Amanda Fritz Will Give You The Shoes Off Her Feet

Shelby Spencer, 18, and Josh Cole, 21, came to City Council today to ask Mayor Sam Adams to declare a state of emergency and create a new tent city to help address Portland's homeless problem. Spencer and Cole live in a tent themselves in a Portland park.

During her three minutes of testimony, Spencer told city commissioners that Cole, her boyfriend, couldn't join her inside council chambers because he wasn't wearing any shoes. A security guard had told the couple those were the rules. Apparently, shoelessness is a health hazard. No shoes, no shirts, no city visits.

But it was actually Spencer who showed up shoeless at City Hall. So Cole loaned his shoes to Spencer so she could testify.

After Spencer's talk, City Commissioner Amanda Fritz followed Spencer into the lobby, asked Spencer her shoe size (an eight) then walked into her office. When Fritz returned, she was holding a pair of white Nikes that looked like shoes a nurse might wear.

Both Spencer and Cole walked out of City Hall with shoes. No new tent city, however.