Baltimore city officials have extended emergency contracts with five hotels through the end of March next year to house roughly 500 homeless residents as they say they need more time to come up with a concrete plan to move the majority of them into two congregate living facilities in the city amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Updated: 6:22 PM EST Jan 1, 2021 Advocates in Baltimore are calling on city leaders to do more to help the homeless community.Members of Real Care Providers gathered Friday with homeless individuals in front of City Hall to present a list of demands that includes alternative housing and identified safe havens, access to therapeutic services, equal and fair opportunities for permanent, stable housing as well as employment opportunities.Members of the homeless community who spoke said the coronavirus pandemic has made things worse. This is a struggle not just for the COVID issues going on . this is an epidemic all over the United States, a member of the homeless community said. If we continue to watch our citizens die in the streets and be quiet, we re never going to have a resolution, said Christina Flowers, founder of Real Care Providers.The call to action comes after two women recently died at a homeless encampment. At that time, Mayor Brandon Scott released a statement
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
At a site in Southeast Portland, a crew erects the shelters fabricate by Everett based Pallet in December 2020. Each shelter can be put together in less than 30 minutes with bolts and wrenches. Here, the crew puts on a roof cap. Portland has purchased 100 of these shelters to go up at three organized camps that have had tents and are being winterized. (Hal Bernton/The Seattle Times/TNS)
Tiny, prefab homeless shelters popping up across US
PORTLAND, Ore. Sondra Brown spent four difficult years on the streets, and her struggles for a good night’s sleep did not end even last spring as she moved into a city-sanctioned organized camp in the heart of Portland’s Old Town. There were rats that bit holes in her tent, and in recent weeks, a bone-chilling cold would wake her up a half dozen times a night.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announces new bureau assignments for commissioners
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
Posted Dec 23, 2020
Mayor Ted Wheeler and Jo Ann Hardesty during a meeting of the Portland City Council. (Oregonian file photo)
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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Wednesday announced new bureau assignments for himself and the city’s four commissioners.
The assignments, which become effective Jan. 1, include new bureaus for returning council members Jo Ann Hardesty, who will now oversee the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Office of Community and Civic Life, and Dan Ryan, who will be in charge of the Portland Housing Bureau.
The assignments come after a shakeup in the 2020 elections, which seated three new city commissioners: Carmen Rubio, who won the seat held by retiring commissioner Amanda Fritz in May; Mingus Mapps, who defeated incumbent commissioner Chloe Eudaly in November; and Ryan, who was elected in August to finish the term of late commissioner N