Eamonn Dundee, Director of Advocacy at the Pprtlamd Regional Chamber of Commerce, Spoke Effectively to the City Council, Mayor and City Manager This Evening at Their Failure to Addess the Issues For Which They are Responsible, .
One of the Many Opposed to Portland’s Failure to “Stop the Sweeps”
Speaker after speaker, about 25 of them in the 90 minutes permitted for public comment today, chastized some Portland city officials for not keeping campaign promises to solve the homeless crisis as they pledged to do – that despite the stated purpose of the meeting to focus on a proposal by city manager West to expand the already existing homeless shelter on Riverside Street – few speakers limited their comments to that stated purpose, .
Many believe that the city manager West and mayor Snyder believed that if they ignored the homeless crisis long enough, it would go away. No one would notice or care. Rather, it has only multiplied expotentially – leaving some city leaders voiceless and perplexed on what to do – offering mostly artificial platitudes to a complex problem.
Eammon Dundee, of the Portand Regional Chamber of Commerce, chastized new council members for not addressing homelessness as they had pledged to do in December. “The reason that is the only actionable proposal on the table is precisely because the council has not done the work to see through your goals and uphold your oaths,” Dundee charged. He further pointed out that the “council hasn’t voted on any proposal to address this crisis in our neighborhoods in months.”
Opposition to the brutal sweeps of the encampments of homeless people was on the mind of Terri McGuire who currently works on the Home Team van for Milestone Recovery. She told the council: “What struck me then and continues to amaze me now is the very tangible familiar community that the homeless bulld in and around each other to survive. These units are as strong if not stronger than any other family unit I’ve seen. This is survival and its imperative for them.” She went on to “implore” the council to treat these folks as humans, just as you do any other population in Portland that you serve I will be ASHAMED to call myself a citizen of this city if you continue to follow through with the harmful sweeps of homeless encampments, it’s cruel,” McGuire said.
“This Marginal Way encampment can’t exist any more,” said Scott Rousseau, Owner of “Pay it Again Sports, at 315 Marginal Way. He urged the council to do something about the Mardginal Way encampment. It is a very dense area now and there are lots of dangers there. “There are night fights and lots of dangerous people living there,” he said detailing some of the truly scary incidents his emplyees have experienced from the Marginal Way encampment.
“What is causing deaths is hoplessness, not fentanyl,’ said Matt Brown, of Hope Squad Maine. a volunteer street outreach program. In an emotional appeal to the humane side of city officials, Brown told them that the homeless population wants to be heard. “I don’t matter to anyone. Does bulldozing say you matter?”
One speaker, Lucy, who volunteers to help the homeless said: “We bring love to these people. We expect the best out of people who are in the worst times of their lives.”
“Sweeps only exacerbate bad situations. We just need love,” said Kevin Maris, who has been homeless much of his life.
“Portland is a city that has given up on finding housing for the homeless,” said State Representative Grayson B. Lookner, of District 113 at a recent rally at City Hall to “Stop the Sweeps.” For more background on this Rally, please visit post herein dated September 15, 2023.