The non-profit organization Meals on Wheels has said that it is done with downtown Portland. The organization provides food to seniors who are homebound but it has recently shut down two facilities, including one in downtown Portland, over crime and safety concerns.
Meals on Wheels Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Washington told reporters, “It’s been a long time coming.” One location was on Elm Court in downtown Portland, Oregon. The site had stopped offering dining for congregations of people after lockdown policies were implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Elm Court location was never able to reopen for in-person dining after the policies allowed for restaurants to resume serving people in person.
The location had instead turned into a hub for delivery drivers to pick up food to later get to seniors in their homes. However, that has had its own challenges with safety because of crime, the CEO said. “I can’t keep our staff safe and our volunteers safe because there’s always something happening,” she said. “We’ve been threatened with knives, and fires have been set. It was time to close.”
“Every day, they’re stepping over feces, and there’s needles and drug dealing and deaths,” Washington added, emphasizing that the organization has had a