"I won’t wait to act. As Mayor I will use my executive authority to move us in the right direction in strategic ways," - Mayor Wheeler, February 4, 2022.
Mayor Wheeler began issuing a series of Emergency Declarations in February 2022. These actions will speed the City’s recovery on a number of important issues.
For information the 90-day Fentanyl Emergency, please click here.
On February 4, 2022 Mayor Wheeler issued an Emergency Declaration to Address Campsites in Dangerous Sites Located High Crash Transportation Corridors within the City of Portland.
On August 19, 2022, Mayor Wheeler expanded the Emergency Declaration to Prohibit Camping within High Crash Transportation Corridors to also prohibit camping on key walking routes to K-12 schools.
The expanded Emergency Declaration will prohibit camping around school buildings and along priority routes to and from schools, prioritizes the work of the Impact Reduction Program to post and remove camps in these areas, and enables them to keep these sites free of camping with no right of return.
Routes that will be subject to prohibit on camping can be viewed here.
On February 24, 2022 Mayor Wheeler granted emergency authority to his designee to accelerate and streamline the process of establishing alternative shelter sites around the City of Portland.
Safe Rest Villages will be managed, temporary, outdoor shelters with onsite case management, peer support, behavioral and mental health services, as well as amenities such as showers, flush toilets, laundry, trash/recycling, and community gathering spaces.
On March 2, 2022 Mayor Wheeler issued an Emergency Declaration to activate a Street Services Coordination Center.
This new centralized incident command structure will connect local agencies and service providers to a singular point of contact. The goal of this Emergency Declaration is to get more houseless Portlanders compassionately placed into safe shelter.
The Street Services Coordination Center will be funded with by a $5.5 million-dollar investment that was already allocated during the 2021 Fall Budget Monitoring Process.
On Wednesday, May 11 2022, Mayor Wheeler's fourth Emergency Declaration went into effect to improve the cleanup of the city, unrelated to homelessness. This is the fourth in a series of Emergency Declarations aimed at helping to address homelessness and livability issues in Portland.
This Emergency Declaration will improve the cleanup of the city, unrelated to homelessness. This will streamline the work and accountability for cleaning up, dealing with trash, graffiti, illegal dumping, abandoned cars, and more. It focuses on cleanup work apart from—and outside of—occupied outdoor homeless camps. It will work to activate a new center, the Public Environment Management Office (PEMO) to manage operations.
On Thursday, July 21, 2022 Mayor Wheeler issued an Emergency Declaration to help address gun violence. The declaration unifies the city’s efforts under a unified command structure led by Community Safety Division Transition Director, Mike Myers.
The Emergency Declaration sets a goal to reduce Portland’s gun violence by at least 10 percent over the next two years and is guided by the findings and data provided by the California Partnerships for Safe Communities Homicide Report 2019-2021.
On Tuesday, January 30, 2024 Mayor Wheeler declared a state of emergency in the City of Portland to address the fentanyl crisis alongside Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. Each declared a 90-day state of emergency to address the public health and public safety crisis driven by fentanyl in Portland’s Central City.