As a nation, our hearts bleed for the misfortune of the homeless — but in the case of misguided liberals, they let their emotion get in the way of common sense.
In February, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales announced a “safe sleep” law would go in effect for vagrants in the Oregon city that restricted their police officer’s ability to move or disturb sleeping homeless people on the streets.
Liberal advocates said that being nicer to the homeless was more important than letting the cops do their jobs and keep the streets safe.
And predictably, they were disastrously wrong. Homeless camps exploded throughout the city, and with it came a spike in violence, drug use, and other issues.
On Tuesday, just months after pushing the idea into law, Hales announced the immediate end of pilot program.
The so-called “Safe Sleeping Guidelines” policy will end, but several other pilot programs that also were rolled out in February in the famously liberal City of Roses will continue or even expand, the mayor said in a phone interview.
“The ‘safe sleep’ policy was well intended, but it created a lot of confusion and maybe some accidental or deliberate misunderstandings,” Hales said. “It was never intended to legalize (street) camping.”
Critics say it was worse than that. A recent Oregonian article’s headline, “Violent attacks amid seasonal rise in homeless population raise tension in city,” seems to tell a different story that Hales “misunderstandings”.
Portland’s safe sleeping policy allowed homeless people to unroll a sleeping bag or unfurl a tarp between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. on city sidewalks and allowed camping in some specific areas of the city.
When Hales announced it in February, it drew immediate criticism.
Neighborhood and business groups, including the Portland Business Alliance, sued. The Willamette Week, the city’s alternative weekly, sent a team of reporters to test the policy by pitching tents on the sidewalk in front of Hales’ home and the homes of other elected officials.
The policy was supposed to be a temporary measure while the city worked to create more temporary housing and dovetailed with the city’s declaration of a state of emergency for homelessness. Portland has about 1,800 homeless people and needs 1,000 shelter beds, Hales said.
A coalition opposing the policy, Safe & Livable Portland, dropped their pending lawsuit following Hales announcement and added they wouldn’t seek further legal action against the city.
“Mayor Hales’ policy failed, in part, because he ignored the voices of the affected Portland residents, neighborhood communities and businesses,” the coalition said in a statement. “We look forward to a renewed focus from the City to include the community in finding effective ways to offer safe, long-term housing and support for those experiencing homelessness.”
Police will still practice compassionate enforcement of street sleeping, “recognizing that the city doesn’t have enough shelter beds for everyone and some people have to sleep outside,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
As proven here in Boston and in San Francisco, once “progressives” move into a working class area, rents rise, the poor are displaced and homeless folks appear.
Liberalism is a Mental Illness!
If the number of homeless in Portland is 1800, shouldn’t the number of shelter beds equal that? What is Portland doing to get these homeless employed and off of the streets?
One mistake, that people make is to assume the homeless want to work. I had a job that put us in direct contact with some of the areas homeless. When offered $8.00 an hour to do some light work, most would work only long enough to buy their favorite tonic. When offered a daily job it was refused immediately as it would cramp their style which they are happy with.. When the bleeding heart liberals donate clothes or other items such as bus passes, these same people sold the free stuff to obtain drugs or more tonic. A lot of the homeless will stay homeless as that is what they want as they have learned how to obtain a easy lifestyle from the way things are donated or they are able to steal. The homeless shelter feeds them and houses them at night if they want it. The homeless shelters keep expanding bigger and bigger, if it was not for the homeless, the shelters management would need to get real jobs instead of living off of the Govt. money and donations that keep the shelters alive.
Many of those homeless do not want to live in a clean,safe,place. They prefer the streets and refuse to go to a place where they will have food, clean rooms, bath and a bed. Here in Miami now the city is setting mobile restrooms cabinets in the streets, but is not legal to move them out of the streets. Democracy is a great mode of government, but is affected by plenty of abuse.
Communist Progressive Democrats, They’re losers, They are the Crime Party
Idiot libtards. What did they think would happen?All these homeless people would gather nightly and have kumbaya moments?People with common sense warned the dipshit mayor but no,he knows what’s best for “his” community.
