Dear Compassionate Portlanders,

As all of you know, another apparently mentally unstable homeless man was shot and killed by the Portland police on Sunday. Whether the shooting will be deemed justifiable or not in the end, the question is how we can avoid such situations in the future. When armed police show up to confront someone experiencing a mental health crisis, the likely outcome is not good. It usually ends in the arrest, tasing and/or killing of the person in crisis. 

As part of our petition, we proposed that Portland develop an unarmed first-responder force for precisely these kinds of situations. These people, trained in mental health, would be better-positioned to deescalate a situation and not trigger a fight-or-flight response by someone who may be delusional.  In Eugene, a similar program (CAHOOTS) handles 20 percent of the 911 calls, and has had tremendous success, yet here in Portland we keep responding in the same way with police. And we keep getting the same results: mentally ill people killed by police.

Right 2 Survive has been working to come up with a plan to make the Central Eastside a Compassionate Change District. This is an alternative plan to the Central Eastside Industrial Council's (CEIC) Enhanced Services District (ESD).  Other Business Improvement Districts in the city have led to more private policing and harm toward homeless people. This plan, on the other hand, offers ways for businesses and neighbors to work with houseless neighbors to solve all of our problems, including housing, hygiene, and crime.  We are hopeful that the CEIC will work with Right 2 Survive to be an example of compassion toward our most vulnerable neighbors.

The proposed CEIC ESD is supposed to go before City Council on January 17th. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

Elliott