Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, during an interview with OPB’s Dave Miller at Portland City Hall, Sept. 14, 2023.
Sheraz Sadiq / OPB
In May, the Portland city council passed an ordinance on public camping that allows the city to fine or jail people experiencing homelessness if they refuse shelter offered. The fine would be as high as $100 and jail time would be a maximum of seven days.
A month later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities do in fact have the right to penalize people living or camping on public property. Now, as the Portland Police Bureau attempts to make its first arrest under the ordinance and after the court decision, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office has said they will not use county jails to detain and penalize people who have no home.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined OPB’s “Think Out Loud” to discuss this issue and more. Here are the excerpts from the conversation.
On new ordinance, homelessness and disagreement with sheriff
“We have continued our enforcement mechanism. And the way we’ve done it … we take people to precinct, we hold them until we have all the paperwork we are allowed to do. But it is not the same as being booked into jail by the county sheriff. I did meet with the sheriff last week, we talked through potential differences. I do want the public to know that we are moving forward together and in the very near term have a path that is unified. “
“I wouldn’t say we’ve come to an agreement. I would say the sheriff asked us to provide additional data .. that I hope will convince her that this is not a heavy-handed approach.”
“I object to the language we are, in some way, criminalizing people for being homeless. We are criminalizing behaviors. To suggest stacking propane canisters next to an occupied home or blocking critical exits, or creating environmental or public health issues, is not a problem, I think, eliminates the reality that we, at the city level, are in the middle of all of this. We want to be compassionate and we have been compassionate in our approach, but we also have an affirmative obligation to maintain public safety, public health.”
Related: Portland unanimously passes new regulations for camping on public property
Is Portland ready to recriminalize drug possession?
“The Portland area does not have a fully baked solution, but the process is underway.”
“The Legislature, through House Bill 4002, recriminalized small amounts of drugs. If you are caught, you have two choices. You can go to what’s called deflection or be cited and arrested for possession. The deflection piece is what the county is working on now, they hope to have that up and operational soon. My personal view is that deflection without treatment is only a half approach. We need more treatment beds. We need places people can go when they’re ready for that treatment, but I think it’s good we’re getting the doors opened … but we also need to keep pushing for the sobering piece of this, the treatment piece of this needs to be there for this to be successful in the long term.”
The city’s new form of government
“I don’t say this very often, but it’s going better than expected. There are three goals we set at the beginning of this process. The first was to create a unified executive branch of government underneath an interim city administrator. To also create an effective legislative branch that is, as much as possible, mirrors the new form of government, focus on the city’s four priorities homelessness, public safety, livability and economic recovery. And between now and January, our third goal is to also find efficiencies and improvements in the way we conduct government. And in each of those three areas we have succeeded. We already have an executive branch up and operating. I took all the bureaus back, I have delegated a tremendous amount of authority to the city administrator and deputy city administrators, we are remaining focused.”
“We already have seen some wins in increased efficiency and improvements in government. Just in the few months we’ve been operating, we’ve seen improvements around emergency management, we’ve seen improvements around livability, we launched our Portland solutions program citywide. Things are going, from my perspective, very well. I believe that on Jan. 1, 2025, we will have no problems transferring this government over to the next mayor and next city council.”
Related: Portland is overhauling its voting system and government structure. Here’s what you need to know
On Intel and Nike layoffs, city economy
“It worries me tremendously, we put a lot of eggs in a very small basket with Nike and Intel. Our state’s economy would definitely be significantly, negatively impacted if either or both of those companies had a significant stumble.”
“We need to continue to diversify the economy. As I tell people often, Portland is one of the largest jurisdictions, largest cities, in America that has no Fortune 500 companies based within its city limits.”
Related: What layoffs at 2 major Oregon employers could mean for the state’s economic future
You can listen to the full conversation here: