People working with the unhoused community respond to new homelessness response action plan

one day after mola County and the City of Portland announced their homelessness response action plan the debate about the plan begins well today the Commissioners in both governments got a detailed breakdown of the plan during a joint meeting but what do those who work with the homeless Community think about the plan we s foxw Conor McCarthy out to answer that question he's live now in Northwest Portland with more well Pete Andre today during that meeting City and County Commissioners generally

Express their support for this plan but there were some who questioned those ambitious goals that were laid out now I came here to Northwest 20th Avenue in Thurman to a homeless camp that I rep repeatedly reported on and you can see here behind me that it's been cleared out now people that I did speak to off camera claimed that there were no housing options given to them when they were told to move but they're hoping that this new plan will change that a hope for change but a fear among those ex

periencing homelessness that things will stay the same under the new homelessness response action plan I think the plan sounds great if it's functional Keith Zimmerman does outreach with the homeless community and at one point also struggled with not having a place to live he knows what it's like to work with a patchwork response to the crisis mul County in the city of Portland says this new plan will fix unifying all efforts by governments and organizations who are responding to this crisis I w

ould hope that there were a set of rules that every different organization followed including in the police so that people outside could know what's going on so they didn't get a different story from a different set of people on a different day all the time the plan also calls for an increase in shelter beds and beds for behavioral health treatment as well as an increased focus on getting more people into housing Zimmerman says he supports that but says during a sweep of an unsanctioned camp on

Northwest 20th Avenue in Thurman the people he works with say they were never offered a place to go for service or housing that we have a lot of funding and a lot of organizations in this city but actually making that happen in my experience was very difficult I worked for over 5 years in the field and I got a couple people house at a joint meeting with Mol county and Portland City commissioners elected officials got a briefing on the homelessness response action plan most applauded the plan but

commissioner Sharon myON expressed her concern with the county and the city's track record with previous plans and if this one will be successful this isn't rocket science yet despite the city and county investing billions of dollars into these plans since 1986 all of them have failed and left our city and county worse off more people dying on our streets say fool me once shame on you fool me twice and three times and four times shame on us there's a lot in in the plan um I'm I'm actually excit

ed to see that it's an ambitious plan Scott Kerman executive director of the Blane house says the homelessness response action plan is exactly what the community needs right now he says by targeting big ambitious goals where everyone is on board the county and City can accomplish a lot I'm feeling a sense that everybody's in the boat and we're rowing in the same direction and that hasn't always been true um uh I and I hope that this sense of of coordination and collaboration holds Zimmerman says

he is hopeful what has been put forth by the Region's leaders will result in change and ask those in the community to remember most of those who are experiencing homelessness are trying to turn their lives around like how he did if you're lucky enough to have a house and have money and have food and have water think about the fact that these are all human beings now Pete and Riel there are options for virtual Town Halls to weigh in on this action plan if you would like more information you can

go to our website kptv.com for now reporting live in northwest Portland Conor McCarthy Fox TR Oregon