Street Roots • Jan. 8-14, 2016
Considering Wapato: A bad idea for the homeless
hen one advocate brought a petition to
A part of that process is identifying all of the
Street Roots and others in the
resources possible, including land and space for
community hoping to gather public
shelter and affordable housing to support people
support for the Wapato Jail, an empty facility experiencing
in
homelessness. Part of the shelter
far out North Portland, to be turned into a 525-
strategy is to locate services across a broad
bed homeless shelter, honestly, we didn’t think
geographical area to support people getting
that much about it.
inside. Concentrating those resources in Wapato
Months later that same petition has now been
would create a vacuum across the entire metro
adopted as a rallying cry by the Portland Business area.
Alliance and nearly 3,000 petition gatherers who
Since the homeless emergency was declared
think it’s an idea worth
this past fall, local government has added 160
considering. The Portland
temporary women’s shelter beds in Southwest
h WJk W !HE V
Tribune is now calling for an
Portland and 13 veterans’ shelter beds downtown.
*S m i h f l b a H
open forum to discuss the
In February, á new facility for family shelter in
possibility of Wapato being
East PorÜand/Gresham will open and 100 more
used as a mass shelter.
temporary shelter beds will be added downtown.
It’s a bad idea for many reasons, the biggest
The new beds were added with little front-end
being it’s in the middle of nowhere.
investment and will cost only a fraction of what it
The Wapato facility is 22 miles from Gresham,
would cost to get Wapato up and running. That
a city badly in need of more shelter. It’s 11.7
doesn’t even include ongoing operating
miles from downtown Portland.
costs.
The location of Wapato has
The location of
very limited transportation
If the community were to centralize
options. During the weekdays
Wapato has very our money and efforts into opening
there’s one bus line. It comes
Wapato as a mass shelter, it would not
limited
every hour and takes more than
only be a horrible investment strategy;
transportation
an hour to get to Wapato from
we would effectively be cutting off the
options.
During
downtown alone. During the
vast majority of people experiencing
the weekdays
weekends, there’s no service at
homelessness in Multnomah County.
there's one bus
all.
Did we mention there’s not one
Not to mention that Wapato’s
line. It comes
men’s homeless shelter in Beaverton?
location is completely isolated
every hour and
Not one. Meanwhile, Gresham and
from the rest of the community.
Milwaukie have few options for people
takes more than
There are no public businesses,
e x p e rien cin g h o m e le s s n e s s .
a n h o u r to g e t to
including a grocery or
Unfortunately, some, advocates and
W a p a to fro m
c o n v e n ie n c e sto re, for m iles. In
th e P ortland B u s in e ss A llian ce w o n ’t le t
d ow n to w n a lo n e .
fact, there’s nothing but
Wapato go.
industrial flatlands and
In a letter written to County Chair
greenspace around it. Siting a
Deborah Kafoury in November, the Portland
mass shelter at Wapato would be nothing short of
Business Alliance said, “We are gravely
warehousing the poor far, far away.
disappointed to receive the county’s memo
If that’s not enough for you, there’s more.
outlining perceived barriers to the use of Wapato
A report released in November by Multnomah
as a facility-based shelter with services.”
County, evaluating the possibility of Wapato being
The Portland Business Alliance goes on to say
used as a homeless shelter, says it would cost the
that the county should pay for the entire facility
county millions to release the county from the
and operations of the shelter and, while the
bond obligation and simply get the facility online
transportation issue isn’t ideal, “if services are
and operating: All of this with the expectation
offered onsite, the need for transportation options
that cash-strapped nonprofits and agencies would
will decrease.” They go on to say that exploring a
expend valuable resources - better spent on
direct needs - simply getting to the remote
shuttle option might work. Another cost to the
location and staffing an ill-furnished facility.
county, throwing good money after bad.
People argue that a roof and cot are still better
It’s a nightmare scenario.
than a tarp on the cold ground. Of course, but the
That’s not to say the Portland Business
fact is - were it not for neighborhood blowback on Alliance isn’t working on solutions to find more
locating a shelter facility - the roof and cot are'
shelter beds. In fact, just this month the Alliance
the easy part. It’s providing support and
worked with the city to help facilitate a new
empowerment, and repairing individuals and
temporary shelter to be opened downtown at
families after the trauma of the streets, that
Southwest Fourth Avenue and Washington Street.
demands the real investment toward ending
We appreciate the leadership.
homelessness.
With the homeless emergency being declared,
Currently, local government and nonprofits are
we have momentum on our side. Let’s harness
implementing a very complex plan called A Home
For Everyone. The plan has been bolstered by the our collective passion and resources to not only
do the right thing, but to do the smart thing.
homeless emergency, declared by the city of
Unfortunately, opening the Wapato jail as a
Portland and Multnomah County. It calls for an
mass shelter is bad policy and should be forgotten
additional $30 million in resources this upcoming
about. Let’s move on.
budget cycle.
■
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