‘OPB Politics Now’: Portland’s continuing struggle over homelessness policies

This was another frustrating week for people hoping to see Portland leaders get their arms around the city’s homelessness problem.

Mayor Ted Wheeler abandoned, for now, his plan to get tougher on drug use. A new report said the Portland Street Response program is successful — and then questioned the city’s commitment to its future success. And the head of that program resigned for reasons that remain murky.

On this week’s show OPB editor Anna Griffin and city reporter Alex Zielinski explain what this complicated week of news means for the city’s approach to its most intractable problem and its plans to impose a ban on public camping later this month.