites and Ban Street Camping

By Sophie Peel October 21, 2022 at 11:57 am PDT

https://www.wweek.com/news/cit...

"On Friday morning, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a set of five resolutions coming to the Portland City Council in the coming weeks to address homelessness. They’re big, ambitious and not yet funded—but signal a paradigm shift in the city’s approach to homelessness.

The big-ticket items were first reported by WW last week. They include: three 500-capacity sanctioned camping sites (beginning with 150 people at each of the three), an 18-month phased-in ban on unsanctioned camping, and a goal to begin construction on 20,000 units of affordable housing by the year 2033."

Mayor Wheeler made a well reasoned, defensible and articulate argument for his three homeless Public Housing campuses proposal today at his press conference. Unfortunately, his/Sam Adams's plan will require the cooperation and funding support of three other governments, namely, Metro, Multnomah County and the State of Oregon, both governor and legislature. That is one mighty tall order.

The very first question that needs to be answered by Wheeler is WHERE do you intend to put these hundreds of new PUBLIC HOUSING UNITS. The mayor and his staff, including Sam Adams, are well aware of the Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps, goodgrowthnw.org/maps, created by a team at Portland State University. These maps identify the percentage of Public Housing units that already exist in every neighborhood in Portland/Multnomah county and throughout Oregon.

Mayor Wheeler will be obliged to publicly explain how the locations he chooses do NOT overload those neighborhoods with Public Housing. Proponents and opponents of the mayor's location decisions will also have access to these maps.

Portland and Multnomah county's current Public Housing policy is Targeted, UNLIMITED Neighborhood Concentration of Public Housing which allow those governments to load the neighborhoods of their choosing with up to 100% Public Housing units. This is the case of the so-called Old Town neighborhood which is Oregon’s largest Public Housing Compound with 100% Public Housing Units.

Mayor Wheeler and his would be partners will want to consider promoting a defensible policy of Equitable Distribution of Public Housing among all of Portland's neighborhoods as they discuss the location options for all three Public Housing homeless campuses.

Richard Ellmyer
Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last twenty-one years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.

Project Champion and Data Wrangler - Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/maps
GIS for Activism conference, May 23, 2022, Portland State University, Portland, OregonRichardEllmyer - How I, A Citizen Activist, Used GIS To Effectively Tell A Necessary Yet Unavailable Truth About Public Housing
30 minute Video https://media.pdx.edu/media/t/1_2vrzokta
LET KNOWLEDGE SERVE THE CITY
https://psucollegeofed.wordpress.com/2022/09/23/lifelong-learning-at-psu/?fbclid=IwAR3S9Pff0mBGeT6Ha8dQeAqL0nAqU7QzZ-0pJC_oTQJxBWlAb2fdXzdE0w4

Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of million readers in Oregon and beyond. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus . Contributor: Patch news