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"No one wakes up and chooses homelessness"
But then there's this guy, first person arrested under the new ordinance:
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/portland-homeless-camping-arrest-no-jail-cite-release-ordinance/283-c4740190-38de-4aff-9b5a-20bca0928b3c
"Both police and city outreach workers had spoken with Macdonald "several times" prior, PPB said, and he refused to accept shelter or any other services.
On Friday, Macdonald was given a last chance to seek shelter, including access to a tiny home, police said.
"Macdonald was told his options would be to accept services or he’d be arrested," PPB said. "Macdonald stated he would rather be arrested than go to the tiny home.""
"Multnomah County Sheriff's Office refused to book him."
This dude would rather live in squalor on the public streets than accept assistance which has been offered multiple times.
Now, if we were only talking one guy, sure, not a problem. Keep an eye on him and arrest him when he inevitably commits some other crime. But there are upwards of 6,000 homeless in the Portland area and it's having a major impact on their health, the environment, and the overall livability of the city.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/fire-homeless-portland-rv-camp-southeast-neighbors/283-5709a07d-d777-4372-a13f-d34dc2f15380
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/portland-police-arrest-man-arson-northeast-portland-cafe-burned/283-8f600cf4-c969-4442-9493-594a2e5f6fff
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/07/hidden-toll-of-homeless-crisis-portlands-prized-natural-areas.html
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/07/police-identify-man-previously-suspected-of-throwing-a-molotov-cocktail-at-portland-protest-as-may-homicide-victim.html
Some people prefer freedom.
The freedom to live in a tent and shit into the sewer system that feeds the water supply is the same level of freedom that gives me a right to kill people without repercussions. Sometimes limitations on “freedoms” are acceptable because society has a structure. They can choose to live outside of that society, but they clearly enjoy living in places like LA… so they have a choice. Either accept somewhere to live and get out of the streets, or leave society as a whole.
I don't care about conforming to society. You can make me care about it if society feeds all hungry children. Until then, it doesn't interest me.
You don’t even seem to have a basic understanding of how city water supplies work. No amount of people shitting in the woods makes your drinking water contaminated; where the fuck do you think animals shit?
Edit: there are absolutely public health concerns to be made about human shit being around where people do things, especially non porous surfaces which don’t offer opportunities for decomposition. But that’s a problem to be solved with better public restroom coverage, even housed people will pee/shit in public when there isn’t a restroom available
For the record, Portland's water supply comes from the Bull Run Watershed. The sewer system is a combined sewer system, so if someone does poop down a storm sewer inlet, it goes to the same water treatment system as everyone else's poop.
That said, people pooping on the sidewalk is a legit problem. I've had to report a couple of poops that were pretty clearly human.