Make Them Listen

It’s time for our elected officials to hear directly from the people. It’s time for the politicians to listen.

Thank you for taking action and making your voice heard.

Portland has some big problems. To solve them, we need greater urgency and more action from our local and state elected officials to solve them.

End unsheltered homelessness on our streets.
Reform and reinvest in public safety.
Strengthen accountability and justice.
Clean-up the garbage, waste, and graffiti across the city.

Join the movement. Make your voice heard. Let’s hold our elected officials accountable and uphold our community values.

Dear [Lawmaker],

I am writing to urge bolder action to fix the big problems facing the City of Portland. Every local and state elected official who represents Portland is responsible and accountable to uphold our community values.

Please act now to achieve the following three goals:

End the unsheltered homeless crisis on our streets. This is a humanitarian crisis that requires an emergency-level government response.

Action:

1)	Immediately prioritize and fund more short-term shelters to give people better, safer places to go.

Reform and reinvest in public safety. Portland is more dangerous with more serious crime every day. Trust between the community and police is going down while the complexity of public safety challenges is going up. We must ensure safety and restore trust.

Action:

1) Immediately prioritize and fund hiring more officers to ensure Portland has a sufficient, well-trained police bureau for a city our size.

2) Require body cameras on all police to improve transparency, accountability, and justice for those who enforce the law and those who break it.

3) Expand the non-police Portland Street Response to engage those experiencing homelessness, mental health, and addiction challenges.

4) While respecting the right to peacefully protest, prosecute those who engage in violence and vandalism.

Clean-up the garbage, waste, and graffiti across the city. Portland is a beautiful city that, sadly, has never looked worse. Garbage, toxic waste, drug paraphernalia and graffiti has been allowed to accumulate all-across the city – creating fire, environmental and public health problems. Volunteer clean-ups are inspirational and deeply valued, but professional sanitation is an expected basic function of government.

Action:

1)	Immediately align and deploy all local and regional public and private sanitation and other resources necessary to ensure Portland is a community that is safe, sanitary and that everyone can enjoy and take pride.

Right now, the livability and future vitality of Portland is on the line.

Government has the resources and power to fix these issues. The money is there – what’s missing is the leadership to boldly address our problems.

Sincerely,
______

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