Portland Mayor Keith Wilson has a lot to say about homelessness. It’s not all true

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson ran on a platform to end unsheltered homelessness by rapidly increasing the city’s overnight-only shelter capacity and more firmly enforcing its anti-camping laws.

Just over six weeks into his time in office, the mayor has already helped open 200 new overnight shelter beds and announced 50 addiction recovery beds that are due to become available soon. He’d like to see a total of 3,000 more beds added – either by the city and county or through public-private partnerships – doubling the number that were open the day he took office.

His goal is to have enough shelter to accommodate the nearly 6,000 people currently living outside in Multnomah County. He says overnight-only shelter beds will fill a gap in the existing system of 24-hour beds and village-style shelters. Once there is enough shelter for everyone, officials can connect people with mental health and housing services, Wilson says. He expects that to be accomplished by Dec. 1, at which point he believes unsheltered homelessness will be rare and the need for shelter beds will decrease.

Wilson has promoted his homelessness plan with a blizzard of numbers, minutia and anecdotes. But some of his most frequent claims don’t hold up to scrutiny. The Oregonian/OregonLive went through some of the key statements about homelessness the mayor has made repeatedly and fact checked them to the extent possible…

Read the full story on The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Photo by Beth Nakamura.