Gov. Tina Kotek laid the groundwork when she declared homelessness a state of emergency, but advocates and homeless Oregonians remain skeptical of lawmakers as legislative session starts
Norman Lee LeDuff lives less than a mile from the Oregon State Capitol building in Salem, where legislators are discussing the issue of homelessness.
Homelessness is not an issue of discussion for LeDuff. It is the daily uncertainty of not knowing where he is going to find food to eat or a place to sleep. He has one certainty, he told Street Roots: legislators aren't going to change anything.
"They don't have a clue," LeDuff said. "They've never been homeless. They've never hung out with the homeless. They've never visited any homeless camps. They need to come down in the trenches, get their feet muddy and dirty and wet. And then they can go out and talk about homelessness."
Lynelle Wilcox also worries the Capitol building shields lawmakers from the reality just outside its doors. She is the program manager at SafeSleep United, a shelter for women located 2.5 miles from the Capitol.
"We have people literally dying from not having their basic human needs met," she said.
Nonetheless, Wilcox said she appreciates Gov. Tina Kotek declaring homelessness a statewide emergency Jan. 10 and asking lawmakers to approve $130 million to help more than 1,000 housing insecure Oregonians remain in their homes.
The declaration gives Oregon more flexibility in spending money and allows regulatory agencies more flexibility when enforcing land-use laws.
Kotek signed a total of three executive orders that will, among other things, create a statewide housing production goal of 36,000 new housing units a year — up from the current annual average of 22,000 new housing units. The orders also create a "housing production advisory council" to draft a budget and recommend specific policies encouraging private businesses to work with local, county and state governments.
"These actions are important first steps," Kotek said when signing the orders. "It’s going to take collaboration and commitment across local, state, federal and private sectors to make sure we are acting at the scale and urgency this humanitarian crisis demands."
Wilcox applauded the governor's initiative.
"That's such a good start," she said. "I love that the executive orders lay out some kind of planning. I just hope that the housing advisory committees include key people from the trenches."
Homelessness
Homelessness promises to dominate the 2023 legislative session that kicked off Jan. 17. In addition to Kotek's emergency declaration, lawmakers drafted some 100 pieces of legislation to deal with homelessness and a host of related issues, including affordable housing.
Jimmy Jones tracks the bills and keeps an eye on the session in general as the executive director of the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency in Salem. The Legislature's reach may already exceed its grasp, Jones said, with plans that would cost a billion dollars more than what it likely has to spend.
Jones, who also serves on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, added he is concerned money to address homelessness will flow mostly to the Portland metro area because of its population as well as the conspicuousness of people sleeping outside.
Kotek's declaration covers only 11 counties, excluding 25 counties in Eastern Oregon and along the coast. Oregon's homeless population is calculated county-by-county during the last week of every January through the Point-in-Time Count mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
Oregon, California, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arizona saw the largest increases in unsheltered homelessness since 2020. Oregon's homeless population grew by more than 3,300 people, according to the HUD count — a 22.5% increase.
Jones said the Point-in-Time Count relies on outdated and shoddy methodology by attempting a physical headcount one or two days out of the year. The results miscount some areas where homelessness actually increased by a higher percentage than the state average, he said.
"That is a very inefficient way to target this very specific need," he added.
Falls City, a community of 1,000 people in rural Polk County, serves as an example.
Oregon Department of Education statistics report the Falls City School District has the highest percentage of homeless children in the entire state. Nearly one-in-four students who attend school in the district experience homelessness.
Polk County Commissioner Jeremy Gordon, who served as the mayor of Falls City from 2017 to 2021, said the popular image of homelessness is a person pitching a tent on public property. Falls City represents the changing nature of homelessness, he said.
"The future of rural homelessness is people living in cars or RVs or couch-surfing," Gordon said. "There aren't these unmanaged camping situations, but that doesn't mean that the numbers per capita aren't alarming."
Larry Dowell of Falls City lives in an RV that is clearly not recreational and only sporadically vehicular. Sometimes it runs. He never knows. Mostly, it stays parked wherever he can find a space.
"In Falls City, it's a little easier to park out there because it's more rural, but there's no gas station out there, nothing," Dowell said. "It's desolate out there, and there's not really much in terms of resources, so it's a little easier to go to (Dallas, Oregon)."
Kotek is reportedly addressing rural concerns about the distribution of state funding, and Jones said she has his sympathy in attempting such a balancing act. There is undeniable wisdom in trying to reach the highest concentrations of homelessness in the Portland metro area and along the Interstate 5 corridor between Eugene and Portland, he said.
However, he added, the needs of rural Oregon are important as well.
