Portland and Gresham has been pushing the homeless around for 60 days. Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken to dozens of homeless people who have had their possessions taken by city workers and the police have come and given them hours or minutes or days to move. Where are we supposed to move to, they ask. We don’t care, the answer is, just go.
Some police have told some of the homeless to leave the city and if they come back, they will have them arrested.
Increasing the suffering of our poorest citizens increases the suffering of us all. Those of us who care about our homeless friends are suffering with them, and we have to supply them with blankets and tarps because the city has taken their supplies.
Call the mayor of Portland and let him know that we do not approve of our city causing the poorest of our citizens to suffer. Ask him to not tell the homeless to move on unless he has a safe place to move them to. You can’t legally tell them to not exist.
Call the mayor’s comment line today. Make a difference for the poorest in our community. 503-823-4127
If you live or work in Gresham, please contact the mayor of Gresham to ask him to stop the police from harassing the homeless for camping. Let him know that we want all our citizens to live in peace, and we would like the police to focus on real criminals.
Email Gresham’s mayor Shane Bemis at MayorBemis@GreshamOregon.gov.
Also, please contact Multnomah County. A large camp on county property has also been moved in the last couple weeks. If all the cities and the county are moving against the homeless, then the homeless are being told that they have no right to exist. This is illegal! Please provide places for the homeless to go before they are moved.
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