Portland Dumping Homeless People Elsewhere

According to the last count made in 2014, there are approximately 4,000 homeless people including men, women, and children in Portland, OR.¹ During that same time period, a 10 year plan to end homelessness in Portland, was launched.² However, a decade later, homelessness is still a social issue in this very city. Although there have been great efforts to address homelessness, permanent housing remains a critical insufficiency. Portland is good about providing resources but the need for permanent housing is severe. Now, the city is turning to an alternative method: dumping homeless people elsewhere. 

Recently, Portland set aside $30,000 to pay for one way bus tickets for homeless people to leave the city.³ However, the requirements for their bus fare includes being able to prove they have secured housing with family or friends in a different city, and are medically fit. But is this really a solution? Are the the main causes for homelessness being ignored? Is this Portland’s way of cleaning off its streets to have a better city image?

The main and most common causes of homelessness include: mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, physical impairments, HIV/AIDS, loss of employment, and lack of support for those emancipated from prison.² Often homeless people are stereotyped and seen as lazy, criminals, homeless by choice, and all are drug addicts for example.^4,5 Translocating them to another city does not necessarily help them gain permanent housing or health benefits. In speculation, it is most likely that the places they are staying outside of Portland are temporary. Additionally, one of the requirements for a bus ticket includes being medically fit, but if that is a person’s main cause for homelessness, they won’t be able to access this, so how is this helping them? Shipping them off to another city is simply clearing up the streets of Portland, and not directly helping them. It’s benefitting the city’s image but does not help the root problems of homelessness. 

During spring break of 2016, I embarked on an Alternative Spring Break Trip that focused on economic justice in Portland. A group of 6 of us explored the different areas of Portland to gain a better understanding of homelessness in our own backyard, learn about the different resources homeless people have access to, and hear some personal stories. We joined forces with multiple organizations aimed to help the homeless community and participated in an immersion program.

Alternative Spring Break Trip Group at JOIN Organization

Alternative Spring Break Trip Group at Right to Dream Too 

We learned about places like the Blanchet House and Sisters of the Road that help treat homeless symptoms of hunger, and although very beneficial on a daily basis, programs like JOIN provide homeless people with consultants and helps connect them to different long-term resources whether that is education, job training, health information, and applying to homes, which address more of the root problems. We were given a number of tours in various parts of the city and acknowledged the different resources that exist like the Salvation Army, Street Roots, Potluck in the Park, Right to Dream Too, Portland Rescue Mission, Oregon Food Bank, and places like Dignity Village. We also heard personal stories from people who experienced homelessness for years, and learned about what they experienced on the daily, such as being scared of getting stabbed or stolen from, or having to live under freeways and having to fight off raccoons and rats for food. Depression, anxiety, and dementia seemed to be a common result from being homeless for a long period of time. 

Rather than addressing the causes and effects of homelessness, Portland is willing to buy people who are homeless one way bus tickets to leave town. Rather than using the thousands of dollars for more effective programs aimed to get the origins of homelessness, they are simply evacuating them from Portland and making them another city’s social issue. Homelessness is a critical social issue, and can occur to anyone at any point. This is an issue I am passionate about, and I encourage you all to look into how you can help your community members, please feel free to explore these websites:

Right to Dream Too

http://right2dreamtoo.blogspot.com

JOIN

http://joinpdx.org

Potluck in the Park

http://www.potluckinthepark.org

References:

1. ”The City of Portland, Oregon." Ending Homelessness RSS. 2014. Accessed April 25, 2016. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/phb/60643.

2. Oregonian/OregonLive, Anna Griffin | The. "Our Homeless Crisis." OregonLive.com. 2015. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland-homeless/index.html.

3. ”Portland Offering Homeless People a One-Way Bus Ticket Out of Town." Fox News Insider. March 26, 2016. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/03/26/portland-offering-homeless-people-one-way-bus-ticket-out-town.

4. "Myths about the Homeless - Preble Street." Preble Street. April 1, 2011. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://www.preblestreet.org/in-the-news/myths-about-the-homeless/.

5. "Common Stereotypes and Misconceptions about Homeless People." HubPages. February 10, 2016. Accessed April 25, 2016. http://hubpages.com/politics/homelessness-myths-misconceptions.