"Because homelessness is an emergency in every corner of Oregon, we hope that communities are empowered to address it in ways that allow community leaders to take action," Gordon, who also serves on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, said. "Every community deserves to be supported, and every community leader needs to take some responsibility."
Jones said he and other homeless advocates cast a particularly wary eye this legislative session on a proposal by the Oregon Mayors Association. He said it sounds great ... on paper.
The proposal asks local governments be paid an amount equal to $40 per resident and no less than $50,000 in direct funding per year to address homelessness. City officials can use the money themselves or pass it along to outside agencies.
Association members are asking lawmakers for a total of $123 million annually over the next 10 years. To Jones, there's a fly in that $1.3 billion ointment.
"The ask is structured in such a way that there wouldn't be any parameters," he said.
The draft proposal (currently a budget request that might be nested into a specific bill) outlines how the money can be used. However, possible uses include such things as "environmental mitigation" and "abatement/clean-up" that homeless advocates worry might be used to sweep people out of sight and out of mind.
"We want the money to be used for the homeless population and not against it, but it's going to be very politically difficult to say no to that bill," Jones said. "We will support it, but I hope there will be some sideboards put around it that are in line with best practices."
Monmouth City Councilor Christopher Lopez, who also serves on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, expressed less diplomatic thoughts about the proposal.
"It's a terrible idea," he said. "It's basically a cash grab for cities. It asks for a huge amount of money for cities based on populations but with no oversight or conditions."
Affordable housing and evictions
Affordable housing, an issue intertwined with homelessness, will also likely receive a lot of legislative attention this session as the rent and eviction protections put in place earlier in the pandemic continue to expire.
There are efforts afoot by Republicans such as state Rep. Boomer Wright of Coos Bay, to repeal limits on rent increases. State Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, wants to give landlords the power to evict tenants on month-to-month agreements without cause.
Despite those efforts, Jones expects to see more progressive changes in Oregon's landlord-tenant laws — perhaps capping rent increases over inflation at 3% annually instead of the current cap of 7%.
"Rent control in Oregon will look more like California," Jones predicted.
Lawmakers should also try to slow the eviction process, he said — stretching it out and slowing it down will keep people in their homes. He added he would like to see $100 million earmarked for the Oregon Eviction Diversion and Prevention Program, or ORE-DAP, and a continuation of COVID eviction support.
"It's practically impossible for evicted households to rehouse themselves," Jones said.
A lot of work this session will likely focus on the supply side of affordable housing. Many local officials complain it is difficult to increase the amount and variety of their housing stock when they run into the barriers imposed by their urban-growth boundaries and Oregon's other land-use laws.
Oregon's famously tight land-use laws are largely products of the late 1960s and early 1970s when then-Gov. Tom McCall warned against Oregon becoming "nothing but a hungry hussy, throwing herself at every stinking smokestack that’s offered."
Senate Bill 100 established Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Commission in 1973 when the state's population was 2.3 million people. Now that it is 4.2 million, Jones said Oregon needs to rethink its 50-year-old land-use philosophy.
"We've tried to freeze development in the 1970s," he said. "Our population has grown so much that it's really outgrown that system. Tom McCall put his finger on the pause button on the VCR and tried to stay in that moment in 1973. We have to do better. We have to build a better state."
Behavioral health
Behavioral health is another topic intersecting with homelessness. State Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, chairs the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care and wants his fellow lawmakers to make local mental health programs a major priority.
That would be a strong step toward helping people living on the street like himself, said Derrik Sandy of Salem.
"Homelessness doesn't just come with homelessness," Sandy said. "It comes with all kinds of shit like mental illness. You're not just dealing with one situation."
The very thought of legislators bandying about billions of dollars makes Carrie Horton roll her eyes. She has housing now, but she spent the last seven years living on the streets of Oregon's capital city.
"All of these buildings they're building for stupid shit ought to be built for the homeless community," Horton said. "Then they wouldn’t have this — people on the street living in tents, sleeping in the doorways of the offices. If they want all this to stop, they have to be more helpful and more thoughtful of what's going on.
"It took me a good four-and-a-half years to fight for housing because they're so busy because Salem has so many people who are homeless out here. It's unbelievable. It's crazy."
Brittany Sims, who sleeps under a bridge in Salem, said she doesn't expect anything from the Legislature. She fends for herself. She always has. No matter the rhetoric coming out of the building less than a mile away, she said she knows she always will.
"It's easy for the people who have grown up on the streets," Sims said. "For people who have grown up on the streets, it's not an issue. No one fucks with us. This is all I know. It's not hard for me, but other people who haven't grown up like I have, they're in the pit."
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. 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.
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