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[alternativeshelternetwork] new PDX homelessness resolutions, & Weds 2pm hearing: time for Alt Shelter Network to step up?

Sermin Yesilada <sermin_yesilada@...>

Hi Tim,

Thanks for forwarding the list. I didn’t realize that I did get signed up to speak, so thank you, now I can prepare!

Below is a copy of the testimony I sent via email. I haven’t timed it or practiced yet, but am thinking about expanding on the alternative shelter types and my related professional experience in my 2 minute allotment. There are others who are better positioned to speak on the camping ban and sweep issue. I could describe some of the remaining hurdles to developing alternative shelters from a regulatory/construction standpoint? Would that coordinate well with your testimony, Tim?

Copied written testimony sent, FYI:

Dear Mayor Wheeler and City Commissioners,

I am writing in response to the proposal for creating 500-person emergency shelter campgrounds for the City of Portland’s homeless population. While I appreciate the urgency behind this proposal and the political will to address this as a humanitarian crisis, I am concerned about the process and logistics involved.

First, I do not support criminalizing unsanctioned camping. Arrests further traumatize the houseless, punish people for mental illness and addiction, which is a disease, and make it all the more difficult to find housing and work due to criminal records. We need mental health workers, addiction treatment centers, and social workers, not more interaction with the criminal justice system for people suffering on our streets.

Second, while I support the efforts to increase shelter capacity, sanctioned and supported camping, and affordable housing supply, I strongly disagree with the plan to congregate hundreds of people in mass campsites. While mass shelters work for some, many of our houseless community have spoken out about how unsafe they feel in mass shelters and about the traumatic experiences they have had at them. Instead, I urge you to listen to the organizations that serve the houseless and the people with lived experience. Support the solutions they have already identified that work. We need a network of smaller scale emergency housing types such as:

1. Sanctioned RV parking lots for temporary/emergency living

2. Self-governed villages like Dignity Village

3. Managed villages like the Kenton Women’s Shelter, Beacon Village, Agape Village, and more

4. Safe Rest Villages - let’s get these finished and operating! The Multnomah Safe Rest Village is working well

5. Additional warming shelters for winter and cooling shelters for summer

6. Motel and vacant building conversions to transitional housing

These need to be located equitably around the city to meet people where they are and to bring all our neighborhoods together in addressing this crisis. Let’s work with the communities, service providers, and people experiencing houselessness in each area directly to identify the solutions that work best.

We also need funding that supports the groups working on establishing these sites. The process for applying for these grants is slow and cumbersome. I support calls to streamline the Joint Office of Homeless Services’s contracting, procurement, and grant processes.

I would like to add that in our efforts to increase the affordable housing supply that you consider Tiny House on Wheels RV camping as an additional typology for household and group living. Existing non-profits are working to build the supply of quality Tiny Houses on Wheels. We just need land to place them. Vacant and underused parking lots can be easily converted into small scale RV campgrounds. Just like we have food cart pods, land owners could rent space to create Tiny House on Wheels villages. Mobile home parks are one of the fastest disappearing forms of affordable housing as landowners sell or redevelop their lots into more profitable developments. I urge the City of Portland to consider infill Tiny House on Wheels parks as an option to help replace the lost stock of mobile home parks.

Thank you,

Sermin Yesilada, IIDA AIA LEED AP BD+C

Principal/Founder

Sosyal Architecture and Community Development, LLC

Show quoted text

On Oct 25, 2022, at 6:34 PM, Tim McCormick <tmccormick@...> wrote:

What shall I say? I'm signed up early in the list to testiify at the City Council public hearing tomorrow afternoon, about the 5 new housing/homelessness resolutions released by Mayor Wheeler on Friday. For the resolutions, and video of this and Friday press conference (pictured below), see https://www.portland.gov/council/agenda/2022/10/21, Weds 2pm meeting, items 899-903.

What might be useful, in the 2 minutes I have? Perhaps: offer and position Alternative Shelter Network as credible, constructive, useful resource to help research, compare, discuss, & disseminate good responses?

I'd like to be able to state some simple, clear pointer like URL "alternativeshelter.net" and make Council members, staff, and publics feel they should note this down, it is something helpful and relevant, and they ought to go there and e.g. bookmark it / sign up for notifications / join mailing list.

From precedent, I'd predict that public comments will be polarized and mostly non-constructive: either condemning the City's ideas for campuses and enforcement, or reiterating the harms of unsanctioned camping. Ideally, a public comment would stand out from this, promote later constructive engagement with Council members & other leaders, and express openness to different ideas/proposals.

