I recently chatted with a man who worked in downtown Portland in the 1980s. He remembers, he told me, seeing street homelessness increase those years after Ronald Reagan became president.
There’s a reason.
The Reagan administration began the contemporary era of street homelessness with its slashes to social spending, and in particular, the Housing and Urban Development agency. HUD’s budget went from $83 billion in 1979 to $18 billion in 1983, and those pre-Reagan levels never recovered.
We are still, stunningly, living in that aftermath.
The Section 8 vouchers, now called Housing Choice Vouchers, are scarce treasures rather than widely available to people who need them. Public housing investments halted. President Bill Clinton, whose administration also turned welfare into a draconian system, continued this attack on public housing. The last public housing that HUD supported was in the 1990s, and the repairs of existing public housing is woefully underfunded.
This context is important for understanding that the “Build Back Better” package the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden are negotiating is a really big deal for housing.
A really big deal.
The earliest package had about 322 billion targeted for housing. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding the whole process to be quite the nail-biter. Only a few days ago I read that the housing funds would be entirely removed as negotiators work with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.,and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. Next, the speculation was $100 billion.
As of press time, the latest numbers are $150 billion. It’s not clear what levels of funding would go to rent assistance, public housing, and the housing trust funds.
But this is clear: substantial investments would be a pivot from 1980s brutal scarcity. Rep. Pramilla Jayapal, D-Wash, is leading a disciplined and effective progressive caucus that is charting a vision for a federal government that invests in the wellness of people.
Local communities need this federal funding. Thankfully, in the last five years taxpayers have stepped up in Portland to fund a housing bond, and then the whole Metro region to fund a housing bond and a homelessness services measure.
But the scale of what we can do locally is not enough to reset the structural despair.
Clearly, it’s not just housing. So many areas of this “Build Back Better” package are key to addressing homelessness, because it’s not happening in isolation. From childcare to tax credits to coping with a disrupted climate – all of this matters to people living in homelessness, or living on its precipice.
So, there’s a lot at stake. Both Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley have been fighting for housing, but it’s always important to make clear how important this is.
And my goodness, if we can turn this corner of the last four decades and see significant investments in housing? We should dance in the streets.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
