Stop the Sweeps coalition | URGENT: Please Call Elected Officials to Say STOP THE SWEEPS! OREGON
In December 2019, the Stop the Sweeps Pdx coalition (groups listed below) demanded an end to sweeps.
Despite the rapidly growing Covid-19 pandemic, the City of Portland and ODOT are still sweeping people. Sweeps kill under the best of circumstances. During a pandemic, they are a death sentence to those being swept and also to the broader community.
We urge you to call and email the elected officials listed at the bottom of this message, and demand that they fully STOP the SWEEPS and immediately insitute the following, which will help flatten the curve and is fully in line with health care authorities’ recommendations:
- Access to health and hygiene supplies, including 150 more handwashing stations and bathrooms;
- Onsite medical support for houseless people, where they live;
- Access to safe, open spaces for respite (this includes NO SWEEPS, including for people living in vehicles);
- Allow the construction of improvised shelters; free up public land and buildings for encampments;
- Housing/hotel accommodations for all houseless people who want one;
- Clean shelters that are open 24/7 and that practice good hygiene for clients and workers;
- Moratorium on arrests for crimes of poverty;
- Prioritize those who are MOST vulnerable, including BIPOC, unhoused folx, and others in receiving life-saving treatment;
- Allow houseless people to practice basic hygiene, acquire food, sleep, pursue income and resources, assemble together, and carry out other survival activities even during the “Stay home, Stay safe” executive order;
- Allow volunteers to provide for the provision of support and supplies to houseless people even during the “Stay home, Stay safe” executive order.
- Homes For All: Open up unoccupied homes to anyone who needs one. Housing is a human right.
Mayor Ted Wheeler mayorwheeler@portlandoregon.gov
Commissioner Amanda Fritz amanda@portlandoregon.gov
Commissioner Chloe Eudaly chloe@portlandoregon.gov
Commissioner Joann Hardesty joann@portlandoregon.gov
Office of Management and Finance CAO Tom.Rinehart@portlandoregon.gov
City Council Clerk <Karla.Moore-Love@portlandoregon.gov
Chair Deborah Kafoury, mult.chair@multco.us
Sharon Meiran, District 1, district1@multco.us
Susheela Jayapal, District 2, district2@multco.us
Jessica Vega Pederson, District 3, district3@multco.us
Lori Stegman, District 4, district4@multco.us
Governor Kate Brown (503) 378-4582
Stop the Sweeps coalition members:
Sisters of the Road | Right 2 Survive | Greater Portland Trans Unity | Glitter Squadron
Portland Assembly | Western Regional Advocacy Project | National Lawyers Guild
With support from dozens of other organizations!
STOP THE SWEEPS COALITION! OREGON
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The homeless are so vulnerable now, and we all need to stay healthy together.
On the news I’ve seen, in emails I’ve received from people in government, houseless people are not mentioned as people we need to take care of as part of our most vulnerable population. This is WRONG.
My friends are MORE vulnerable to Covid-19 and the laws, policies and treatment by those in power threaten them even more every hour of every day.
PLEASE, try and imagine if YOU were outside every day struggling to survive with so many houseless folks, too few resources and overloaded agencies. Then–BAM! Covid-19 hits and exponentially multiplies all of the danger!
Have mercy and do justice. Answer the call.
Ridiculous. City ruined. What won’t progressives/leftist do ruin that beautiful city. Glad we moved to Texas. LOFAO.
Donlon says:He says opponents of the bill “fear it will be a takeover of the parks where people will desecrate public areas and will have open drug use and pollute the rivers,” but he says he finds that “kind of ludicrous. I think people have a healthy amount of respect for the environment, whether housed or unhoused.”
Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29aNjgsjURY
I pick up needles at Lents Park all the time.
So- really destruction does happen. Lets get so called developers to actually build real low cost housing.