For the most part I avoid reading Jack Bogdanski’s blog. I find it whinny and uninformative. Not many people in Oregon share my opinion. Jack Bog is the go-to blog in Portland and a lot of people take his word as gospel truth. However, he recently made an attack against Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten that reinforces my opinion that speaking the truth is not very important to Professor Bogdanski. He wrote following a recent City Council candidate debate:
Sten apparently paints himself as the champion of the downtrodden. But ask yourself, folks, after 10 years of Opie in City Hall, are Portland's homeless better off or worse off than before he got there? To me the situation appears as bad as ever. He's had his chance, made 10 years' worth of speeches, and he's gotten next to nothing done.
Sten is running for re-election this May and Bogdanski is supporting a candidate running against Sten who freely admits he has no knowledge about issues of homelessness or poverty – or any kind of plan to deal with the issues.
I’ve worked on issues related to homelessness in Portland before Erik Sten ever appeared in city government. But from his first day as an assistant to Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury - through his own terms on the City Council - he has been my greatest ally and one of the few who knows that for government to succeed it must produce results.
As the chair of the Multnomah County Community Action Commission, I oversaw the citizen process that developed the shelter reconfiguration plan . The result of this plan included the opening of new housing facilities for homeless single adult men and women, and for people suffering from chronic mental illness. Sten, as Kafoury’s chief of staff, helped move the plan through city government to a successful completion. As a city commissioner, he has fought for even more services and led the charge region wide to build affordable housing.
Burnside Advocates Group gave Sten the Beverly "Ma" Curtis Social Justice Award in 1995 for his efforts on homelesness.
Bogdanski might think that the situation “appears as bad as ever.” But that is only because he does not know what he is talking about.
Before Kafoury and Sten began their work our city’s shelters were run down facilities and in some cases people lived in them for years before moving – if ever – into permanent housing.
This past year alone city backed programs moved over 600 people into permanent housing.
Ask the women living at Jean’s Place – a shelter for domestic violence victims built under Sten’s watch – what their lives would be like without Sten’s work.
Ask the men living at the Clark Center where they would be if not for Sten’s leadership.
Ask those people suffering with chronic mental illness what their quality of life would be like if Sten hadn’t helped to turn the Royal Palm into housing for them.
Ask the teenagers living in Outside In’s housing program what it would be like for them if Sten hadn’t been there to support their cause.
Ask all those who have moved off the street into permanent housing – families, women, children – if life would have been better for them without Sten fighting for their needs.
Is life perfect now for people who are homeless? Hardly. We still need more services. More than anything we need affordable housing. Our leaders in Salem and Washington, DC have failed to provide local urban centers with the help we need to address the homeless crisis that every city faces. Portland has been left alone to deal with the difficult challenges.
Sten has worked against all odds – and with limited resources – to produce great results. He has had to sometimes fight groups like the Portland Business Alliance and even Mayor Katz for the resources needed to make these programs successful.
Most politicians would never put the time and energy into working to help people who are homeless transition off the streets into a better life. Where is the political pay off for that?
Here is the amazing thing: Sten doesn’t care about that. He just wants to do the right thing.
All of Portland is better off because of his work.
Bogdanski might consider taking some time away from his keyboard and getting out into the city to see what is really going on. He might discover that our community is a better place than he thinks.
Related Link: Dave Lister, Jack Bog, and the Truth from Loaded Orygun
