Homelessness

The Longview City Council will consider stricter regulations of public camping and what "zero-tolerance" means in their community.

The Marion County District Attorney’s Office said Monday it has charged Tony Latrell Williams from Bend with attempted murder.

If approved, the deal would ban camping in seven more parks, some near schools and in residential neighborhoods.

Starting June 1 the area will be closed to all users including hiking, driving, mountain biking and dispersed camping.

Now, four months into Wilson’s mayoral term, the day center — which an estimated 1,800 people currently rely on — is set to close. Kristle Delihanty, director of PDX Saints Love, said without city funding, she has no other choice.

The Southern Oregon city has faced an increasingly visible homelessness problem in recent years, including a series of lawsuits.

People and providers have spent months trying to tap a new program intended to support health by keeping people out of homelessness, and they say that in the Portland area it’s turned into a bureaucratic nightmare in which the promised help often does not arrive in time.

With few options, little support and growing health risks, being older and homeless comes with unique difficulties.

Wilson delivered a message of hope in the midst of uncertainty at his first address Friday.

National homeless advocates say the evictions show the Trump administration’s ineffective approach to a widespread housing crisis.