Thick crusts of ice covered the sidewalk. Trees fell on rooftops and trucks. Powerlines snapped, letting loose the deadly currents that killed members of a young family. Others died of hypothermia — at least four deaths are being investigated in Multnomah County.
Now, as snow and ice melt into soggy patches of land, there’s plenty to assess. Residents across the region lost power and water for days, leaving even housed people vulnerable. Multnomah County moved elders and people with babies who were living in life-threatening conditions into motels.
People experiencing homelessness, in particular, suffered through the ice storm.
The long-term fix is housing and a society with a strong safety net. But in an emergency, it is about strong but nimble systems and the acumen and motivation of the people vested with decision-making responsibility. Lives are on the line.
Multnomah County carried a heavy lift of opening 12 severe weather shelters, but also closed them too soon. Even though the region was covered in ice Jan. 17, its conditions did not meet any of the parameters set up by city and county governments: forecasts must be at 25 degrees or below; or slightly higher at 32 degrees or below if accompanied by one inch of driving rain; one inch of snow; or “the county's chief operating officer or their designee may consider other conditions or circumstances during a severe weather event that could increase the risk to the community.”
“We have to look at lessons from an ice event like this,” Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, Multnomah County communications director, said, adding the county will reassess its severe weather thresholds to include ice.
Staffing these severe weather shelters was made more difficult because of uncooperative city leadership, according to Sophie Peel's reporting in Willamette Week.
Mired in a scuffle over city demands that the county post security officers at shelters, the city weakened its commitment to helping staff shelters. Peel reported 10 times the amount of county employees staffed shelters compared to city employees — 69% of shifts were covered by county workers, 6.5% by city workers and 7% by community volunteers.
As recently as 2016, the Portland Housing Bureau ran the emergency shelters, although at a smaller capacity. The extreme weather of a distressed climate has greatly increased the need to open emergency shelters for people who are either homeless or residing in substandard conditions. Even though the county took over running the severe weather shelters, it remained a city-county partnership. This year marks the least involvement the city has taken.
There is a subtlety that might elude some city leaders who both clamor for shelters and then, when extreme weather impacts the city, don’t commit to them. While many people might not choose to live in shelters long-term, they will choose shelters in order to survive. In other words, congregate living and mats on the floor are not sustainable long-term, even though some people will use them when weather threatens their lives.
Failing to step up when shelters are clearly about saving lives begs the question: How much is the push for shelters about removing people from view? After all, at the same time the city backed away from supporting severe weather shelters, it maintains its system of sweeps.
That same weather threshold used by the county to open emergency shelters is used by the city to determine whether to sweep camps. It’s like a switch. “On” means situations are so dire that severe weather shelters must be opened. “Off” means that the city OKs removing a person’s shelter. This then poses an additional threat as people have to forego tarped tents for soggy blankets.
While regional and state governments carry the lion’s share of capacity for shelter and thus responsibility, many people step up, launching mutual aid drives and volunteering at emergency shelters. Outreach and shelter workers took extreme measures to assure people's safety.
People struggling with homelessness also join together in solutions.
I was reminded of this on the icy Wednesday of Jan. 17 when the severe weather shelters prematurely closed. That was new paper day at Street Roots, the usual peak day of activity.
For the first time in the six years I’ve been at Street Roots, the truck didn't arrive in the morning with bundles of newspapers. The McMinnville-based printer was shut down because of the ice.
Vendors had taken great lengths to arrive at the office — some hiking from camps in the woods where they’d set up for extreme weather, some long bus rides. Most of us had taken big falls on the ice. One elder had a sore hip, but other than that, people seemed to have escaped injury, so they could laugh about it.
Old Town was quiet. It was a little bit like the early COVID days, when most of the people who were out had nowhere else to go. A bunch of vendors waited the whole day, helping out in the office, making coffee and keeping each other company.
Thanks to so many of you, Street Roots staff began handing out snow day funds to vendors. A total of 664 people contributed $25,527, so each vendor could receive $100 to make up for lost sales.
When the newspaper finally arrived, vendors lined up on the icy sidewalk. Arm over arm, heels ground down in the slushy ice, they passed newspaper bundles in assembly line style from the car to the front desk of the vendor office. I don’t know who organized this method, but it was ingenious — no one was going to fall.
People took care of each other.
In a state of emergency, many things must be true at once. People do need to rise up and take care of each other. At the same time, government systems must be strong and nimble. Those in leadership must not be too distant from those whose lives their decisions impact.
Otherwise, what they say the rest of the time carries a whole lot less weight.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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