While both Mayor Ted Wheeler and nonprofit Urban Alchemy say they would have no problem switching from tents to pods, the service provider says there are benefits to allowing tents.
Gov. Tina Kotek has made it clear that state funding for sanctioned homeless camping sites in Portland will only pay for pods at the sites, not tents.
“We think there will be better success if we go with the pods,” said Kotek at a press event Wednesday.
Kirkpatrick Tyler, chief of government and community affairs for Urban Alchemy, said they're open to the more rigid structures.
“So we’ve been looking at that, the mayor’s office has been looking at that, and we welcome the intervention of sturdier, more advanced types of shelter,” Tyler said.
The city has contracted with Urban Alchemy to provide services and staff for the first sanctioned homeless campsite in Portland.
Tyler says Urban Alchemy would have no problem switching the plan from tents to pods.
In fact, he says the group runs some encampments that use pod structures.
"In Los Angeles, we operate what are called ‘Safe Sleep Villages,’ and those Safe Sleep Villages are more durable structures that have electricity, that have the ability to be temperature controlled. So we welcome every innovation that’s going to make the best possible experience for us," Tyler said.
But Tyler also says doing so may alienate the unhoused who prefer to stay in tents.
“Because a part of the psychology around that is that this tent is something that I own, it’s something nobody can take away from me. So if I can take what I know that I have control over to a place that’s gonna be safe, then I would be willing to go, rather than staying in this unsafe environment inside of an encampment,” Tyler said.
But the governor says from what they’ve seen and heard around the state, pods would be the better option.
And that’s where state funding will go.
“We let the mayor know that we want to use the state money for non-congregate sites in pods as opposed to tents. Because people need to be able to lock and keep their stuff and feel safe and feel secure ... pods that are lockable. People can keep their stuff safe, and people feel more secure in them. That’s what we’re hearing and we’re seeing in success around the state. The state’s money should go toward that kind of thing," Kotek said.
Tyler believes a hybrid model, of both tents and pods, could work best to accommodate as many people as possible.
"So it may mean having some spaces that are tents, and working with folks to get to that place where they feel comfortable and empowered enough to say, ‘Now I can transition here,'" he said.
Tyler says Urban Alchemy has even had some experience in transitioning people from tents to tiny homes.
"In Los Angeles we were able to get a full site which was called the Madison, which was Safe Sleeping, to get 36 residents in that site to transition over to Westlake which was a tiny home village. But that took engagement, that took investing in what people cared about, it took those conversations. So I think it’s possible, I think the same work it takes to get a person from a tent to a pod is the same work it takes to get a person to go from streets into a permanent unit," Tyler said.
We asked the governor's staff Thursday whether a hybrid camp of both pods and tents would qualify for state funding, but they said they couldn't get back to us Thursday.