After a sometimes heated and protracted debate the Portland City Council voted 3-2 to delay enforcement of the sit-lie ordinance. The ordinance would have given police the authority to arrest people (mostly homeless) for sitting on sidewalks. For years the business community has pushed for such an ordinance but Portland Mayor Tom Potter, a former police chief, would only go along with the proposal if extra services were provided for those on the street (including a new day center) and if 45 extra benches were put up in the downtown core area where homeless people or others could rest without fear of being cited by the police and fined.
Enforcement of the ordinance began this week but the promised services, including the new benches, have not yet all been delivered despite some important progress being made. Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard proposed holding off on enforcement until all the services were online and after much debate (including a vigorous defense of the process that enabled the "more services for more enforcement" compromise) commissioners Sam Adams and Erik Sten joined Leonard in voting to postpone enforcement.
I appreciated that despite the council agenda running long (and none of the members getting lunch) most of them gave their full attention to the debate. My sense is that all the members of this council are committed at varying levels to fighting the root causes of homelessness in Portland and for that we can be thankful.
However, Commissioner Dan Saltzman, in voting against the delay and for immediate enforcement, suggested that advocates for the homeless were never willing to compromise on issues and were themselves obstacles to progress. As one of the only advocates to testify in favor of the delay, and as one who argued for a compromise proposal where the city simply delay enforcement until mid-August but allow police to issue warnings, I was frustrated with his comments. The commissioner seemed to be detached from the debate going on around him. His vote and comments were a personal disappointment to me.
