Let's utilize the Wapato Jail facility and grounds for housing

We're a domesticated species. We often don't do well without a stable domicile. A quick look at the streets of our cities bears this generalization out. When thousands of people are without adequate shelter, it's only decent to place a very high priority on finding locations that they can occupy. Solving this problem is more of a social and psychological challenge than an engineering challenge. People's physical bodies don't take up a lot of space, relative to the size of a city. The engineering of these solutions is a significant project, but it's entirely feasible, if we marshal the will to make it a high enough priority.

Speakers at today's weekly Multnomah Building meeting advocated for utilizing the Wapato Jail facility and grounds for housing. I see this as an example of the types of innovative housing alternatives that I urged everyone to support at a recent Multnomah meeting.

Happily, fewer people are being caged than was apparently expected to be the case, leaving an empty facility that was built as a residence for hundreds of people. Part of the opposition to using it for housing has to do with the "symbolism of putting homeless people in jail." It's understandable that many people would see this as an unwelcoming image. But a facility converted from a place of punishment and confinement into a welcoming home could potentially be a symbol of healing, progress, and redemption. And in addition to the building, the 18 acres on which it sits can accommodate tiny home villages, which can keep many more people warm, dry, and safe.

Wapato won't be a solution for everyone, due to its distance from city center and other constraints. But that's no reason to eschew a solution that will work for hundreds of people. If we really want to make headway, we'll embrace a wide variety of solutions, each of which will be partial and incomplete. Every solution, including this one, will have real, immediate value for real people, and will be a piece of the puzzle of creating a new and better world.