Ah yes, that’s me when I hear you pretending your punitive desires are motivated by compassion.

I don’t see the progressive councilors opposing expansion of shelter access (wealthy NIMBYs do), they’re opposing sweeps.
Even if I supported the coercive plan, despite all the evidence it won’t work, it wouldn’t make sense to do things like sweeps til enough beds for everyone are created.

Yes, it exists in the scenario you made up in your head. Not in Portland in 2025. There aren’t currently enough shelter beds for the entire homeless population. So what you have left is jail. Which, also you don’t have enough of for every homeless person.

Ok, but there a significant number of people who work and can’t afford a place to live in. Put them in jail?
Obviously plenty of people without jobs contribute a lot to society, and plenty of people with jobs are destructive of it. That status shouldn’t decide whether or not you sleep indoors.

Ah, I see. So someone who inherited a house from their parents “earned it”, but someone working at McDonald’s but living in their car didn’t. Got it.

A sizable portion of the homeless population have jobs, estimates vary. You can’t afford housing if you don’t make enough to pay for it. But regardless, yes there is more than enough wealth in our society to hand everyone housing, regardless of if they work or not.

What does “compel” mean? Where is the treatment and shelter here that you think can be forced upon others? Last I heard, there aren’t enough beds for the mayor’s idea. You’re claiming to be humane, but what you’re advocating is inflicting violence upon the most vulnerable.

That sounds good, so you support Councilor Morillo’s proposal to redirect money wasted on sweeps and towards housing, food assistance an refugee support. We agree 😘

Nah, I just don’t think “fixing it” means harassing the already most miserable people in our society and throwing their stuff away. Portland and other cities have been doing this for decades, and it has yet to solve the problem, but somehow your “progress” is simply doing it more and harder.

The housing crisis is global, almost every city in the world faces these problems, to differing extents. It’s not a uniquely Portland problem, so it’s not going to be solved here alone.
Coercion is not compassion. The mayor had a stupid plan, and I’m surprised you believed it.

You think homelessness is a structural issue due to insufficient housing, but somehow it is also a moral failing due to insufficiently aggressive policing?
With sweeps we’re usually talking about public property. So it is theirs, as much as anyone else.
Accountability? lol I don’t write policy.

A. As Dunphy’s OP states, they’re not being swept into shelters, they’re being pushed into D1 and other marginal parts of the city. Wilson’s plan is a failure.
B. I can think of better uses of $ than “deterrence”, AKA hostile architecture. You could even build housing with it, for example.

A. Deterrents don’t work, encampments usually just show up next to them, often in an even more obstructive spot than where the original encampment was.
B. How much money do these deterrents cost here, and everywhere else, citywide? How many people could be housed with that money instead?

I live in D1. In front of a grocery store on 146th I have witnessed an encampment appear, get swept, and reappear at least 4 times. Currently the “solution” is some boulders and fences for the grass sidewalk strips. I’d guess this has cost several $10s of $1000s. How has all that helped anyone?

Jimmy understood the Man Show was a satire, Adam did not