Homeless Crisis

Portland Homeless Crisis

By Carter Scott 

In 2011, the annual telephone poll commissioned by the Portland Business Alliance polled people on the biggest issues facing the city. The results showed that what people considered were the most pressing problems involved recent traffic congestion, and unaffordable housing. 1% of people polled listed homelessness as the biggest issue in Portland. In December of 2018, when the poll was taken again, 33% of people pinned the largest problem on the homeless crisis. 

The homeless population in Portland is greatly increasing each year, and from 2015 to 2017, the city saw a 10% rise in people experiencing chronic homelessness. Now, more than 14,000 Portland residents are without homes, and a quarter of them are in families with children. 

More so in Portland than in other cities, the homeless crisis is largely due to inaccessible housing. Nationally, chronic homelessness has decreased 11% from 2007 to 2014, but in Portland, the number has only grown, despite the many services the city provides attempting to reach out. 

Many aspects combine to forge what we know presently as the homeless crisis in Portland, but the most undeniable factor is the steep cost of living in the city. There is no denial that Portland is constantly growing and having a hard time keeping up with the needs of the populace (traffic congestion is another prime example), and this has been partly due to the influx of Washington residents moving South from the Seattle area to escape the infamously expensive cost of living. In response to the country-wide migration to Oregon and Portland specifically, the city raised property cost and taxes to deter new movers and to make sure it was collecting enough from residents to support other facets of change, such as the traffic issue. Little or no thought was put into the currently and borderline homeless population, and how this would further diminish their efforts to gain - and hold onto - affordable housing. While currently, measures are being taken to ensure that more people have homes and the stability to work jobs, such as the raising of Oregon’s minimum wage, and the construction of tiny homes, shelters are only one step in the process of recovering from homelessness. Stability is very expensive. It’s almost impossible to find housing in a one or two-bedroom apartment for under $750, add onto that the first and last month’s rent down, and a security deposit, and you have months and months of saving to do. Shelters and tiny homes provide a starting ground, but with much of homeless mental health being ignored and untreated, along with physical exhaustion from lack of nourishment, it can be extremely difficult to keep a job and save. 

The homeless problem, while still increasing in severity, is being worked on, mostly by the community and nonprofit organizations. While land is still being granted to the tiny home projects, and organizations continue to reach out and offer their services, the crisis is being dealt with. Additionally, Senate Bill 1532 working to slowly raise our minimum wage will allow people without homes to save more while satisfying their basic needs, which is vital towards escaping the situations they face.

THE CITY OF PORTLAND OREGON - HOMELESS CAMPSITE 

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