As Portland Mayor Keith Wilson approaches his goal of opening 1,500 new overnight shelter beds by Dec. 1 and as the city is set to resume enforcement of its camping ban on Saturday, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson is offering candid thoughts about the city’s rapid expansion of beds, roughly half of which have lain empty in recent weeks.
Vega Pederson tells WW that she “admires Mayor Wilson’s ambition,” but that “we may not need to bring on all of what he envisioned by December if it’s not safely and effectively serving people.”
The chair said she wants to work with Wilson to “troubleshoot how to fill these vacant beds before opening more overnight shelters—actions we should take when there are signs that something isn’t working right.”…