I learned many lessons living in the San Francisco Bay Area for six years. One of those lessons was that there’s a fine line between compassion and enabling harmful behavior. Cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle have still not figured that out.
One of the reasons I moved to Portland was to escape the truly horrific street situation in San Francisco. Stepping over used needles, endless trash, waste and seeing human writhe on the ground in pain and the throes of addiction made the city unbearable – unbearable for those people suffering on the street as well as the housed population just trying to get by.
I have seen the effect of giving out more and more services while allowing the mentally ill and addicted to remain where and how they are. It is completely untenable. What many well-meaning San Franciscans believe to be “compassion” looks an awful lot like people being eased into death on the pavement. It is enabling behavior and will take Portland in a direction we will surely regret.
Homelessness is a complex problem; however, allowing (or, by some measures, encouraging) encampments to continue to spread in our public spaces is not a solution. The Bayside Trail encampment should be cleared and cleaned up with haste, and the occupants provided with transportation options back to their families, into rehabilitation facilities or into hospitals where they can get the care they need. “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
Megan Roberts
Portland
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