Portland Mayor Keith Wilson asked residents Wednesday to donate their time and money to his newly launched homeless shelters, suggesting stark consequences for the city should it fail to tame the crisis on its streets.
The unusual solicitation, which went to the more than 17,000 recipients on the mayor’s City Hall email list, also raised the specter of an intervention by President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Recent events in Washington, D.C. show us what will happen to Portland if we don’t move with speed, purpose, and compassion to address the humanitarian crisis on our streets,” Wilson wrote, adding, “the federal administration deploys bulldozers and mass arrests by masked agents; the opposite of our outreach worker and emergency shelter strategy.”
“Let’s work together by volunteering and donating, and prove the administration’s heavy-handed tactics are not needed in our city,” the mayor continued.
Wilson provided a link to a nine-page prospectus that outlines gifts and services that people can give to the various nonprofits running homeless services for the city.
The first slide lists needs at the city’s new Old Town day center, which opened Wednesday with few promised services, according to reporting by KATU. The day center, run by nonprofit homeless services provider Urban Alchemy, is meant to serve as a safe location for overnight-only shelter guests to spend the day and receive services. According to the slides, the center is in need of picnic tables, fitness equipment and cornhole sets as well as clothing, hygiene supplies and food.
The city is also hoping to connect volunteers to the nonprofits that run shelters and provide outreach to homeless people. The slides list needed skills, including people able to provide hair cuts, resume writing tutorials, veterinary services and a long list of other services.
“Major giving opportunities,” are listed on slide five and include shower trucks, commercial grade appliances and laptops. Listed as an urgent need is the purchase of $12,500 in “worship chairs” to replace pews in a church as a way to make those locations more easily convertible to overnight-only shelters.
The city has opened five overnight-only shelters since Wilson took office in January. The most recent – a 200-bed facility in the Pearl District – opened on Tuesday night.
Wilson’s request was a first for the city’s shelter services program, according to Bryan Aptekar, a senior program manager on the homeless response team who is listed as the primary contact for anyone wishing to donate their time or money.
“It’s been less than an hour (since the email went out) and I’ve had a dozen calls and emails already,” Aptekar told The Oregonian/OregonLive during an interview Wednesday afternoon. “We wanted to provide a connection between those that are asking (how they can help) and those (nonprofits) that are providing services.”
Aptekar said he worked in the Parks Bureau for years, where asking for volunteerism was far more common.
“It’s exciting,” Aptekar said. “Three more emails have come in since we’ve been talking.”
Taylor Zajonc, Wilson’s deputy chief of staff, said Wilson’s request is part of an ongoing push by the mayor to have more Portland residents help with addressing some of the city’s ongoing challenges, whether that’s picking up litter in their neighborhoods or volunteering with the Parks Bureau.
“In this case, we’re acting primarily as a switch board,” Zajonc said. “The city of Portland is not accepting any kinds of donations directly but trying to connect people to nonprofit providers.”
Asked about the mayor’s decision to mention the risk of a federal crackdown on Portland, Zajonc said it was important to “draw an extremely clear distinction” between the mayor and the president when it came to their differing approaches to homelessness.
“We want to make sure it’s very clear that it’s two different mentalities at work,” Zajonc said.
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