Compassionate Change District PORTLAND

A Central Eastside for Everyone

The Central Eastside Needs Compassionate Change

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Main Content

We all get it. Houselessness is a crisis in Portland.

Sleeping on the streets threatens our houseless neighbors’ personal safety, health, and their ability to work or get an education. For businesses, the housing emergency creates tensions over trash, waste, sidewalk obstructions, and more. There are many solutions. Not all are created equal.  A deeply flawed fix is heading for a Portland City Council vote on January 30. The Central Eastside Industrial Council will ask permission to create an “Enhanced Service District” (ESD) to run private security patrols and street cleanups.

There is a better way!

A wide community coalition led by Right 2 Survive asks the Central Eastside Industrial Council to adopt an innovative Compassionate Change District model that tackles the shared root problems of all neighbors—housed and unhoused.

Sign to Support

I run a shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness in the Central Eastside and I see firsthand that our policy of shuffling people around isn’t working. This proposal has the solutions we need to begin to actually help our neighbors who are on the streets. I fully support these ideas and this proposal.”
– Dan Trifone, Clark Center Shelter Manager

All our neighbors, regardless of housing status, deserve safe and stable places to sleep, wash, and organize their daily lives. These are the basic building blocks of civic health and well-being.
– Sandra Comstock, R2S

Our Proposal

Our “CCD” includes a clean-up program that helps solve the hygiene and trash issues that result from unequal access to sewer and garbage services. It includes a security program that centers the right to safe sleep and safe parking and is trauma-informed. It includes a jobs development program using peer-run systems to support the functioning of the clean-up and security components, and will all be transparently and democratically run by a governing board that includes representation from all stakeholders, with annual independent audits.

Clean Up Program. Peer-run “equal access” to water, bathrooms, showers, and laundry. Learn More

Security Program. Peer-run safe sleep & park encampment with green space. Learn More

Jobs Development Program. Peer-run waste management program to complement the current Central City Concern program. Learn More

Democratic Governance. We call for a transparently and democratically elected  governing board  representing all community stakeholders. Learn More