Portland Council in favor of a homeless policy that ALLOWS ILLEGAL CAMPING on Public Property INDEFINATELY.

The Homelessness and Housing Committee*, indeed, the entire Portland City Council, has ignored the will and top political priority of most Portlanders and Oregonians: First, get all those illegally camping on public property removed from those properties. Second, provide immediate temporary shelter followed eventually by permanent Public Housing for the homeless as resources and the public mood and values will allow. Instead, the Councilors have chosen to resolve Portland’s homelessness problem, which is destined to get worse, by trying to assemble a number of shelter beds equal to the number of homeless by December 1, 2025. This “solution” presumes that ALL those illegally camping on public property are going to willingly move which, of course, is totally unrealistic. This approach is NOT what voters in Portland and throughout Oregon expect from elected officials in our state.

There is nothing newsworthy to report until at least one councilor (Smith?) makes a motion to direct the mayor to, Get all those illegally camping on public property removed from those properties by engaging both of the following:

A. Assisting homeless persons to find temporary or permanent shelter.

B. Moving those camping illegally on public property that refuse to go to a temporary or permanent shelter to a detention facility.

Since Homeless Policy is now fully under the control of the Portland City Council the mayor’s view to ALLOW ILLEGAL CAMPING on Public Property Indefinitely can be overridden by seven votes on the Council. Councilors who don’t support both of these actions can be easily identified as being in favor of a homeless policy that ALLOWS ILLEGAL CAMPING on Public Property Indefinitely. This was our previous two mayors’ policy and we know how that turned out.

To acknowledge the voters’ expectations the Portland City Council, NOT the mayor, is now obliged to remove all illegal camping on public property by December 1, 2025.

The Portland City Council has the money, the legal authority and a mandate from the people to get all those illegally camping on public property removed.

There are No More Excuses. Success or Failure on and after December 1, 2025 will be immediately observable by Portland Voters.

Richard Ellmyer

Portland resident since 1975.

Oregon Voter since 1971. NAV, Non Affiliated Voter. Citizen Activist.

Campaign manager and legislative assistant to state senator Bill McCoy 1980-1981.

Campaign manager and senior staff to Multnomah county commissioner Gladys McCoy 1981-1984.

Celebrate North Portland award 2016 for Volunteer Work and Service with Political and Social Issues Impacting North Portland.

Certified Oregon Change Agent by Governor John Kitzhaber 2011.

PSU Senior Adult Learner, Spring 2021 - Public Participation GiS, 500 level class

PSU Senior Adult Learner, Spring 2024 - Planning and Housing Markets, 500 level class

Author of more stories on the politics, players and policies of Public Housing in Oregon over the last twenty-three years than all other journalists and elected officials combined.

Project Champion and Data Wrangler - Metro/Oregon Public Housing Location Maps https://www.goodgrowthnw.org/m...

GIS for Activism conference, May 23, 2022, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Richard Ellmyer - How I, A Citizen Activist, Used GIS To Effectively Tell A Necessary Yet Unavailable Truth About Public Housing

30 minute Video https://media.pdx.edu/media/t/...

Lifelong Learning at PSU by Jennifer Jordan-Wong.

LET KNOWLEDGE SERVE THE CITY [Section] “Richard used a course he audited at PSU to create a citizen activist mapping tool to benefit Oregon residents, stakeholders, and policy makers…His interest in mapping as a tool for change began when he noticed that public housing was not being distributed equitably”

https://psucollegeofed.wordpress.com/2022/09/23/lifelong-learning-at-psu/?fbclid=IwAR3S9Pff0mBGeT6Ha8dQeAqL0nAqU7QzZ-0pJC_oTQJxBWlAb2fdXzdE0w4

Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Its target audiences are elected officials, journalists and civically engaged citizens. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus. Contributor: Patch news.

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