City councilors are set to consider an amendment to the city budget Wednesday that would reallocate more than $4 million from a homeless encampment removal program to food assistance, refugee support and housing efforts.
State of play: The amendment, sponsored by progressive Councilor Angelita Morillo, would cut $4.3 million from the Impact Reduction Program’s $16.7 million budget.
- “The Mayor’s plan to continue sweeping our unhoused neighbors is not only morally bankrupt, it is empirically a failure,” Morillo said in a statement. “Do we want to further traumatize and destabilize people, or do we want to stabilize them with the direct aid they need right now?”
- Morillo said shifting the funds from camp removals to food assistance was imperative as the federal government shutdown has delayed SNAP benefits to thousands of Oregonians.
Between the lines: Wednesday’s vote comes after Wilson began enforcing the city’s camping ban earlier this month, creating tension between him and some local officials who accused him of criminalizing poverty.
- Wilson has at the same time been working to add hundreds of shelter beds in Portland to fulfill a campaign promise of ending unsheltered homelessness by the end of the year.
- He urged residents to ask their councilors to oppose the amendment.
Yes, but: Morillo disputed the mayor’s claims…