Kudos for your May 6 article “Bayside at rock bottom,” which highlighted the difficult issues that residents, shelter personnel and the homeless face in the Bayside neighborhood. It’s an untenable situation for all involved.
On June 21, the city announced it was planning to replace the Oxford Street Shelter with a new facility in the Nason’s Corner neighborhood. The new shelter will provide a reception area for shelter personnel to greet guests, lockers for storage of guests’ belongings, raised beds, on-site meals, dentistry, counseling and other services.
On June 26, I attended the city’s formal presentation of the proposal to the Health and Human Services Committee, where the benefits that the new, 20,000-square-foot facility will provide for shelter clients and shelter staff were outlined. What was shockingly missing from the presentation was any form of environmental impact study on what the new facility will mean for residents of the Nason’s Corner neighborhood.
As a resident of Nason’s Corner, I expect the city to address the impact that the proposed shelter would make on my neighborhood. While most residents of Nason’s Corner would agree that we want to help our brothers and sisters in the Bayside area, asking a single neighborhood to host such a large facility without consideration of the impact on the people who live there is beyond unconscionable.
Thomas Gangewer
Portland
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