Stop Homeless Camping in Portland

A police officer told a good friend of mine last month that San Francisco has a policy (and I assume) a budget to buy the homeless in their city one way bus tickets to Portland. It's cheaper for them to send us their problem than to deal with it in California. It is well known around the country that Portland will take care of the homeless who move here. We have invited the homeless here and created this terrible problem by rolling out the red carpet!! It's time to get tough! We built a $40 million building to house the homeless complete with cafe and yoga room! It made the Wall Street Journal including a photo. These people hitch hike across the country daily. A man who works with at risk youth in downtown Portland told me this. Again, we have invited this problem to our city!

Enforce the current laws on the books. Should be a no brainer for our "elected officials". Do your dam job!

Joan, You are a tax payer and that entitles you to abuse others? No, it does not work that way. Let me tell you how it works. There are around 4000 homeless people in Portland and thousands of others who live in poverty pay check to paycheck. The city and state receive in excess of 400 million dollars to care for those 4000 homeless and those living in poverty. That 400 million go's into the Portland economy and does more for people like you then it does for the people who need that money. That 400 plus million helps provide jobs for all of the hundreds of non-profit organizations and social service programs. It also provides rent for 14,000 poor people, rent that landlords collect. So when you pay your pittance of a tax, no body cares, so you can stop acting like your entitled to something. Those people living out doors often pay with their lives.

I am a citizen of Portland, and member of the 'taxpayer' citizens, who have for too long been a silent majority. We have worked so hard to make Portland a great place to live and work. It is beyond disheartening to see what has happened this last year. So much destruction and backward movement on the east side. Due to a lack of enforcement for homeless people breaking all rules and running roughshod over our neighborhoods we now have an unbelievable crime wave and destruction of property, trash and filth everywhere. I am not pushing for housing for people that do not want it. We must demand accountability from everyone. Drug addicts must commit to treatment options or leave. Mentally ill must commit to treatment and assistance, or leave. We must not be a national magnet for those who will not self-care at all.Building housing for homeless who do not want it is not an answer.

The homeless problem needs a solution. Perhaps transitioning the unused Wapato Jail or rent controls and attracting living wage jobs would be a better starting point than allowing vagrancy on the sidewalks. Put people to work. Offer mental health treatment and medication. Give people bus tickets back home. There are better ways to treat all the citizens than allowing camping/vagrancy on the streets which isn't healthy for anyone and encourages crime and makes walking down the street more dangerous for everyone.

Please put a stop to this. These are by and large not medically fragile or elderly persons. These are young men taking advantage of the good natured people of Portland!

FU your callous treatment of the most fragile members of society is not acceptable and you don't speak for me. People without permanent housing need our support not scorn. U should be ashamed of yourself.

you are a idiot and do not represent ALL of the residents of those neighborhoods.

The time has come to enforce our laws regarding camping on city streets, the associated rise in crime and "trashing of Portland."

It's hard to understand why we stopped enforcing one of our most basic laws. And now the inevitable spate of property crime seems to be descending upon us. The problem of dealing with homelessness is an historically difficult one but more or less encouraging people to set up camps and housing structures on any bit of sidewalk they can find is simply not doing one's job on the part of our city leaders.

I would add Lents and the Springwater Corridor.

I have lived in Sunnyside for 11 years and have seen this problem get worse. Every morning I see people sleeping on parking strips, even on quiet streets.

I want to support those who are struggling, it appears that many of these camps look more like anarchy. I'm proud of Portland, i want tourists to be safe here.

Stop the camping of homeless on our streets.

Day & night we have been harassed, intimidated and generally inundated with noise, filth, excrement and various forms of lawless behavior. With over 40 calls to the police in the last year, not one had ended in anything that even resembled resolve. This 'open' season for the excuse of homelessness to be a shield against civil behavior is an outrage. Our city government has failed us all.

Portland homeless problem is rapidly increasing and causing major concern for me as a local business owner and parent of young children. Please figure out a solution to this problem!

We have to lock our gates day and night. Many items have been stolen from our back yard. We regularly clean up feces. Our garbage is always torn open and tossed into the alley. I walk my dogs in the morning. Homeless are now sleeping on the parking strip in our neighborhood. One even had a unleashed pit bull. The homeless situation needs to be resolved. We should not have these p5roblems as our property taxes are so high.

Our once beautiful city has become a litter box for homeless campers. I have photos to prove it. THIS IS A SANITATION ISSUE. VILE, VILE VILE to allow camping with out bathrooms. ENFORCE OUR LAWS, PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF PORTLAND FROM THIS HORRIBLE HORRIBLE EXPERIMENT.

Enforce nuisance laws for everyone or no one at all and if you re going to make the street a campground add the outhouses. What a shame....

Time for a change.