I figured they’d all get together and trade daily tips about their job search, that day, and available opportunities for others to take advantage of- that didn’t quite fit with their particular skill set.
Vote the bastard out or better yet have a recall.
Giving the “homeless” more freebies just gets you more homeless. Do these idiot politicians not understand economics?
Seattle has a real problem too!
Liberalism is a mental disorder. And there is NO CURE
The most amazing part is they are surprised it didn’t work.
What is scary is that they are REALLY and TRULY surprised! Liberalism IS a mental disorder because, Lord knows, I’ve tried to talk basic common sense with some and it’s infuriating how stupid they are……..
Street sleeping, welfare, etc. are acts of charity and the govt is not and never will be a charity minded org. The fundamental flaw with govt “charity” is it creates dependency. People get something for free and abuse it and don’t want to lose it. It even becomes owed to them because they are victims, poor, disadvantaged. This is part of the fallen nature of humans. Govt ‘”charity” actually is financial exploitation of taxpayers by elected officials. And Obamacare is a very expensive example of working people by the party of blame and patronage,
“working people exploitation”
TOLD YOU SO! The left likes to point out problems and then expects others to correct them, the catch word is OTHERS. The left is filled with GOOD INTENTIONS AT OTHERS EXPENSE. It is what the let wing, radical, extremist, entitlement minded, slow to reason, mindless slobbering troll does.
Free loaders, stop feeding them and treat them as adults! If a person is able bodied but doesn’t want to work, tell them to hit the bricks! The welfare should be done locally, by local leaders. Get the federal gov out of welfare!
My wife and I went into Portland…..at a Walmart to park for the night….A policeman came up to us and said we could not park our RV in the city limits, as Portland had a ban on it due to the Homeless…He stated we would have to go to a subburb and park …..What Happened…from 10 years ago until now??? Orange County, California has the same law…also Apache Junction, AZ…NO RV Parking….they do not want the homeless……
Don’t patronize such places, especially given that their rules upset you, and other places, more acceptable to you, are available.
Some people can only learn the hard way.This might be acceptable,if only such persons above referenced were to suffer. Unfortunately, the harm is quite wide spread.
Poor liberals…they’ll never learn. Instead of teaching personal responsibility to children in school, they teach them to go after whatever is free, Let someone else pay for your stuff, your food, your housing, your clothes and then give them the run of the city and see what happens. They’ll take advantage of you liberals all the time. It’s about time you woke up to the real world…tell these people to get a job!!
These people not only need a place to sleep but a job as well. A rise in the number of homeless indicates a rise in the number of unreported jobless as well.
Maybe the mayor should focus on helping the homeless people find jobs and a place to live. The homeless would be safer if the city tried to find places for them to stay, even if it was in a warehouse. Each homeless person could be provided a cot and a locker to store their possessions in. An effort could be made to help these people get back on their feet.
they first have to want to get back on there feet!!!!!
AMERICA’S FUTURE, STARTED BY OBAMA, AND WILL BECOME WIDESPREAD UNDER Hil-LIAR-y! THIRD-WORLD AMERICA!
in the past 10 years or so Portland has bought and remodeled into apartments about 12 six to eight story buildings in which to house the homeless. They may soon realize other homeless folks around the country have learned of tis and are flocking to Portland. Liberals never learn. I talked with a nice homeless man about 15 years ago in Portland. He was camped in a camouflaged site near the Portland zoo in the woods. He ws a Vet, and had a day job in town, and a bike for transportation. He was saving up his money till he could afford “standard” living quarters. I had a lot of respect for HIM! Not all are useless, and some are practical.
I’d like to see the mayor and his liberal minions relegated to homelessness.
What person in their right mind thinks it’s o.k. to confiscate what is produced by one person and give it to somebody that doesn’t give a rat’s ass where it comes from? It’s time to take the country back from these liberal boneheads, but it may already be too late.
It,s called communism, let these liberals live in a communist country for a while and see how they feel afterwards.
If the economy and employment were actually as good as the socialist claim there would not be so many homeless.
The homeless also defecate on the streets, overpasses, underpasses and sidewalks. Put them into fenced work camps, where the few that want to get off the streets can earn their way out of poverty.