Officer Jeff Myers is long-striding down the street, stiff-legged and fast at 6-foot-8, and he's looking for a creative solution. There's a knot of people huddled outside nonprofit social service agency Transition Projects Inc., in Old Town. They're shying away from the rain, and ...

Officer Jeff Myers is long-striding down the street, stiff-legged and fast at 6-foot-8, and he's looking for a creative solution. There's a knot of people huddled outside nonprofit social service agency Transition Projects Inc., in Old Town. They're shying away from the rain, and ...

Pop quiz time, Willamette Week readers! Which of the following was discussed today at the SAFE (Safe Access for Everyone) Oversight Committee in its hearing regarding the sidewalk obstruction ordinance? A) The ordinance should be repealed. B) The ordinance is working well, and should not be repealed. C) There are not enough services available to homeless individuals. D) All of the above. The answer is D. Today's hearing lived up to all of its "listening session" potential?members of the SAFE Oversight Committee sat at each of the twelve tables in the First Unitarian Church's community room to listen to a discussion between members of the business community, social service agencies, and homeless individuals regarding how the sidewalk obstruction ordinance has affected those various constituencies. "I have yet to see anyone but [transients] and homeless people get a citation," said a homeless person going by "Jukebox." "You haven't seen it enforced on anyone but homeless people?" asked Mark Jolin, executive director of the outreach agency JOIN. "I have never seen a yuppie get a citation. Ever," Jukebox said. "It's so one-sided, it's ridiculous." "Are there benches or parks available to you?" Jolin asked a bit later. "Never," Jukebox responded. There are too many people who are homeless and not enough benches and bathrooms." You get the gist of it. The hundred people attending were given an hour to talk about the ordinance at their tables, and then an hour was spent listening to a member of the SAFE Committee report back to ...

Here's an update to WW's report about City Council voting this week whether to provide $338,043 to a non-profit that provides case management and other services to the Portland homeless, to operate an emergency winter housing facility for women. The ordinance to approve the contract between the City and non-profit Transition Projects, Inc. passed 4-0. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was absent. "I'm pleased that we are linking the women with existing services and providing them with the opportunity to access case management and transitional housing," says Jamaal Folsom, Commissioner Erik Sten's liaison to the Bureau of Housing and Community Development. The emergency winter housing, which is on the second floor of an old Ramada Inn near the Rose Quarter, provides 60 beds for homeless women. That triples the amount of winter shelter available to homeless women in the city.

There's probably no point my reporting on this, because someone's bound to change their mind again in a minute, but the homeless access center in Old Town now looks more likely, once again, to be going on Block U. Not block 25.

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Commissioner Erik Sten is negotiating hard for one of two possible sites for a $30m permanent day access center for the homeless in Old Town Chinatown?and says he expects ink on a contract to be dry in the next two weeks. He hopes to have doors open at the center by 2009.

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