Petition for City of Portland to Adopt a Compassionate Response to Homelessness

By Kyle Andrews

Ted Wheeler speaking to Police via Willamette Week 

A new petition has been started as a call for a more passionate response to homelessness. The petition was started by Portland’s Resistance, a progressive organization tackling any and all social justice issues. They are seeking 5,000 signatures to take to Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler in an attempts to steer funding towards housing instead of an increase of policing of homeless individuals. What the petition hopes to achieve is laid on the organization’s petition page. It states the following: 

We demand that Mayor Wheeler and the City Council:
- end the targeting of homeless people by the Portland Police.
- reduce the number of police and use the savings to increase access to transitional and permanent affordable housing, and mental health and addiction services.
- allow self-governing camps organized by unhoused people to address needs for shelter, community and safety.

The demands are claimed to be idealistic by some detractors, but the petition has a long list of notable donors and sponsors however it fails to provide research to reinforce their stance. With a little research I found multiple studies that have found a correlation between access to housing and a decrease in crime. Especially in reoffenders, which most of the arrests of the homeless in Portland are. A decrease in police however is perhaps a little harder to defend. As Portland’s  population continues to increase, as do the city’s problems. Though as recent statistics have shown, over half of the arrests in Portland were of those who were homeless. So perhaps the petition is a progressive step in the right direction. 

Click here to sign the petition.