Interview: Jessie Burke on Portland and Multnomah County's Recent Policy Changes on Homelessness
Old Town Community Association President and The Society Hotel owner on Portland's progress on the 90-Day Reset Plan, Mayor Wheeler, Multnomah County, and the mental health crisis on Oregon's streets
On May 31, 2022, The Oregon Way published an op-ed from Jessie Burke, entitled, “‘Ground Zero’: Old Town Community Steps Up Where Leaders Have Stumbled.” In it, Burke wrote about what motivated the Old Town Community Association’s 90-Day Reset Plan, why it is necessary, and Multnomah County’s resistance to her input. Brad Phelps caught up with Burke over the phone on June 20, 2022. They spoke about the recent headlines out of Portland and Multnomah County. The following transcription was edited for clarity and brevity.
The Way: Since you wrote for us a couple weeks ago, there has been controversy over the “Built for Zero” program; Multnomah County announced a 59% increase in the Joint Office’s funding; and at your press conference last week, Mayor Wheeler said he would expand the Old Town 90-Day Plan citywide.
Do these changes represent a shift in the city and county’s thinking? Has how their work with you changed?
Burke: I said in my first press conference that I was holding it because it is hard to be a leader in Portland right now. You can’t quite figure out what the public wants. A lot of people remain silent and unhappy, and the loudest voices tend to be fairly divisive. If you make the wrong decision, people show up to your house.
My hypothesis was that they needed a citizen who was willing to respond in a measured way and say, “I will stand by you. These are all things that are reasonable to expect and reasonable to do.” And that’s why people have been willing to show up for us. I think their willingness to do this was honestly because I and others gave them permission to do what they felt was right. They needed citizens to stand with them.
I feel more confident now that someone is in charge, but I don’t know what it will mean yet. It has felt very isolating in Old Town, like forever, but within the last two years it has been especially isolating. No one is here. No one is going to work, even at city hall or at the county. So no one really believes you, and that’s really scary. And the stuff we are seeing – you can’t be by yourself. It just became like, just wild, you know, like anything goes. I think my tipping point was when there was a machine gun shoot out on Everett, and I was like, “I am just a mother of three children trying to run a business, and I volunteer sometimes. I shouldn’t know this much about guns, or about gangs.” But I do. It felt like no one was in charge. So I did this analysis on how to get people reengaged and leading again.
The Way: Do you think that leaders feel empowered by your rhetoric? Do you feel like you have been successful in changing the narrative for city and county leaders?
Burke: When I started with these press conferences, I didn’t let any elected leaders speak. People wanted to speak. I had all of the city commissioners and some city leaders from the bureaus say, “Yeah, we would love to be there. We would love to talk.”
And I said, “I am giving a press conference about the failure of city and county governments. Why would I give you the microphone? It feels like, at this moment, you should just be listening in the audience.”
People, I think, took that to heart. I feel like there has been a shift. I do feel like it has begun to be successful. If nothing else, it's given Portlanders and people in Multnomah County a different narrative to get behind. Before it was like, “leave everything be or you’re not compassionate.” You can see the conversation devolve. [Multnomah County Commissioner] Sharon Meieron talks about “Built for Zero,” which is an objectively proven methodology for some of the issues we’re dealing with, and then, someone compares this sort of data collection to the Holocaust.
In my article, I was trying to say that we have forgotten how to accomplish things. We allow the conversation to devolve so quickly. I am just attempting to elevate the discussion back to an adult conversation of actual problem solvers, and I think that is helping.
The Way: You said in your op-ed that you were disappointed with how unreceptive the county was to the community’s ideas. Has that changed? Does the Multnomah County’s budget increase for the Joint Office demonstrate progress to you?
Burke: I do think there has been a bit of progress. I can’t say for sure, but it has been slightly influenced by calling them out. You can read newspaper articles and the county’s responses to our press conferences. While city hall says, “We totally support everything Jessie is doing,” the county chair would say something like, “That is a gross mischaracterization. That’s not true. That’s not true.” She didn’t even acknowledge what we were saying.
For example, I’ve been aware of Blanchet House’s peer support program from the start. Scott Kerman, its director, had been in negotiations with the county about the program, but they only gave him the contract two weeks before my second press conference. After my first press conference, the chair said, “We’re working with Blanchet House to do X, Y, Z.” And I thought, “You’re not working with anyone right now.” Blanchet was still waiting for the contract. So, at the second press conference, I said at the very end, “I will not let the county get a pass. They are two-thirds of the public safety process.”
However, for the neighborhood district attorney program that [Multnomah County District Attorney] Mike Schmidt was trying to get up and running, I met with all of the county commissioners, except the chair. I got a lot of support for the program, and it was added to the budget. It passed, and I see that as a win.
The Way: Do you think the door is open for further collaboration with the county?
Burke: I hope so. The city is trying to be really innovative, and there are a lot of walls that require a little too much work to break down when they are public servants and it is public money. I can’t quite figure it out. So I don’t know. I hope so.
