As some Lents residents fume over an uptick in homeless meal services in their neighborhood, the City of Portland is offering up a city park for that purpose. At least during the current heat wave.
Paul Underwood, executive director of the homeless outreach organization Operation Nightwatch, tells the Mercury city officials reached out today with an offer: The city would allow the group to set up shop in Ed Benedict Park today and tomorrow, and donate hundreds of bottles of water, if the group wanted to serve homeless residents.
"They're offering to pull some strings," Underwood says. "We don't know where this goes," he says, but the group hopes the gesture can be a start of a better partnership with the city.
The offer comes after the Mercuryreported this week that Operation Nightwatch and other groups have stirred up resentments in the Lents neighborhood recently, after increasing the frequency of meals they serve to the homeless. That activity is partly in response to a July 3 fire that shut down the Clackamas Service Center, a central resource for the homeless in the area, but it angers residents who've seen their neighborhood swell with homeless encampments and feel the meal services are detrimental.
In response to resident concerns, police have cracked down. The Portland Police Bureau threatened to ticket Operation Nightwatch for setting up an RV and tents in a Lents cul-de-sac. Another woman told the Mercury officers had hassled her about a twice-weekly meal service in a parking lot on Southeast Foster.
Police have also offered to help, though, telling Nightwatch they'd help find a more-suitable plot of land for the group's weekly meals. The Benedict Park offering is part of that. East Precinct Sgt. Randy Teig reached out to the mayor's office and others yesterday, suggesting they find a spot for Nightwatch to set up during the heat wave.
Berk Nelson, an adviser to Mayor Ted Wheeler, reached an agreement with Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz's office this morning to grant access to Benedict Park.
"What we decided is to give it a trial period," Nelson tells the Mercury. "Because of the heatwave, it’s a perfect opportunity to do that."
The park isn't ideal. It's more than two miles north of the spot where Nightwatch and other groups typically set up, and not near as concentrated a homeless population as they're used to. Nelson says it's close enough to that population and others to be of service.
It's unclear if the city's offer—as temperatures soar above 100 degrees—will lead to a more long-term arrangement. Nightwatch plans to set up from 6 pm to 10 pm this evening (though without its typical offering of sandwiches because of the short notice). It'll be on hand from 2 pm to 6 pm tomorrow as well
"We see it as a start," Underwood says.