Hygiene4All

Myrtle says :

Dear Friends,
You have an opportunity to encourage City leaders to adopt proactive, prosocial, cost-saving responses to Portland’s eviction, affordability, income, homelessness, environmental & budget crises.
The City’s responses & strategies of the last 5 years have increased costs while backpedaling on progress - ‘the center cannot hold.’
The amendments below - lower initial & longer term public costs & outlays, while enhancing collaboration on our shared problems - across the housing, income, & racial divides. They mend the social fabric & lower rising antipathy & dehumanization so many of our most vulnerable & underserved increasingly experience.

The following reduce city spending & shift spending on punitive/ extractive programming to investing in whole community, environmental and community health, safety, well-being:
Green 1: Reduces administrative bloat to restore frontline fire & rescue staffing & equipment that St. Johns residents, workers, & forests rely on for safety & emergency response;
Green 2. Addresses harms & abuses in Portland Solutions-managed shelters, give Council greater oversight of shelter goals, strategies, & spending, & invest $3 million in democratically run micro-villages with strong resident satisfaction & housing placement outcomes;
Green 3. Redirects $1 million from costly sweeps that repeatedly displace & strip unsheltered Portlanders of property & community. That 1 million would instead be set aside to pay for low-barrier workforce programs that pay people experiencing homelessness to help reduce street waste, increase recycling & reuse, & improve community health, safety, sanitation, & shared spaces for housed & unhoused neighbors alike.
Morillo- Novick 1. Reallocates 8 Million to protect 46 frontline workers - maintaining core services critical to community health, safety, & transparency - including: community services, Portland Street Response crisis responders, & parks, transportation, sewer, water, & technology workers
Avalos 1. Reverses Portland Clean Energy Funds going to PEMO (Homelessness Sweeps response which increases our carbon footprint & emissions rather than reducing them)
Koyama Lane 2. Sends 3.2 million in urban forestry from PCEF. Tree Canopy enhancement reduces the severe & disproportionate heating in our least funded neighborhoods where the majority of Black, Hispanic, & Indigenous; studies also show that trees encourage public use of public spaces, creating passive surveillance that studies consistently show reduces crimes of opportunity & violence more efficiently, dollar for dollar than adding police & social workers.
Smith 1. Reallocates General Funds for SummerWorks- employs & gives BIPOC teens work experience
Pirtle-Guiney 4. Restores funds for children/family programs lost to austerity

From 2020–2026, our Mayors’ have responded to KNOWN affordability, income disparity, & global heating challenges only after they’ve occurred - driving up costs & division. These amendments offer a different path: evidence-backed approaches that emphasize support, participation, & prevention - & health & dignity for all. By involving low income & neighbors experiencing homelessness in solving shared problems, Portland can reduce costs, improve outcomes, & build safer, healthier communities that everyone enjoys.
You can share your support investments that value, protect & invite our Beloved Communities to collaboratively solve shared problems- by writing council & having them prioritize these pro-community investments.
In appreciation, solidarity, & HOPE (may it spring eternal),
Sandra
Copy & paste & send to restore hope and collaboration to our city budget [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]