Portland Weather: Mayor Says City Can Do Better on Storm Response

Mayor Ted Wheeler says the city can do better when it comes to storm response. Has to do better.

"The reality is this," he said at a Tuesday press conference. "We have experienced too man street closures. Schools have been closed day after day after day. Businesses have lost out on opportunities. Most importantly of all, people have died on our streets.

"That is an unacceptable outcome."

Wheeler was speaking as the city started to slowly warm up after more than two weeks of below freezing weather that has left the streets covered with ice and snow.

"I think everyone understands that we have experienced an unprecedented weather situation over the past two and a half weeks," Wheeler said.

"If I were a better politician, I would probably stand here and defend the performance. But I'm not going to do that. The fact of the matter is that I've been deeply humbled by my first two and a half weeks in office."

Wheeler said that he believes that he has learned a few things that will help shape a better response in the future.

He added that the situation has left him with a combination of questions and concerns that he hopes to start addressing in detail next week by when he hopes the situation will have improved.

Those concerns include: whether the city has enough people to deploy; does the city have the right equipment; does the city have the right policies; does the city do a good job of communicating with its residents, letting them know what's going on and why; and does the city do a good job of working with other jurisdictions?

"When this event is over we have to evaluate those questions so we can do a better job in the future," Wheeler said.

Wheeler did have praise for city employees and the job they did.

"I think our public employees did an exemplary job with the resources they had at their disposal, particuar;y the people in the Portland Bureau of Transportation who have been deployed 24/7," he said, also singling out praise for employees of the city's Bureau of Environmental Services.

Asked to give the city's response a letter grade, Wheeler said it would be "incomplete based on the knowledge I have today."

"We have to think beyond this weather emergency," he said. "We have to learn from this. We have to have the hard conversations."

Wheeler said the worst part of the storm was the fact that four people died on the streets from exposure to the elements - something he called "an unacceptable outcome."

Wheeler said that so many people from city and county employees to Portland residents just looking to help people did so much to get people off the streets and help those that refused to seek shelter.

"This is a community that cares," he said. "We can do more."

To help the homeless in the area, the city and county announced Tuesday the opening of The Columbia Shelter - formerly the Peace 1 Shelter - which opened on Tuesday.

Located at the Washington Center Building on Southwest Fourth and Washington, it will serve up to 100 people including men, women, and some couples.

The shelter is opening with the help of two businesses.

The Menashe family first opened their Washington Center Building on SW Fourth and Washington Street last year. Greystar Real Estate Partners is under contract to purchase the property from the Menashe's and together they are collaborating to meet a significant need in the community.

"Homelessness is not a challenge government can address alone. We need the entire community," said Wheeler. "The private sector is stepping up to help, and I expect this to become a trend."

Last week, unprecedented winter cold and snow brought in as many as 748 homeless people into severe weather warming shelters on one night alone. Local organizations including the City of Portland, Multnomah County, the City of Gresham, numerous churches, nonprofits, volunteer groups and businesses stepped up to help people who would otherwise have been unsheltered.

“We saw the danger and difficulty facing people without a roof overhead. But we also saw the strength and amazing generosity of this community,” said Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. “This is another example of people asking, ‘what can I do?’ And I am so grateful to Jordan Menashe and Brad Schnell.”

The addition of the Columbia Shelter will bring the total number of winter-only shelter beds for this year to more than 250, and will add to the over 1100 year-round shelter beds Multnomah County and Portland already provides

Wheeler said while these are positive steps, the region has to start looking down the road.

We can do better," he said.