Two weeks after Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office unveiled a heavily revised ordinance to address restrictions on homeless camping in Portland, other commissioners are floating their own versions. Despite the various plans on the table, homelessness experts say none of the proposed ordinances get to the root of the problem, or offer solutions to fix it. Earlier this week, City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez released a draft version of an ordinance that was vastly different from the.
As Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Dan Ryan have fast-tracked a proposal to criminalize homeless camping and create mass encampments through City Council, few have discussed whether or not the plan would pass legal muster. A review of recent cases by attorneys familiar with laws regarding homelessness, however, finds that it might not. "No matter how popular criminalizing homelessness might become, it does not render it lawful," writes ACLU Legal Director Kelly Simon in a.
by Alex Zielinski • Mar 11, 2021 at 5:50 pm A photo from 2017 show Portland police officers with a now-dissolved gun violence team making a traffic stop. City of Portland
Mayor Ted Wheeler plans on asking his fellow city council members to okay $1.7 million in emergency city funds to immediately re-establish a police patrol similar to the dissolved Gun Violence Prevention Team (GVRT).
In a proposal sent to Wheeler s office by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), Assistant Chief Jami Resch (who had a brief stint as PPB chief in early 2020) suggested the team be comprised of 12 police officers and two sergeants, and be assisted by 5 detectives focused on gun violence crimes. These positions would be filled by reassigning current PPB officers and rehiring recently retired officers.