Suggestions welcome.
thanks, Tim

Bcc: Shelter Now core team members.

--
Tim McCormick
Housing Alternatives Network
http://housingalternatives.net
+1 503.334.1894.
Video: meet.tmccormick.org
tmccormick.org/ / @tmccormick

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Sharon Meieran <sharon.meieran@...>

#830

Tim,

Thank you for elevating this and for your suggestions! I will be testifying, and your suggestions (also Skip and Sermin) are extremely helpful. I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of much of the testimony being potentially polarizing and not constructive, and the opportunity to stand out and offer guidance, assistance and support in promoting a true ecosystem of shelter that meets many different needs, and positioning the Alt Shelter Network as a true resource and opportunity. I will mention briefly in my testimony (not sure how much briefer I can be within two minutes of testimony...) and you and others can speak as experts. There will likely be hundreds of folks testifying, and it will be challenging to listen to some of the louder and less kind voices, but I would encourage a significant showing from this group, and coordinate messages if possible so they are complementary. Thank you again!

Warmly,

Sharon

p.s. Different subject: There will be an East County Mental Health Resource Forum at noon today at Wood Village City Hall (hybrid, so virtual or in person). All who are interested in this topic are welcome! For any questions please contact Tabitha or Cristina from my office, they are copied in this email.

Sharon Meieran, MD, JD

Multnomah County Commissioner, District 1

Email: sharon.meieran@...

Phone: (503) 988-5220

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or my MultCo webpage

On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 12:19 AM 'Sermin Yesilada' via Alternative Shelter Network <alternativeshelternetwork@...> wrote:

External -

Hi Tim,

Thanks for forwarding the list. I didn’t realize that I did get signed up to speak, so thank you, now I can prepare!

Below is a copy of the testimony I sent via email. I haven’t timed it or practiced yet, but am thinking about expanding on the alternative shelter types and my related professional experience in my 2 minute allotment. There are others who are better positioned to speak on the camping ban and sweep issue. I could describe some of the remaining hurdles to developing alternative shelters from a regulatory/construction standpoint? Would that coordinate well with your testimony, Tim?

Copied written testimony sent, FYI:

Dear Mayor Wheeler and City Commissioners,

I am writing in response to the proposal for creating 500-person emergency shelter campgrounds for the City of Portland’s homeless population. While I appreciate the urgency behind this proposal and the political will to address this as a humanitarian crisis, I am concerned about the process and logistics involved.

First, I do not support criminalizing unsanctioned camping. Arrests further traumatize the houseless, punish people for mental illness and addiction, which is a disease, and make it all the more difficult to find housing and work due to criminal records. We need mental health workers, addiction treatment centers, and social workers, not more interaction with the criminal justice system for people suffering on our streets.

Second, while I support the efforts to increase shelter capacity, sanctioned and supported camping, and affordable housing supply, I strongly disagree with the plan to congregate hundreds of people in mass campsites. While mass shelters work for some, many of our houseless community have spoken out about how unsafe they feel in mass shelters and about the traumatic experiences they have had at them. Instead, I urge you to listen to the organizations that serve the houseless and the people with lived experience. Support the solutions they have already identified that work. We need a network of smaller scale emergency housing types such as:
1. Sanctioned RV parking lots for temporary/emergency living
2. Self-governed villages like Dignity Village
3. Managed villages like the Kenton Women’s Shelter, Beacon Village, Agape Village, and more
4. Safe Rest Villages - let’s get these finished and operating! The Multnomah Safe Rest Village is working well
5. Additional warming shelters for winter and cooling shelters for summer
6. Motel and vacant building conversions to transitional housing

These need to be located equitably around the city to meet people where they are and to bring all our neighborhoods together in addressing this crisis. Let’s work with the communities, service providers, and people experiencing houselessness in each area directly to identify the solutions that work best.

We also need funding that supports the groups working on establishing these sites. The process for applying for these grants is slow and cumbersome. I support calls to streamline the Joint Office of Homeless Services’s contracting, procurement, and grant processes.

I would like to add that in our efforts to increase the affordable housing supply that you consider Tiny House on Wheels RV camping as an additional typology for household and group living. Existing non-profits are working to build the supply of quality Tiny Houses on Wheels. We just need land to place them. Vacant and underused parking lots can be easily converted into small scale RV campgrounds. Just like we have food cart pods, land owners could rent space to create Tiny House on Wheels villages. Mobile home parks are one of the fastest disappearing forms of affordable housing as landowners sell or redevelop their lots into more profitable developments. I urge the City of Portland to consider infill Tiny House on Wheels parks as an option to help replace the lost stock of mobile home parks.

