Safety – Page 7 – Overlook Neighborhood Association

1. Special meeting on homeless camping CANCELED

The lead petitioner seeking a vote by Overlook Neighborhood Association members on three resolutions related to homelessness has withdrawn the petition. OKNA therefore has canceled the special meeting scheduled for Monday, June 15 at 6 p.m.

The petitioner from the Overlook Action Alliance, which is an independent group comprised of a group of neighborhood residents and business owners, reached this decision during a discussion with OKNA leaders about the logistics of the special meeting. The meeting had already been postponed once due to technical issues. The consensus from that discussion was that election integrity would be extraordinarily difficult to ensure on a Zoom meeting.

In May, the OKNA board voted to sign onto a letter about homeless strategies written cooperatively by several North Portland neighborhoods. That letter calls upon the city to clear camps in parks, on public paths and where documented illegal activity occurs. It also requests that the city take steps to support homeless residents including opening additional managed camps throughout Portland and holding each neighborhood accountable for participating in the process of identifying appropriate locations for local managed camps. The city has yet to do this.

The board at its June meeting reiterated that the role of the OKNA Homeless Outreach is strictly as a liaison between OKNA and homeless camps, including the Hazelnut Grove camp. The committee is not to advocate or support camps nor to identify locations for sanctioned camps in the neighborhood.

OKNA Chair Alexandra Degher and Vice Chair Christian Trejbal wish to thank all of the Overlook residents who showed tremendous passion for these issues, and hope residents will remain engaged in the neighborhood association going forward.

Because there was so much interest in this topic, we highlight two opportunities for Overlook residents. The Overlook Action Alliance says it will continue to press the city to address issues related to homelessness in Overlook. Anyone interested in joining them should visit overlookactionalliance.org. In addition, neighbors who wish to discuss homeless issues in North Portland are encouraged to participate in a Zoom meeting organized by a few neighborhoods and activists on Tuesday, 6-8 p.m. (Phone: 253-215-8782 Meeting ID: 822 7998 4559, Password: 356218) Note: Unfortunately, that is the same time as the OKNA general meeting. (See below.) Continue reading “Overlook Neighborhood Update (June 13)”