The Way: What are the issues you think have gone unaddressed or need more attention?
Burke: Locally, I feel like I need to see more proactive work from the Portland Bureau of Transportation to be a partner with the community. They’re supposed to do community outreach, but they virtually never come to the Old Town Community Association meetings, which is where everyone is. We have like 50 people at our meetings. Instead, they will call a couple of folks they know in the neighborhood, and that’s their community outreach.
There’s this planter at First and Davis. That planter makes it virtually impossible to get to the parking structure because of the new reroute. That planter is why they moved the Pride Parade from next to my building and by Darcelle’s over to Couch because you can’t drive a car down that street. That planter is why you couldn’t get out of Old Town during the Starlight Parade. I mentioned it again on Friday, and one of the PBOT staff said, “Oh, you should really reach out and advocate for this.” And I was like, “How many more times? I have had two meetings with you about it. I put it in the 90-Day Plan. I have talked about it at every single press conference. And I have followed up with both the Pride Parade and the Starlight Parade. Is anyone receiving my emails? Because this is a little too much volunteer work for you guys to just ignore.” That is at the super local level.
At the county and state levels, one of our county commissioners has asked me to help with another 90-day plan on public health. So more to come, but it does require me to learn a lot about these different things. We have a weekly call with the Mayor’s Office, and at a recent meeting, the Mayor’s staff brought someone from the county to talk to us about the crisis statistics among the homeless. I said at the start, “I already know all of these numbers, but where will someone who is extremely mentally ill go? Where will they ever live other than the street?” The woman from the county said, “Oh, well, you can call this number, and they will take them to the hospital for 48 hours.” I was like, “Yes, I know. We know all of those things. Where will they live after that?” And she looked really discouraged and said, “There is nowhere.”
We were on a Zoom call, and I said to everyone on the phone, “I want you to look outside right now.” I turned my camera around. At the time, a naked woman was outside licking my front window. And I said, “This is the plan. There is no plan.” We can do all the outreach in the world, but some people do not have the agency to make decisions for themselves that will keep them safe and healthy.
If this is how we take care of the most vulnerable, then get me out of here. I was like, “I have got to tell my family, if I ever lose my mind, do not leave me in Oregon. I don’t want to end up on the sidewalk in Old Town, because it’s so complicated to get into some sort of housing. They are all waiting for me to commit myself.”
We have to change what it is to be an imminent threat to oneself, and I don’t know how to do that. I think the important thing to realize is that every state doesn’t have this problem. Other places have figured this out.
Oregon, and I know other west coast states, is trying to reinvent the wheel all of the time. Like one of the things they just did was at my request. They asked last year how they could help, and I said I needed a central database of available shelter beds. Before if you were looking for a shelter bed, you had to call every single shelter. Now, it’s hotel software, like a central database, like booking.com.
Before the centralized software, when you went to register for shelter, they’d have to call every single location, and then, they’d give you a bus ticket. I told them, “You want to know why no one shows up? You are talking to the most vulnerable people and you’re going to ask them to navigate the public transit system? Give them a taxi.” And so they did. Except it just got implemented a few weeks ago. Scott Kerman from Blanchet House was like, “Awesome, I am glad they have this.” I said, “I know. It was at my very specific request.” And he was like, “But this exists all over the country.” He started sending me links to all the other ones that exist. I was like, “Yeah, I don’t know, we’ve always got to reinvent the wheel here.”
Things already exist everywhere. And it’s sort of the same thing with “Built for Zero.” There’s already a proven model. Why are we fighting over this? Oregon is ranked last in mental health, right? We have got to navigate some of this stuff, because this is not how the most vulnerable should be cared for, and they cannot care for themselves. When somebody doesn’t believe me, I tell them to come down here. I don’t care if you believe me. I see mentally ill, naked women walking up and down the street. Some are in their 70s. There is a woman who has lived down here for 30 years. She will never go to a shelter. How is that Portland, Oregon, USA? People can solve these problems. This doesn’t exist in other countries. We are smarter than this. We are just not living up to our potential.
The Way: That’s a great closing thought.
Burke: I will tell you one last thing that I am campaigning for. We should stop using the term, “sweeps.” I feel like it oversimplifies the problem and the solution. At least in Old Town, no one is like, “Hey, you’ve got to get out of here.” It’s case management. They go meet every single person. They met all 220 people. Eighty-seven people said they would be interested in shelter. Forty-three actually showed up to the shelter. And they’re like, but if you are not interested in shelter, you can’t just stay. And I don’t feel like “sweeps” is the appropriate term for that process. We are saying, “We have an option for you,” and people are declining. To elevate the discussion, we have got to differentiate these two ideas, because “sweeps” sounds cruel–the idea of just sweeping people–but it doesn’t reflect the actual process.
The Way: Thanks for making the time for us.
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