UPDATE: 03/05/2008, 3:00 PM
The City voted unanimously today to designate Block U (bounded by Northwest Broadway, Hoyt, Irving and 6th) to be the site for an access center for the homeless.
“I’m very excited to bring this forth,” says City Commissioner Erik Sten, who was charged by the mayor in September of last year to bring about the center. “This is something that’s been needed since the ’80s.”
People representing the interests of Old Town/China Town were present to oppose a section of the resolution siting the access center which said that if there were any problems that arose from building the access center on Block U, Block 25 (the “Dirty Duck Block”) would be the fallback option for the location of the access center.
Public testimony reacted strongly against that section of the resolution.
“You have the support of Old Town China Town to build this access center [on Block U],” said Carol McCreary, chair of the Old Town China Town Neighborhood Association. “You have almost no support for Block 25.”
The resolution was not changed to amend or strike that part of the resolution. Sten defended having Block 25 as the fallback option, saying that if opponents of the access center found some fault with Block U and the project was halted, the process of building the access center would be taken all the way back to square one.
By the time the Block U property is transferred from the ownership of the Portland Development Commission to the Housing Authority of Portland for development, Sten will no longer be in office. Sten has championed the creation of the access center, and one person giving public testimony referred to it as his “swan song.”
Commissioner Randy Leonard assured those present objecting to the Block 25 fallback option that he would “shepherd [the access center] through,” and also said in no uncertain terms that if Block U would not be the location of the access center, Block 25 would be.
“I will not have the patience that Erik has had. I would urge you to embrace this,” Leonard said, speaking directly to those who gave public testimony.
Representatives of John Beardsley, who proposed an alternative to the Block U siting last week, was not present to push Beardsley’s proposal forward.
With the votes from the Portland Development Commission and the City Council, the Housing Authority of Portland now moves forward with the master planning of the access center.
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In the wake of the Portland Development Commission’s decision Wednesday to site a resource access center serving the homeless on a block in Northwest Portland, the private developer behind a competing plan for a nearby block says he’ll continue to press his case at City Council next week.
John Beardsley of Beardsley Building Development says his plan to privately develop the access center would be $20 million cheaper for the PDC and the Housing Authority of Portland. HAP is slated to develop the access center on Block U, which is bounded by Northwest Broadway, Hoyt, Irving and Northwest 6th Avenue.
In an interview with WW, Beardsley was unable to provide details beyond the budget summary he’d presented at the PDC meeting, but he is confident his $33 million proposal is workable and would save money.
“How I look at it is that [the PDC and the Housing Authority] are all working for us taxpayers and citizens,” Beardsley said. “And they have a responsibility to use that money wisely. I don’t think there’s anyone watching the vault.”
There are two hitches to Beardsley’s proposal going any further: It has been rejected by both the Housing Authority and the PDC.
The details regarding exactly how Beardsley would save the $20 million were conspicuously absent in his presentation to the PDC on Wednesday.
“There was not a lot of detail with Beardsley’s proposal to evaluate the merit of it,” says Sarah Harpole, project and program coordinator at the PDC.
The PDC passed the resolution to site the access center at Block U. However, the prospect of saving $20 million is like a carrot dangling from a stick in front of the PDC.
The PDC asked that the Housing Authority further communicate with Beardsley about the ins and outs of his proposal and whether a cheaper siting and developing plan could be found. Mark Rosenbaum, the Chair of PDC’s Board of Commissioners, asked for 30-day check-ins and a closer look at the numbers.
“I think if savings of a magnitude of this size can be realized, we can’t ignore it,” Rosenbaum said during the meeting.
Prior to the PDC meeting, the Housing Authority had already rejected Beardsley’s offer to buy the Housing’s Authority’s offices, as well as his proposal to cite the resource access center on Block O (which is one block north of Block 25, nicknamed “the Dirty Duck block”).
In a letter addressed to Beardsley dated Feb. 26 (the day before the PDC meeting), Andrews said the Housing Authority was not interested in his offer and “remain committed to move the [resource access center] project forward on Block U.”
Andrews testified to the PDC that the Housing Authority had sent that letter to Beardsley and rejected his offer prior to the PDC’s meeting. He also testified that a lot of problems exist with the proposal making it difficult to develop the resource access center.
