- Compassion 4 Homeless PDX
Mayor Ted Wheeler says he agrees with most of what we said during City Council Testimony, 10/3/18
On October 3rd we presented our petition with more than 4000 signatures plus a wide range of co-sponsors from social justice, civil rights, and homeless advocacy groups. Street Roots vendors Leo Rhodes and Annette Johnson testified about their own experiences with addiction and the difficulties they face on the streets of Portland when the community and the police view them as criminals. Kimberly McCullough, policy director at the ACLU, spoke about the common-sense solutions that we can work on together as a community without criminalizing the homeless through over-policing. Sarah Iannarone spoke about the problems created by hiring more police and directing them to sweep homeless encampments and crackdown on low-level offenses. Elliott Young presented the petition and made five recommendations that the city could enact immediately or in the near future (see below).