Portland’s best-known camp for the homeless may, like its residents, have found a temporary rather than permanent home.
Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz has set her sights on relocating the West Burnside-based Right 2 Dream Too homeless camp to a parking lot on Southwest Naito Parkway, but that would require the camp to move again by May 2018.
As was first reported by the Portland Mercury, the Portland Water Bureau will begin construction on the Naito site starting that month to build a seismically resilient water pipe to deliver water to Portland’s west side in the event of an earthquake.
Fritz has worked for years to find a new home for the self-governed homeless community, which must vacate its current Old Town property by April so the Portland Development Commission can complete a $1.2 million deal to buy the property. Fritz is considering a parking lot at Southwest Market Street and Southwest Naito Parkway, owned by the Parks & Recreation Bureau that she manages.
However, the parks department has already agreed to let the water bureau use the site for construction of a 4,500-foot-long pipe that would send drinking water below the Willamette River to the city’s west side, said Water Bureau Director Mike Stuhr. The bureaus have discussed the water agency’s use of the site for more than a year, Stuhr said.
The site is the only one that meets the project’s requirements, Stuhr said. It allows the Willamette River Crossing to connect to the major pipes on either side of the river, while staying above the areas where the ground is expected to turn to liquid during the major subduction zone earthquake. It also meets the elevation requirements for the pipe’s gravity system to operate.
Portland City Council voted in December 2015 to approve spending at least $4 million toward the project. The project is expected to cost around $56 million.
“I’m not concerned at all that the parks bureau isn’t going to live up to what they committed to,” Stuhr said.
The project, Stuhr said, will require use of the entire site and involves large, heavy equipment.
The parks department and water department do not intend to share the site, said Sonia Schmanski, chief of staff to water bureau Commissioner Nick Fish.
“Commissioner Fish and Commissioner Fritz are in agreement that it wouldn’t be safe or appropriate to co-locate them,” Schmanski said. Fritz declined to comment.
–Jessica Floum
jfloum@oregonian.com
503-221-8306
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