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It’s been eight months since City Commissioner Dan Ryan pledged to open six “safe rest villages” across the city as an alternative to street camping. In that time, his office has selected only three locations. As the clock ticks on Ryan’s pledge, we examine the status of one of the three sites Ryan has selected.
Site: Menlo Park Park & Ride, a parking lot owned by TriMet.
Location: Southeast 122nd Avenue and East Burnside Street, in the Hazelwood neighborhood.
What’s there now: A mostly empty parking lot used by commuters to board the MAX Blue Line west to Hillsboro or east to Gresham.
Status: Safe rest villages communications liaison Bryan Aptekar says his team hasn’t yet requested permits from the city but has completed land survey work at Menlo Park.
Ryan’s office announced on Tuesday the site’s operator: Cultivate Initiatives, a nonprofit that works primarily in Southeast Portland.
Last week, Ryan’s office released a “request for proposals” to solicit contractors for two critical pieces of the sites: pod makers and architects who can design the sites to include plumbing and utilities, traffic flow and layout. His office will be seeking proposals for two weeks.
Who stands in the way: The Hazelwood neighborhood and business associations are skeptical. “We have legitimate concerns. Our attitude is, how many shelters do we have to have in Hazelwood till we’ve done our part? Before some other neighborhood has done their part?” says neighborhood association board member Ann McMullen, who adds there’s already a “concentration of really vulnerable populations competing for the same resources.”
The group asks that the village’s capacity be reduced from a maximum of 60 to 30 and campers already living within the neighborhood be given priority. McMullen says the city hasn’t agreed to either.
TriMet, which owns the land, is seeking a way out of the deal if the camp becomes unsafe for the neighborhood.
Spokeswoman Tia York says the finalized lease will “contain a clause where either party can terminate it by giving notice, or in the event the lease terms are breached. We have confidence that the village will be operated in a safe manner, but we need to be sure that we have options in case problems arise.” (Ryan’s office says this is a standard clause in many leases.)
What Ryan says: WW first reported last Thursday hat Mayor Ted Wheeler would implement an administrative rule that bans camping around the safe rest villages. Ryan and Wheeler released a joint statement Friday announcing the rule.
Ryan called it a “buffer” to help support people inside the villages and residents nearby.
The rule seems to have softened certain neighborhoods to the villages, such as the downtown stakeholder group for the rest site along Southwest Naito Parkway.
While McMullen feels the ban is a small step forward in Hazelwood, she’s not entirely appeased: “Fundamentally, we want the village to serve our neighborhood.”