John Reese

by ANNIE HUNDLEY
243-2122

John Reese is one of the most recognizable faces of homelessness in Portland. The 50-year-old double amputee, an articulate Vietnam vet, makes a dramatic picture as he rolls around town in a wheelchair, sporting a Veterans of Foreign Wars cap.

Reese was pictured on the front page of Feb. 13's Portland Tribune, leading a parade of shopping carts to Camp Dignity's new location under the Fremont Bridge. The Grand Marshal has been with the tent camp for the homeless since its inception in mid-December. He was quoted repeatedly in The Oregonian and, most recently, was the only camper interviewed by KATU-TV after Camp Dignity's Feb. 26 Evening Fast fund-raiser.

In fact, it was his appearance on an earlier local newscast that led him out of Camp Dignity and into temporary housing three weeks ago. But behind Reese's supposed success story is a far more complicated tale:

It was a fear for public safety, not compassion for Reese, that rescued him from homelessness.

John Reese is in fact a convicted predatory sex offender who says he now spends his afternoons perusing porn at a local adult bookstore. In 1999 he was put on probation for failure to register as a sex offender.

One condition of Reese's probation is that he not spend time in the presence of minors. So when Kevin Criswell, a district manager for Multnomah County's parole and probation office, saw Reese on the local evening news at Camp Dignity with children in the background, she took notice. Criswell called Reese's probation officer, who whisked Reese into temporary housing.

But Reese may not be under a roof for long.

After his probation expires on March 9, he will be free to move back into his tent at Camp Dignity, as long as he remains registered as a sex offender.

Born in Cleveland, Reese says he dropped out of junior high and first tasted homelessness at age 14 after leaving home. He says he spent his weekdays sleeping in a city park and the weekends staying at the home of his male math teacher, beginning a sexual relationship that lasted for more than a decade.

After moving to Oregon in the '80s, Reese wound up in Portland's low-income housing when diabetes claimed his right leg, which was amputated in June 1998. Disgusted with the roaches and rats breeding in his room, Reese says he voluntarily left his housing in the summer of 1999 and took to the streets.

His left leg was amputated in October 2000 at the Portland Veterans Medical Center. Three days after the operation, he was back living under the Broadway Bridge.

Reese's criminal history is a bit sketchy. According to his record, he was convicted of "sexual imposition" in 1977 and 1978. Ohio corrections officials did not have a copy of his record and said the term could apply to any sex crime short of rape. In Oregon, things are a bit clearer. In 1986 he was convicted in Oregon for second-degree sodomy in a case involving a 12-year-old boy.

Reese's background underscores a typical problem for the homeless, according to Bryan Pollard, one of the founders of Camp Dignity. Pollard says a criminal record is a common obstacle to securing housing.

"It wasn't until his face was up on the screen that the folks in corrections said, 'Oh my God, we better do something about this,'" says Pollard, editor of street roots, a newspaper by and about the homeless. "That's pretty messed up."

Maggie Miller, public information officer for the Department of Community Justice, however, says Reese balked at previous attempts to find him housing. Indeed, when asked what factors have contributed to his homelessness, Reese explains that, as a man with no legs, he's afraid of becoming trapped in a burning building.

Pollard says he wasn't shocked when he learned of Reese's background. Nor is he worried that the disclosure of Reese's past crimes will taint the largely positive coverage Camp Dignity has received.

Homelessness is an issue that's compelling with or without a sympathetic face on the news, Pollard says. "I don't feel that we've needed a 'Jerry's kid,' because we don't need anything to connect the public to this issue. The public is already connected. Anywhere they go on any day they will see a homeless person. We're trying to take a street community that already exists and organize it so it can become a place of healing and not a place of hurting."

That transition may have to happen without Reese--at least for a while. Miller says her office is requesting that Reese's probation be extended for up to a year so he can receive sex-offender treatment and more stable housing. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Harl Haas is expected to rule on the request by March 9.

Meanwhile, Reese says he knows where his home is: "Dignity is the only one that cares for us."