As homeless camps are being demolished, many are asking about the poor during this holiday season. Portland’s mayor is considering what to do about the homeless population – especially those with mental health issues. Committing someone to a mental hospital is a tough process in Oregon. Some are asking to lessen the red tape it takes to get people help. This may avoid the tragedies that homeless people face during harsh weather.
The city is ramping up campsite removals in the Central Eastside in response to the mayor’s 90-day reset plan. Homeless camps cleared from Central Eastside, some not offered services in return. On the corner of Southeast 6th Avenue and Oak Street Portland’s Rapid Response teams cleared this site twice in one day. The plan is meant to clean up the neighborhood and increase police patrols. It’s in response to dozens of business owners calling on the mayor for help about two weeks ago citing safety concerns.
The Portland mayor has suggested easing the process to involuntarily commit people with mental health struggles. Oregon has long made it difficult to force people to get mental health treatment. One of the reset plans launched last March in Old Town saw temporary results and got 87 people into shelters.
Changing the process and lowering the standard for committing people would be a Herculean task both logistically and politically. It would require changing state laws and solving both a staffing shortage among both health care workers and law enforcement officers and a lack of capacity at the state mental hospital and residential treatment facilities.
Mayor Wheeler made a strong and heartfelt statement in supporting his idea to ease the process to place chronically ill people in medical care. “When I see people walking through the elements without appropriate attire, often naked, they are freezing to death, they are exposed to the elements … I don’t even know if they know where they are or who they are,” Wheeler told a room full of business owners recently, “They need help and they need compassion.”
