Five severe weather shelters in Multnomah County will open at 8 pm Tuesday as the region braces for freezing overnight temperatures. Portland is expected to hit a low of 19 degrees Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. Multnomah County opens severe weather shelters if temperatures drop below 25 degrees, forecasts predict overnight temperatures below 32 degrees with rain, or if there is an inch of snow. The following locations will open February 22.
Portland’s homeless shelter providers will be the first to tell you that building more shelters is not the solution to ending the city’s homelessness crisis. “It doesn't end homelessness. It relocates it,” says Andy Miller, director of nonprofit shelter provider Human Solutions. “We always favor permanent housing over short-term shelter.” That’s why some of the region’s top shelter providers have come out strongly against a seemingly slapdash proposal from Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office to relocate.
This article was produced as a collaboration between Bolts and the Portland Mercury. Anthony Pickens’ best memories from his 24 years in Oregon prisons involve voting. From the mock presidential elections held every four years to the elaborate campaigns he ran to win leadership roles in prison clubs, Pickens’ experience with the democratic system behind bars brought entertainment, exhilaration, and a sense of community to an otherwise bleak environment. But Pickens’ vote didn’t count outside.
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) will lift Oregon’s indoor mask requirement no later than March 31, the agency announced Monday. The OHA expects hospitalizations will be low enough by the end of March that eliminating the mask requirement will not overwhelm the state’s hospital system. “This announcement today is a testament to your collective efforts to stem the tide of the virus throughout the course of this pandemic,” state epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger said in a.
A massive, earthquake-induced oil spill in Portland’s Northwest industrial zone could cost upwards of $2 billion in damages and clean up costs, a county and city report found. Regional officials are using this new data to build a case for why the oil tank owners should be liable for the costs while state legislators are proposing a bill to mitigate the disaster. The Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub is a six mile tank farm located.