Addressing housing directly is cheaper than relying on cops and emergency rooms.
Building homes FOR the houseless and/or giving homes to the houseless IS a solution to houselessness in Portland.
Portland’s homeless problem really isn't because the city doesn't have enough housing. It's because of much bigger social, systematic, and structural issues. We can only "solve" homelessness by addressing root causes. Most of all, it has been proven by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that An increase in the number of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness was the sole cause for the national increase in all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness., in simpler terms homelessness is a self-feeding cycle.
Unfortunately, the lack of affordable housing is due to capitalism, and there's not much political will to solve that at the moment. If housing were to be socialized, meaning that everyone just got a decent place to live, no questions asked, and wouldn't ever be forced to move out of it except under certain conditions and then they'd get a house somewhere else, then then America would be a much different place. Some countries have implemented this model with success, like Finland.
By "house" this doesn’t imply everyone has a yard and white picket fence. There are so many different forms of housing that meet so many different needs, we need all of it instead trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution.
Think about how everyone in American can dial 911 and get a police car, fire truck, or ambulance to come to their door, in a time of need, and in the case of police & fire, never get a bill. In America, our children can go to public school for free, no matter what, and people can drive down the roads without paying to rent the road, and how we can reasonably trust that buildings will be built safely and water will be safe and street lights will work... we pay for all that with our taxes, and never have to worry about. It doesn't matter if people pay zero taxes or millions in taxes, they all don't have to worry about fire trucks coming, stop lights working, and being able to afford public school the same amount.
What if that were also true for housing? What if just like every kid gets to go to school, every household (which could be a single person, a married couple, family, family with care workers, or an extended multigenerational family, etc.) is entitled to quality decent housing in safe walkable communities with good parks and other amenities?
Just like there are private high schools and gated communities with their own private roads and security, the upper class would remain able to live in private communities if they wish.
Many argue that there is a lack of housing, and to address the homeless issue in Portland more housing needs to be built.
If the supposition is that we have a homelessness problem because rent is too high, so by building more homes the rent will decrease and homeless people will be able to afford them, then that is totally wrong, and hasn’t worked for any other communities' journey to end a homeless crisis.
A city would have to overbuild by a crazy amount for market rents to ever drop down to become affordable for people under certain income thresholds (which includes those on fixed incomes, like Social Security), and regardless of income, there is a not-insignificant subset of houseless folks (disabled, elderly, mental health and addiction issues, etc.) who just will not ever have the life skills to pay rent each month, even if it's a small amount, and they need support services, like mental health care, social work, case management. Supporting these individuals by providing a home is much more cost-effective and stable than leaving police and hospitals to care for them full time.
There are enough empty homes in Portland to house every homeless person, help them get back on their feet, and integrated to become a working member of society.
Good post - an intriguing and powerful position.
ReplyDelete