He specifically cited cost prohibitive problems with the structure and size of the building, problems which had already been noted by PDC staff in a Feb. 13 meeting when investigation for a site for the access center was still under way. Those considerations were part of the reason why Block U ended up being the favored siting option.
When asked why Beardsley presented his proposal to the PDC after receiving the Housing Authority’s rejection, Beardsley would not comment.
Aside from the private development opportunity, Beardsley also has a personal stake in whether his proposal goes through. Part of his proposal includes the sale of the Housing Authority’s offices on Southwest Ash Street to him (the Housing Authority would move its offices to the two floors above the access center).
Part of the cost savings Beardsley proposed to the PDC would come from the purchase of the Housing Authority’s offices.
Beardsley owns the rest of the Southwest Ash Street block where the Housing Authority’s offices are located. By buying the building from the Housing Authority, Beardsley would own the entire block.
Beardsley suggested to WW that he is interested in rehabilitating and further developing that part of the block.
“That is just a PS to my deal,” Beardsley said, when questioned about his interest in buying the Housing Authority’s offices. What is more important to him, he said, is that his proposal would “put HAP in direct contact with their constituency.”
Asking the Housing Authority to move their corporate headquarters is, according to Rosenbaum, “way out in left field.”
Beardsley is one of many neighbor interests in Old Town/China Town who have had strong things to say about the location of the resource access center. Many of them, including Beardsley, feel like community interests were shut out of the process.
“I know I am pushing against bureaucracy,” Beardsley said during the presentation of his proposal.
Beardsley defended presenting his proposal on the day the PDC voted on the siting of the building, saying he’d reacted in as timely a fashion as he could.
“I realized what a fast-moving force our neighborhood was confronted with,” he said, referring to the PDC’s desire to move forward with siting the access center, but would not be any more specific about his reasoning for waiting until the day of the vote to bring his proposal forward.
“I think the Block U result is a great fit for the neighborhood,” Rosenbaum said to WW. “It preserves the commercial integrity of [Block] 25, gives the Blanchet House what it wants, allows us to put affordable housing and the access center in a particular location, but not putting all of the special needs community in one place. I think it’s a win.”
Beardsley refers to the services the access center would provide to the homeless as “generous,” and thinks the money being invested into the access center, as well as some of its proposed services, may be a bit extravagant. He rolled his eyes at the idea of a pet grooming center being one of the services the access center would provide.
“The biggest thing I know to be reality,” Beardsley said, from his experience working in development, “is that the homeless and needy won’t accept responsibility for themselves. If you accept responsibility for them, you’re an enabler.”
Beardsley holds out hope for his proposal, saying he is willing to work with the Housing Authority. Steve Rudman, executive director of the Housing Authority, says that neither he nor anyone else from the Housing Authority has spoken to Beardsley since the PDC meeting.
“There’s nothing there, I don’t think,” Rudman says. “All we have is a very conceptual overture. If he responds to our letter, we’ll respond to him.”
To that, Beardsley said, “If that’s how we’re going to do it, I can do it in that fashion,” implying things may continue to be ugly between neighbor and social service interests over the resource access center.
Beardsley has not spoken directly with City Commissioner Erik Sten, who has been heavily involved in moving work on the resource access center forward, regarding his proposal.
“We’re not trying to be uncivil,” Beardsley says, referring to the neighbor interests in Old Town. “It’s Sten’s minions who are being uncivil.”
“They don’t want to talk to me,” Beardsley says. “But I’m not going to go away.”
Beardsley says he hopes the rest of City Council will think his proposal is a good bargain. The Council is expected to pass an ordinance next week supporting the PDC’s decision to site the access center on Block U. Beardsley said he would be out of town and not present at the meeting, but people who can speak on his behalf would be at the meeting.
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Portland’s Old Town has long been a dumping ground for the homeless and mentally ill, disproportionate to the rest of the city. Crime and livability issues result. If Portland hopes for the same renaissance that occurred in the Pearl to continue into Old Town, then it would be better served to consider other, more suitable options.
I hope the council moves forward with Block U. There must be a start to taking care of our own, and not just The Mission or shelters that, while commendable, are nothing but a stop gap measure to keep people literally from dying. There must be mental health care and drug rehab, and education possibilities. After all, isn’t that what America is — possibilities? Or, should we say, How good of you to remind us that the poor are always with us,turn our backs and look for "other, more suitable options", as Michael states. Please, progressive democracy!