Baltimore will continue housing about 500 homeless residents in hotel rooms through September, extending its emergency contracts while the city is exploring purchasing a hotel to house people long-term.
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Portland’s Mayor Asks Downtown Law Firms for Help With a Plan to Relocate People Sleeping in Front of Their Offices Sam Adams pitched managing partners last week. Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury offers a scathing review. DOWN AND OUT: The mayor’s office is enlisting the support of downtown law firms for a plan to move unhoused people to organized campsites. (Sam Gehrke) Updated 5:30 AM Last week, managing partners from 25 of Portland’s largest law firms assembled on Zoom to air their grievances about downtown homeless camps to Sam Adams. In reply, he made them a remarkable offer.
City Council votes stymie police responses and alternatives May 19 2021
Next year s budget will be reviewed on June 17 and take effect on July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.
Even though shootings and visible homelessness are increasing in Portland, the City Council rebuffed pleas from both the Portland police union and police critics when it tentatively approved a $5.7 billion budget for the next fiscal year on Thursday, May 13.
As a result, city residents will not immediately see a beefed-up response to gun violence or alternatives to police responses to 9-1-1 calls.
Before the unanimous vote on the total budget, Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner urged the council to increase funding for the Portland Police Bureau and to reinstate the Gun Violence Reduction Team that was abolished last year. In a morning press release, he blamed the record increase in shootings and killings on the team being abolished.
Pamplin Media Group May 18 2021
A perfect storm of money and creativity is coming together, but we must have solid metrics to measure success.
Clarification: An earlier version of this editorial was unclear on the source of Multnomah County funding for homeless services. The money budgeted for the 1,300 housing placements and alternative shelters is coming from the county s share of the Metro funds, not federal dollars. Federal dollars are supporting motels and other temporary shelters; the continued distribution of food, water, sanitizer and supplies; funding for Portland Street Medicine; funding for new hygiene facilities; and increases in eviction prevention rent assistance.
by Alex Zielinski • May 13, 2021 at 9:30 pm Kathleen Marie / Portland Mercury
Portland City Council voted against including funds in the 2021-22 city budget that would have allowed the city s Portland Street Response pilot program to expand citywide within the year.
Commissioners made the decision during a Thursday council meeting on Mayor Ted Wheeler s $5.7 billion proposed city budget, which Wheeler initially released on April 29. The Thursday meeting focused on amendments city commissioners want to see added to Wheeler s proposed budget. One of those amendments, proposed by City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, focused on putting $3.6 million towards Portland Street Response, a program housed within Portland Fire and Rescue that provides non-police emergency response to 911 calls related to mental health crises or regarding unhoused people. The program is currently operating as a pilot confined to a one-van team of four people, made