Portland To Mandate "Rest Spaces" For The "Unhoused" On Private Property

                The city of Portland, Oregon, is preparing a regulation that would potentially require all new homeowners to provide “rest spaces” for the homeless, or the “unhoused,” as the politically correct now refer to them. The city’s “planning and sustainability commission,” the body responsible for writing and enforcing Portland’s building codes, recently approved a change to building guidelines that mandates that all new construction feature “opportunities to rest and be welcome” for those who don’t live, work, or shop in the buildings.

                According to the Daily Wire, a member of the commission told local reporters that the new requirement is meant to benefit the “unhoused,” who otherwise could be kicked off of private property for loitering, sleeping, and camping, etc. The member explained, when introducing the measure at a recent meeting, “Just one of the realities of Portland right now is that we have a lot of folks who are unhoused who benefit from some of these spaces that provide weather protection.”

                Another one of Portland’s current realities is that a staggering 34% of its residents want to leave, according to a recent survey, in large part due to the homeless crisis.

                The planning and sustainability commission reportedly considered “how private development can provide places for people to feel welcome and safe, as well as allow space for people to rest, especially in light of our current housing shortage.” A housing shortage, it should be noted, that was created by the city’s hyper-progressive social policies and ridiculously stringent environmental regulations that drove the price of housing through the proverbial roof. The city already refuses to enforce a prohibition on camping and squatting in parks and on public ways and prohibits its police force from breaking up tent cities and other encampments. The new regulation would effectively give the home—I mean the unhoused-- the run of the city, on both public and private land.

                The progressive’s bizarre desire to let anyone live anywhere they want, regardless of logic, legality, income, or character, grows ever stronger. It is not only on a macro scale now as regards illegal aliens entering the country with impunity. Nor is it even limited to “sanctuary cities” on a much smaller scale.  Now they want it to apply to a private business or individual’s home!

                Imagine a young newlywed couple living in an apartment:

   “Honey, I’m home! Say, who’s this?”

   “Oh, that’s Eduardo, dear. He’s camping in our bathr—er, ‘rest space.’ By-the-way, he’s staying for dinner…and would like to watch a movie later. And he says we’re out of beer.”