Thank you,

Sermin Yesilada, IIDA AIA LEED AP BD+C
Principal/Founder
Sosyal Architecture and Community Development, LLC

On Oct 25, 2022, at 6:34 PM, Tim McCormick <tmccormick@...> wrote:

What shall I say? I'm signed up early in the list to testiify at the City Council public hearing tomorrow afternoon, about the 5 new housing/homelessness resolutions released by Mayor Wheeler on Friday. For the resolutions, and video of this and Friday press conference (pictured below), see https://www.portland.gov/council/agenda/2022/10/21, Weds 2pm meeting, items 899-903.

What might be useful, in the 2 minutes I have? Perhaps: offer and position Alternative Shelter Network as credible, constructive, useful resource to help research, compare, discuss, & disseminate good responses?

I'd like to be able to state some simple, clear pointer like URL "alternativeshelter.net" and make Council members, staff, and publics feel they should note this down, it is something helpful and relevant, and they ought to go there and e.g. bookmark it / sign up for notifications / join mailing list.

From precedent, I'd predict that public comments will be polarized and mostly non-constructive: either condemning the City's ideas for campuses and enforcement, or reiterating the harms of unsanctioned camping. Ideally, a public comment would stand out from this, promote later constructive engagement with Council members & other leaders, and express openness to different ideas/proposals.

Suggestions welcome.
thanks, Tim

Bcc: Shelter Now core team members.

--
Tim McCormick
Housing Alternatives Network
http://housingalternatives.net
+1 503.334.1894.
Video: meet.tmccormick.org
tmccormick.org/ / @tmccormick

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Larry McCool

#833

Hello,

My name is Larry McCool. A few of you might have heard of me but most have not. I have been a avocate for the homeless community all over the valley for more years than i can count. In 1972 -74 I volunteered at what was called then a Soup Kitchen on Burnside in Portland and have been working with and visiting Homeless shelters and camps ever since. I am so dismayed at all of the rhetric and total disaster of planning that has been going on over the last 5-10 years. Nothing has worked. There are more unsheltered

people now than there ever were. But is not because of lack of money. Millions and millions are being thrown at this issue and still it is so prevelent. Ok i will cut to the chase.

I have developed an alternative housing/village plan that would get every person off of the street that wants to and into

Individual, safe, secure, dry, heated, lockable metal door, insulated with bed, lights and will last up to 30 years. Each 40 person village would include a rooftop Solar system that

could provide all of the power need for everyone living there. And even though each village would only be 40x40, 1/2 of all units would be ADA accesable.

Each village of 40 rooms would only have a 40'x40' footprint. So 3 villages in sequence would only need 40' x 136' with space in between

and would provide safe emergency shelter for up to 120 . And to space this out 3 of these multi unit villages side by side now 120' x 136' would

fit on less than 1 acre of land. and provide safe, secure, emergency shelter for 360 individuals. But i am not actually proposing these

mega villages as It is not in the best interest of the people living there.

So now the bottom line. Each unit would have a cost of just $3500 to $4000 each. But the go to plan using the disasterous pallet houses are costing from $$8500 to 10,000

each to build set up and to maintain. And wooden built tiny houses are even a bigger waist of money at over $15,000 each. And all of these micro shelters take up

3 times the land space that i am proposing for the same number of shelters. So they cost 3 times as much and need 3 times the land.

So now lets pencil this out, as no one ever does this and actually tells you what it might cost to get everyone off the streets and into safe emergency shelter

Using a population of 5000 for simple math. This is low but is what I saw reported and even larger in the Tri County Area,

Pallet Housing, 5000 x $8500 = $42,500,000 $42 million

Wooden Tiny Houses 5000 x $15,000 = $75,000,000 $75 Million

My Village Plan = 5000 x $3500 = $17,000,000 $17 million

Plus each village could be set up for an individual demographic to provide the Tailored Services for that population.

But the bottom line is this plan will be discounted like when I presented it to Commisioners Dan Ryan, Commisioner Sharon Meiernan, Then Speaker Tina Kotek,

Several members of the Oregon Senate and House and all of the members of the Salem City Council. Yes it is a very bold and different plan and would take

a lot broader thought process than is not tackling the Homeless Probelem not only in Portland but in the State of Oregon as a whole.

And even with that, I doubt if i will be contacted by any of the players here or any of the governing bodies who will actually decide how most all projects will be funded

but i still wanted to throw all of this out there.

And I actually have cost analysis for each and every step on my design .

Thanks for leting me get my idea out there,