From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

They are doing something. So that probably beats Seattle,
who spends lots of money with nothing good to show.

from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/one-year-in-hows-portlands-radical-shift-on-homelessness-going/

One year in, howrCOs PortlandrCOs sharp turn on homelessness going?
Jan. 17, 2026 at 6:00 am Updated Jan. 17, 2026 at 6:00 am

A tiny house village in North Portland, pictured in September. A new
mayor swept into Portland last year, pledging to stand up 1,500 units of overnight emergency shelter, fast, and coerce people off the streets.
One year in, here’s what happened. (Mark Graves / The Oregonian)
A tiny house village in North Portland, pictured in September. A new
mayor swept into Portland last year, pledging to stand up 1,500 units of overnight emergency shelter, fast, and coerce people off the streets.
One year in, here’s what happened. (Mark Graves / The Oregonian)

Danny Westneat By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
A year ago I wrote a column headlined rCLPortland goes where Seattle wonrCOt on homelessness.rCY

That story was about how a trucking company CEO had unexpectedly swept
into the mayorrCOs office on a bold pledge to rCLend street homelessness.rCY

His plea to the public was: LetrCOs rCLtreat the crisis on the street like a crisis.rCY He said herCOd stand up 1,500 units of shelter, fast, as if a natural disaster had struck. Then herCOd enforce a camping ban to try to compel people inside, while sprucing up PortlandrCOs public spaces, all in
one swoop.

Something had to be done, Keith Wilson argued, because rCLPortland has normalized homeless encampments.rCY His approach though was a type of rCLenforced compassionrCY that has been anathema in progressive West Coast cities, including Seattle.

So one year later, howrCOs it going in Portland?

The city actually stood up the shelter, which by itself is startling. By December, as promised, the mayor and various volunteer groups had added
about 1,200 beds of overnight shelter, plus another 400 or so rCLflexrCY
beds (locations where beds can be added if needed). It more than doubled
the cityrCOs shelter system in less than a year.

ItrCOs rCLa major political victory for Wilson, one many political watchers doubted herCOd achieve,rCY The Oregonian newspaper noted.

rCLHe has opened these shelters and gotten them going with a success that
has surprised me, because IrCOm not used to seeing that kind of follow through,rCY one nonprofit provider said.

The paper quoted an onlooker on how foreign it felt in their perpetually bogged-down city to see rCLan elected official actually accomplishing a
goal they set out for themselves.rCY

Seattle can relate. WerCOve had a string of mayors break promises on homelessness, particularly around shelter. The newest one, Katie Wilson,
has the most ambitious plan of all: 4,000 units in four years.

Back to Portland. Is the new shelter helping?

The city reports that 3,174 people used the shelters in 2025, meaning
they spent at least one night there. (Some spent more than a hundred
nights.) ThatrCOs roughly half of the cityrCOs unsheltered population coming inside for at least a bit, which in the first year is an enormous accomplishment.

It isnrCOt enough, critics said.

rCLHe opened shelter beds, sure,rCY one City Council member told OPB. rCLBut thatrCOs not the same as ending unsheltered homelessness.rCY

A system of shelter beds rCLpays to continue peoplerCOs homelessness without investing in the rent assistance and peer support and supportive
services needed to end peoplerCOs homelessness.rCY

ItrCOs more rCLabout hiding homeless people from housed Portlanders than
about helping them,rCY a former supporter of the mayor scathingly said.

The Portland Democratic Socialists chapter went further, demanding an investigation into rCLwhether the mayorrCOs office wasted millions of
taxpayer dollars to prop up a temporary shelter system that was designed
to fail.rCY

But it was the second prong of the effort, enforcing the cityrCOs camping
ban, that proved the most controversial rCo as well as most eye-opening.
When it began Nov. 1, the local alternative paper was startled at what happened.

In the first five days, police and outreach workers contacted 101 people
in unauthorized camps. It turned out 39 had outstanding arrest warrants.

rCLThatrCOs a remarkable figure,rCY Willamette Week reported.

rCLWerCOve found far more people than we expected rCyhiding in plain sightrCO with open warrants,rCY Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Zajonc said when I
asked how the effort was going. rCLFor some, resolving the open warrant is also an opportunity to resolve the issues keeping them on the streets.
Others must be held accountable for preying on our community.rCY

At the last report, in mid-December, 540 people had been contacted at
Portland encampments, with 111 of those accepting help and moving into shelter, at least temporarily. ThatrCOs 20% coming inside rCo better than zero, but still not great. No one got arrested solely for camping,
though 20 people rCo 4% of the total rCo were given tickets. Another 388 got warnings.

But a total of 124 people out of the 540 had arrest warrants. It shows
the degree to which some unauthorized encampments really have become rCLmagnets for crime,rCY as a former Seattle City Council member told me
years ago.

The Portland mayor defends what herCOs doing, but also has agreed with
many of the criticisms. ItrCOs true it doesnrCOt solve homelessness. If getting people up and off the streets and out from under bridges is what
is meant by rCLhiding homeless people from housed Portlanders,rCY then herCOs for it.

rCLThe goal is to always have enough beds to provide care when somebodyrCOs ready to come inside,rCY Wilson told The Oregonian.

He added the premise now is to keep going, while adding more services to
the shelters and more affordable housing overall.

Would this fly in Seattle?

We may be about to find out, though probably without the police-led
camping enforcement. New Mayor Katie Wilson signed an executive order
this past week rCLto rapidly expand and expedite new emergency shelters
and transitional encampments.rCY ItrCOs part of her stated goal for 4,000 shelter units rCo using outreach teams to then lure people inside, rather
than enforcement.

IrCOm rooting for her but am worried. Ours is a city that has let hundreds
of tiny houses sit empty for years while people died in the streets rCo
just one example of how little urgency thererCOs been for taking a crisis approach. Maybe she can shift that, but at two weeks on the job, itrCOs
way too early to tell.

Portland may not be any closer to truly ending homelessness. Rather, the
city seems to be doing what it can to help people survive, like a form
of medical triage. ItrCOs giving them an opportunity, but not an answer.

Are the critics right that this is just a palatable way to accept
defeat? Or are the societal forces driving homelessness so titanic that
doing what you can is maybe the most a city can do?

Best of luck, Katie Wilson. If itrCOs any help, our sister city Portland
seems to be way ahead of us in grappling with these existential questions.

Danny Westneat: dwestneat@seattletimes.com. Danny Westneat, a metro news columnist at The Seattle Times since 2004, takes an opinionated look at
the Puget Sound region's news, people and politics.
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