In the middle of the housing debate, we find both a bustling city and a city filled with human suffering
People experiencing homelessness having sex in a doorway in downtown Portland. A camp full of bicycle parts. A group of people getting high or shooting up in public. Another group with an abundance of trash overflowing from their shopping cart or the car they sleep in. Feces in the park. These are the images being posted by residents on social media to inspire government to create the political will to do something about the homeless problem in Portland. Shocking to some, unfortunate to others.
This comes after a public campaign by the Portland Business Alliance asking the city of Portland to support people experiencing homelessness with more resources.
Last week, Mayor Charlie Hales came back with a package to support people on the streets.
Two of the biggest components of the initiative are creating day storage spaces for people on the streets and investing nearly a million dollars to support some of our most vulnerable residents to get off the streets. Both are great things.
The other is to create a centralized point of contact so people can report aggressive behavior throughout the city.
Anyone who has read this column knows that I’m not afraid to criticize bad policy around homelessness and poverty, nor am I shy about saying when elected leaders are doing the right thing. The mayor’s package was a good one, and the city should be grateful. Saying that, it’s still only applying a Band-Aid to a gaping wound. We hope next year’s budget cycle is kinder than the last. We would also love to see the city and county work towards an injection site for IV drug users. It's long past time with embraced this kind of harm reduction.
Here’s the thing.
We all know that Portland is facing a housing crisis. The writing has been on the wall for some time. What was once a conversation about the gentrification of people of color and people sleeping on our streets has now turned to, “How are middle-class Portlanders, many of whom are white ironically, going to afford to live in the city?” With rising housing costs and low wages, it’s very likely that social service workers, teachers and others will no longer be able to afford to live in the city in the decade to come. In fact, San Francisco announced just this week that there is now a teacher shortage in the city due to the cost of living. We aren’t far behind.
The black community and homeless advocates have been warning of this crisis for the past three decades. They were experiencing it.
How Portland can be praised for being one of the best planned urban environments in America with no affordable-housing requirements is one of biggest myths of our time. Meanwhile, displacement and homelessness continue to occur at alarming rates within our community.
There are a lot of people getting rich. That’s what happens in a free market that doesn’t have any kind of regulations for rents, housing and wages. When one stops to think about the foreclosure crisis and the amount of residents that lost their homes during the recession coupled with the amount of people being displaced post-recession as the rental market has skyrocketed — you’re talking about some very dire circumstances for people. Beneath all of the new business, condos and shine is an entire class of people surviving on the streets and living in extreme poverty. It’s not pretty.
In fact, worlds are colliding. For every Twitter group organizing and posting photos of people experiencing homelessness having sex in a public park or reporting bike thefts, there is a Facebook group or coalition being formed out of fear of losing their housing.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of the debate, we find both a bustling city and a city filled with human suffering.
There are no easy answers to the problems that lie ahead. Whatever it may be will require great leadership, political risk by all and an enormous lift by our community to address the problem.
Regardless of where you fall on the complex subject, one thing is for sure: Portland wants elected leaders to prioritize housing. I mean, after all, it isn’t homeless people having sex or doing drugs that’s the problem. It’s the lack of housing that’s the problem. Imagine having your behavior viewed 24/7. I’m sure it wouldn’t be pretty.
Israel Bayer is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach him at israel@streetroots.org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: More news and commentary about affordable housing
