Monday, July 31, 2023

 

Homelessness, Healthcare, and Life Expectancy

 

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs the most fundamental need individuals have to meet is Safety and Security.  Included in safety and security are health, employment, property, family and social ability.  When this need is not met you are unable to move up the hierarchy of need to Love and Belonging, Self-Esteem, and Self Actualization. 

 

When being houseless you are unable to meet these basic needs listed below.  Health is just one of these fundamental needs.  Oregon in 2017 had the fourth highest rate of homelessness in the nation.  The life expectancy for someone who is homeless is 47 compared to the life expectancy average of 76.1 years.  Just being homeless and not having the safety and security of a place to call home and the comforts that come with running water, heat, and shelter decreases life expectancy by 30 years.  This statistic is heartbreaking when combined with the information that 72% of the homeless in Portland report a chronic disabling condition. 

 

There are many barriers that prevent the homeless from getting the healthcare they need.  The biggest barrier is getting to the appointment.  The Portland Street Medicine team has found a way to combat this with access and continuity.  The Portland Street Medicine team consistently shows up with supplies to help treat the homeless in Portland.  Without this access and continuity, the homeless are at an increased risk for late diagnosis, uncontrolled chronic disease, as well as hospitalization for preventable diseases. 

 

Portland Street Medicine found a way to bridge the divide in access to healthcare by going to the streets and meeting people where they are.  If you would like to read more access the link below.   

 

Sources:

The Problem — Portland Street Medicine

Life Expectancy in the U.S. Dropped for the Second Year in a Row in 2021 (cdc.gov)

 

Read more about it here:

Who We Are — Portland Street Medicine

The Effects of Portland's New Mass Shelter

 At the end of July 2023, the city of Portland plans on opening the first (out of six) mass homeless shelters. The shelter, located in SE Portland, has 140 sleeping pods and is expected to host around 200 houseless people. The shelter will also include 20 tents on wooden platforms. A total of $10 million was spent towards the program, with $6 million coming from Governor Tina Kotek, and the remaining $4 million recently coming from Multnomah County’s annual budget. Mayor Ted Wheeler has stated that after other lawmakers see the effectiveness of these shelters, more are planned to be approved. 

In order to get into the shelter, houseless people must have a referral by a non-profit service provider or a city outreach worker. If they show up without a referral, they are given a number to call for one. After entering the shelter, people are expected to leave after six months with the goal being to find them affordable permanent housing.

The shelter will be managed by a California based organization called Urban Alchemy. However, both the organization, and the street ban proposal that was passed alongside the shelter have received criticism. 

Portland’s street ban has caused many houseless people to feel as if they have nowhere to go. The ban, which prohibits people from camping in the day, has caused an increase of people camping out by the highways. In an interview done by KOIN6, a houseless person named Alannah stated, “There’s a lot of people that broke down basically…They broke down because they didn’t know where to go, they didn’t know what to do.” So, despite the plans to build more mass shelters, the city did not make a thorough plan for houseless people in the time being. However, the hope is that the new shelters will prevent the houseless population in Portland to increase.

Sources:

https://www.koin.com/news/homeless/homeless-campers-migrate-onto-highways-after-portlands-camping-ban/

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/17/portland-oregon-largest-city-homeless-camp-to-open-july/

Read more about it here:

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/11/03/portland-leaders-approve-plan-to-ban-homeless-camping-set-up-large-sites/

https://pacificsun.com/workplace-violations/

Ways to help:

https://www.feedthemass.org/

Portland Street Response and the Criminalization of Homelessness

Homelessness is a widely debated issue here in Portland with the majority of the population agreeing that something has to be done to help this crisis. Unfortunately, this population is also disproportionately targeted by local law enforcement. Homeless individuals made up only 2% of Portland’s population on average from 2017-2020 but accounted for half of the arrests during that same timeframe (Source).  One strategy that aimed to combat this was the launch of the Portland Street Response program by Portland Fire and Rescue and former Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in early 2021. This program aimed at helping reduce these arrests by diverting a variety of non-violent 911 calls away from police officers and instead sending mental health professionals and paramedics to these calls. In the first 6 months, this resulted in the Portland Street Response team dispatching to 903 incidents, 824 of which would have traditionally been responded to by the police. This was a 4% decrease in the amount of calls that police would have typically responded to in this timeframe and area.

Initially Portland Street Response was launched as a limited pilot program that only answered calls in the Lents neighborhood during limited hours. At the end of the first year of the program the Portland State University Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative conducted a thorough analysis and report on the program highly recommending the expansion of the service to be made available 24/7 across the entire city. This recommendation was echoed by a variety of different community organizations as well as people throughout Portland (Source). The program was celebrated by Portland City Council when it received the one-year report and made the decision to fully fund the program city wide.

In November of 2022, Rene Gonzalez defeated incumbent Jo Ann Hardesty in the election for position 3 of the City Council and in January of 2023 he was designated to oversee Portland Fire and Rescue which houses Portland Street Response. Gonzalez almost immediately started to use his power to impede the program’s ability to run effectively by issuing a hiring freeze and stopping the distribution of tents and other supplies. Since January, the program has been in turmoil as the manager has quit and the program has been unable to expand or secure long-term funding (Source).

With the overwhelmingly popular program steeped in uncertainty, the group Friends of Portland Street Response have created a petition that calls for:

1. End the hiring freeze imposed on Portland Street Response and adequately fund PSR to meet citywide demand 24/7, as promised by City Council.

2. Remove restrictions on the purchase of life-saving supplies used to provide services, build community trust and de-escalate 911 calls.

3. Allow Portland Street Response to respond to more 911 call types, such as appropriate calls inside residences or involving a potential suicide attempt.

4. Keep Portland Street Response out of enforcement activities.

5. Establish Portland Street Response as a co-equal branch of our first responder network located within a supportive environment in Portland city government.

The petition has been signed by over 40 different community organizations and political leaders as well as over 4,500 people as of July 18^th. You can sign the petition here 

Read more about Portland Street Response and the different aspects of this story at the links below:

Dozens of organizations urge Portland City Council to reinvest in Street Response

Portland Street Response supporters petition city to prioritize program

Despite historical failures, Portland wants to fine, jail homeless Portlanders

Police Know Arrests Won’t Fix Homelessness. They Keep Making Them Anyway.

Portland Street Response: Year One Evaluation