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The Portland City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday afternoon to approve a temporary lease for a homeless shelter on city-owned industrial property in Northwest Portland, but not before a lengthy and contentious discussion that prompted one commissioner to question his colleagues' common sense.
The vote means private developer Homer Williams can move forward with fundraising and planning for his proposed $100 million homeless campus at Terminal 1, a former staging area for Portland's Big Pipe sewer repair project.
Wednesday's action gives Williams six months to show he can make the project work, with the possibility of additional six-month extensions.
Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish objected vociferously to the plan, saying the city was moving to warehouse the homeless on contaminated land that would be better used for industry. The proposal is modeled after a 2010 center in San Antonio called Haven for Hope.
"The proposal before me today," Fish told colleagues, "fails my test of common sense and humanity."
Fritz sounded shaken in listing her objections. A former psychiatric nurse, she said vulnerable people should not be crammed into one big space with inadequate services such as temporary showers.
"I'm disappointed so much money is being put into a temporary thing, which puts people more at risk," she added.
Mayor Charlie Hales and commissioners Dan Saltzman and Steve Novick took the position that it's better to act than wait for the perfect solution to Portland's homeless crisis to come along.
Novick, for one, said he thought opponents made strong arguments against the so-called Oregon Trail of Hope. "There are better arguments," he said, "against allowing people to sleep on the streets."
Hales addressed another concern of colleagues and utility ratepayers, who purchased Terminal 1 for the Bureau of Environmental Services as it was completing the $1.4 billion Big Pipe sewer project, which ended in 2011 under Saltzman.
Fish, who now oversees BES, is in the process of selling the 14-acre property to recoup money for ratepayers.
Wednesday's proposal puts a stop to that, but Hales argued it does not jeopardize the city's commitment to spend ratepayer money only on ratepayer projects. The Portland Housing Bureau would pay BES to lease the land, although that payment could amount to less than what private buyers would pay.
In voting no, Fish said he didn't question his colleagues' commitment to ending homelessness or treating the homeless humanely. He said he had many unanswered questions about the city's plans for the shelter and its goals, though. "I question their judgment," he said.
Hales said he'd rather err on the side of action. "Above all," he said, "do something."
Willamette Week