Councilor Green Advances Pathways to Housing, Hygiene, and Workforce Development

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(PORTLAND, OR.) - Portland City Councilor Mitch Green introduced the Care Package, a set of two budget amendments that would fundamentally reorient the City's response to homelessness. By investing in hygiene, workforce development, and pathways to housing these amendments will begin to draw down the failed approach of forced displacement of homeless Portlanders into overnight shelters by funding evidence-based pathways to care for both Portlanders and public spaces.

The amendments are a direct response to data showing 3,000 more people are now living on the streets since Mayor Wilson took office, and more than 80 reports alleging severe abuse and mismanagement inside the City's largest shelter contractor, Urban Alchemy.

The package represents what Councilor Green describes as, "the start of a course correction Portland can't afford to delay any longer. We need to listen to what service providers, research, and unhoused people have been telling us for years."

The first amendment in the package, dubbed the Proven Pathways to Housing amendment (Green 2), redirects $3 million from the current shelter budget to support and expand democratically governed micro-villages whose primary strengths are supportive operations personnel to nurture a functioning community. This model delivers better housing outcomes, higher resident satisfaction, better relationships with surrounding neighborhoods, and costs far less than the City's current shelter model.

The Sanitation, Hygiene, and Workforce Development amendment (Green 3) redirects $1 million from the City's homelessness sweeps budget into public bathrooms, free laundry services, litter collection and tent side waste collection services, and low-barrier job opportunities that meet people where they are. The amendment includes details that require cuts only be made to funding for camp clearances only and exempts cuts to programs this amendment is designed to fund.

"Constantly displacing and dispossessing traumatized people doesn't solve homelessness, it prolongs it," shared Councilor Green. "Instead of layering trauma on top of trauma, we can redirect these dollars to help people wash their clothes, use a bathroom with dignity, and take the first steps into work. We can address basic sanitation, and we can do it in a way that respects our shared humanity."

Councilor Green spent the last year in consultation with service providers, experts, and constituents who have long advocated for increased investments found in the Care Package, as they have been shown to ensure the health and dignity of people experiencing homelessness, alleviate environmental impacts, and benefit local businesses.

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