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Greg Goodman, whose family is among Portland’s largest landowners, wrote a letter to multiple elected officials Thursday asking that city and county leaders open a sanctioned camping area at the old U.S Post Office site in Northwest Portland.
“I simply don’t understand why you don’t order the 14 acre Post Office site open as a shelter with navigation services and require people on the sidewalks to go to the shelter/services,” Goodman wrote. “Most importantly, it is in their best interest, let alone the interest of people that live, work and visit downtown.”
It’s unclear whether Goodman was referring to one of the city’s six planned “safe rest villages.” At least one other developer has urged City Hall to open one of the six villages at the U.S. Post Office site.
But Goodman also directly addressed a question that many others have hesitated to raise in discussions surrounding the city’s plan for the rest villages: Will people be required to go to those areas? What happens if they refuse?
Goodman, whose family properties include the site of a future Ritz-Carlton hotel tower now under construction, is openly advocating for requiring unhoused people to relocate from sidewalks to a structured campsite. The language of his letter, and the frustration it expresses, echoes a similar letter he sent to Mayor Ted Wheeler last August decrying “lawlessness” downtown.
This time, Goodman included in his letter a security video of a man throwing a running punch at a security guard at the Morgan Building—a property the Goodman family does not own. The security camera footage shows a man get up off the ground from near the edge of the camera frame and lunge at the security guard while throwing a punch. Two men inside the building ran out immediately and pulled the man off of the security guard.
“Why do the city and county refer to the situation as a housing and mental health emergency if your actions don’t reflect the urgency?” Goodman wrote in his email. “Housing is incredibly important but common sense tells you that you don’t leave people on the street until it is built, especially when a good percentage of them are mentally ill.”
The safe rest villages are the brainchild of Commissioner Dan Ryan, who pledged $20 million of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to building the sites by the end of the year.
His vision, of which he’s shared sparse details while locations are being pondered by bureau heads, are lots where people can erect their tents without fear of being swept. Ryan says the sites will provide basic hygiene amenities like laundry services and bathrooms as well as case management.
The extent of the services to be provided—like more robust wraparound services such as behavioral, mental health and addiction resources—is still unclear.
This is the second letter WW has obtained this month pressuring the city to put a sanctioned camping area on the old Post Office lot.
On June 2, Mark New, managing partner of the Development Company of the West, wrote to Ryan urging him to place a site in the Broadway Corridor. That’s 14 acres of city property at the edge of the Pearl District, bordered by Broadway, 9th Avenue, and Hoyt and Lovejoy streets, and previously occupied by the U.S. Post Office, which was relocated last year.
The vast lot now sits deserted because of a stalled demolition contract complicated by litigation. It’s co-owned by the Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland, which have presented an ambitious vision for housing towers, parks and retail on the site.
Ryan has remained tight-lipped about the locations of the safe rest villages.
His spokesperson Margaux Weeke told WW on June 24: “The city is compiling an extensive list of potential sites where we can both move C3P0 [a collaborative called Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside] and create safe rest villages across the city. We haven’t finalized siting for safe rest villages or C3PO.…A number of factors will go into determining whether a site is suitable for an outdoor shelter, and the city will conduct comprehensive community engagement.”