Link to Portland resignation regarding the plan

In another chapter of the city of Portland’s protracted struggle to address homelessness, a senior policy advisor for Commissioner Dan Ryan resigned the night before Ryan and Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a controversial plan to construct compulsory mass encampments for homeless Portlanders Oct. 21.

Portland City Council approved the plan Nov. 3, which also included banning unsanctioned homeless encampments.

In an email obtained by Street Roots via public record request, Margaux Weeke, Ryan’s then-communication director and senior policy advisor, announced her intent to resign in response to the proposed ban “due to a moral conflict.”

“It is my strong belief that forcing hundreds of unhoused people into large, sanctioned camping sites with minimal services will cause irreparable trauma and unnecessary deaths,” Weeke wrote. “I am deeply concerned that the involvement of law enforcement in relocating unhoused people to sanctioned camps will result in violence and the further criminalization of houselessness. I hope that I am wrong, but I cannot in good conscience work to advance this initiative in partnership with the Mayor’s office. I appreciate your understanding of my position.”

NYC to involuntarily commit more homeless people.

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t support the hubs of criminal chaos these cities have become.

I support the creation of mass camps and at will involuntary hospitalizations less, though, given what they have been used for in the past.