Meals on Wheels has stopped operating in downtown Portland as its frustrated bosses say they can’t keep staff safe in the crime-ridden city.
The charity said this week it is closing its two facilities in the city, with frustrated Meals on Wheels Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Washington telling reporters it was a ‘long time coming.’
Washington lamented a lack of action to curb crime as the reason for the decision, which brought the charity’s 20-year stay at its popular Elm Court location to a close.
‘I can’t keep our staff safe and our volunteers safe because there’s always something happening,’ she said, per KION.
‘We’ve been threatened with knives, and fires have been set. It was time to close.’
Washington said Meals on Wheels has not operated in-person dining at the Elm Court location since it was closed in the pandemic, and has since been serving as a hub for delivery drivers to pickup meals for local residents in need.
But she said that even the reduced operations were hampered by threats caused by the crumbling city.
Meals on Wheels has stopped operating in downtown Portland as its frustrated bosses say they can’t keep staff safe in the crime-ridden city
Meals on Wheels Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Washington (right) said the move was a ‘long time coming’ due to Portland’s widespread issues
Washington said the charity has been continually losing volunteers due to the conditions they are forced to work in, including coming face-to-face with vagrants and criminals almost every day.
‘Every day, they’re stepping over feces, and there’s needles and drug dealing and deaths,’ she said.
The charity chief added that she has personally had to deal with the same challenges, recalling a recent incident where she had to step over a body to get into a Meals on Wheels facility.
She said she has considered trying to find another facility to help the needy in downtown Portland, but decided that the charity’s money is needed in other places that don’t put staff at such a risk.
‘Instead of paying for someplace else, we want to keep people fed,’ she said.
Portland’s downtown has suffered a dramatic decline in recent years, with tent encampments, rampant drug use and vacant skyscrapers
Local resident Sean Meece told KION that he would miss the charity as he used to use its community services near his apartment.
But he said that he understood the move because of the area’s crime problems, telling the outlet: ‘If you’re out here by yourself, don’t come out here at night. Because within a mile or two-mile radius, it’s not a fun place to be by yourself.’
Portland’s downtown has suffered a dramatic decline in recent years, with tent encampments, rampant drug use and vacant skyscrapers overshadowing even its most beautiful landmarks.
Office vacancy rates reached 35 percent earlier this year – the highest among America’s 25 largest downtowns – while the city’s tallest tower, the U.S. Bancorp ‘Big Pink,’ is more than half empty and recently listed for sale at a fraction of its former value.
The downturn was accelerated by Oregon’s 2020 experiment with drug decriminalization, which reduced possession of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine to the level of a parking ticket.
What was meant as a progressive reform instead fueled an overdose crisis and entrenched open-air drug markets across the city.
By 2023, Oregon counted more than 20,000 homeless people, nearly two-thirds of them unsheltered, as overdose deaths surged.
The state has since reversed course, recriminalizing hard drug possession, but downtown Portland has struggled to recover.
Portland also U-turned on policing. In June 2020, amid Black Lives Matter protests and calls to ‘defund the police’ sweeping the nation, officials slashed millions from the force’s budget. A year later, faced with rising crime, homelessness and drug use, they increased the $230 million budget by $5.2 million.
