Crazy question but my nephew said there is a large population of homeless in Portland, WA. I wanted to stay downtown at the Marriott by the water. He said it might not be safe to walk around as I might be alone.
What are your opinions on this?

There are homeless in all the major west coast cities. I can speak to the Seattle situation which is certainly sad but not dangerous. In my experience the homeless mostly keep to themselves. I don't know Portland but assume there would be other people out and about? That you wouldn't be walking down dark alleys after midnight?

There is a town of Vancouver Washington across the Columbia River from Portland Oregon. Without a doubt there is a homeless population in each town. Most (probably 90+%) are not a criminal element. Enjoy Portland Oregon in the daytime.

I've worked in downtown Seattle for the past 15 years and saw homeless on a daily basis. Not once have I ever been harassed by them.

You do mean Vancouver, WA? Not Vancouver, BC, Canada?

Portland does have LARGE pockets/settlements of HOMELESS, and they are a grand EYEsore.

BUT, as central Portland is considerably oriented with street cart food vendors there simply couldn't be too great a safety concern for them and their customers, as they are always THERE, and the (legit people and businesses) can't very well pack up and head to "Cartlandia" when the homeless take-over central Portland.

SO IF you are intent upon staying at a nice hotel property near the waterfront, go ahead and expect things will be fine, and that the hotel operators will tell you if/when they aren't fine.

PS - don't go near to the train station... (or the homeless there will just make you want to stay in your hotel room the whole trip)

"homeless in Portland, WA"

Oh I did not notice that before. Portland is in Oregon. Seattle is in Washington.

I've been to Portland and believe me, the homeless situation there is nothying like most cities in the US. And I was there several years ago, it has gotten much worse. There was just an article in our newspaper about all their problems recently.

There were homeless all over the main central areas (like Pioneer Sq) and they were not typical down and out older people, there were a LOT of young, healthy homeless people attracted to Portland who just do nothing but sit around all over. I had to try to force my way through them, more or less, just to get in/out of a major supermarket, they were practically blocking the doorway. Are they dangerous? Well, I'm sure some small contingent of them are, they sure are where I live and there is a certain portion of them who have serious mental illnesses and they can become violent sometimes. Some woman in my city was almost kidnapped and assaulted by one recently, actually. He had schizophrenia.

I don't know where that hotel is where you want to stay, I stayed at the Hilton Downtown and while I don't usually stay in that type of hotel, it was super great, a very convenient location and a great room. Good for public transportation and I even had a car and they had a parking garage very nearby. If you mean the Residence Inn, I think that's on one end of the city near waterfront park, don't know what it would be like to stay there, that location isn't as central and is near a major highway interchange. It isn't near a lightrail line either, which was really convenient for me.