Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the city is considering using pod structures instead of tents for their sanctioned homeless camping sites after Gov. Tina Kotek told him they would rather the camps have them, and the state can pay for them.
We spoke one-on-one with Wheeler about this in a break during Wednesday's Portland City Council meeting.
He says in the current form, the plan for mass homeless camping sites wouldn't qualify for any of the $200 million the Legislature just passed. But a pod village would.
Wheeler said in a recent meeting, Kotek said she wants the city to use pods instead of tents and offered to fund it and help get them delivered.
“One of the concerns that’s been expressed by the governor is that what we’re proposing is a tent camp, and frankly, some of the neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity are concerned about that as well. Now, I could certainly live with that. I’ve seen what the contractor Urban Alchemy does in other communities, it’s certainly neat, it’s orderly, it’s clean, it’s safe, but the governor feels pretty strongly that it should be more rigid structures like pods. And she’s committed to both helping fund those and secure them, so I think that’s a big step up ... it’s greatly appreciated," Wheeler said.
But the original plan and service model was based on tent camping, not pods. So KATU asked Wheeler whether switching to pods would impact the services that are to be provided at the site.
"It doesn’t change it at all. The service model remains the same, the delivery of services remains the same. The way the camp is structured and organized remains the same. It would literally just be a pod, a more rigid structure, instead of a tent,” Wheeler said.
He went on to say the nonprofit they've contracted to provide services, Urban Alchemy, has experience with tiny home or pod villages as well as tent camps.
But pods aren't cheap.
“The pods are a much more expensive proposition. They can run about $20,000 per pod, obviously a lot more expensive than a tent. But if the governor feels strongly about that, and she’s committed to funding it as she says, and she’s committed to working with us to have those delivered on a timely basis, we’re all for it!” Wheeler said.
We caught up with Kotek in St. Helens and she confirmed they want to fund the pods, as long as the city and county agree on a solid plan together.
“We’ve been connecting with the folks who build these [pods,] we can get them there. They need to have the land, they need to have the plan, and they need to be sure they can get outcomes with the funding we want to give them. I need to see from the city is them working with the county to get people in the door and out the door into permanent housing. And so, I hope to see that plan soon because that’s what we want to fund from the state,” Kotek said.
However, Wheeler did say if it doesn’t work out, they can fall back to the original plan of just having tents at the site.
“I don’t think we need rigid pods; I think tents would work just fine, but if the governor is willing to use some of her package to help pay for this, then great!” Wheeler said.