Housing As A Right: Portland's Fight for Progressive Programs

Housing Protestor on the Steps of Portland City Hall, 2020
Source: Ben McCanna

 By Jason Dailey

The Problem

Access to housing and shelter are an inarguable need for the maintenance of human life. A way to protect oneself from the elements is something that many modern residents of the United States take for granted despite over 60% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, and seeing an ever-increasing number of houseless people in their everyday lives. In 2023, houselessness jumped 12%, the highest increase in the number of houseless people in the history of the United States. In Portland, between 2015 and 2023, homelessness increased by 65%. The issue of houselessness and home-deprivation stems from the contradictions inherent in a neoliberal capitalist regime, a system that pits the doctrine of infinite growth against the realities of a finite planet. Access to shelter becomes a speculative profit-machine which rewards individuals or conglomerates that hoard massive amounts of homes and hold them for ransom to drive-up their monetary value. This is exemplified by the disparity between the houseless population and number of vacant units, which, in Portland, is 6,297 to 49,797. 

It cannot be argued that real estate and housing speculation has made a tiny handful of people incredibly wealthy at the expense of the livelihood and lives of regular working class people. Even when mired by the fallout of this reality, it's hard for Americans to picture another system; they have been told all their lives that despite the inherent failings of laissez faire capitalism, it's still the best system we got. This was often backed-up by generally misleading graphs and statistics that show how 'prosperous' the U.S. is because of GDP figures. The reality is, capital accumulation has slowed for everyone but the richest .1%. From 2010 to 2020, home only 10.1 millions more Americans became homeowners, which is the slowest increase of gross home ownership of any decade since 1950. This has culminated in a home ownership rate of 66%, the 7th lowest out of all similarly developed nations. As homes and apartment blocs go unused, the construction of new homes releases 50 million tons of carbon emissions every year, which is actively harming the global ecosystem, the consequences of which must are felt most intensely by houseless individuals who are forced to brave ever-worsening weather 'anomalies' every year, dying by the thousands every couple of years.

Along with this, American police, who contribute to the 70% of  total global emissions from militarized law-enforcement programs, are often funded by major oil corporations, who pay for city police to crackdown on popular civilian opposition and to turn a blind-eye to corruption and monetary scandals. 

Climate Impact of New Homes Construction
Source: RMI

The Workers

Despite the dire straits that much of the country, including Portland, find themselves in regarding dealing with the consequences of a viciously inflated housing bubble, there are thousands of Portlanders who devote their time and energy in helping care for their houseless neighbors and fight to end the abhorrent system that concentrates wealth and power into the hands of the most privileged. 

The different counties of Oregon have their own resources for the houseless, but mutual aid programs and community led and organized movements have been gaining momentum over the past four years as COVID-19 decimated the fragile peace that thousands of Portlanders had on housing, employment, and medical care. One of the most popular and fastest growing organization is the Portland Street Response (PSR), a team of trained professionals, organized by Street Roots Advocacy,
who maintain a goal to prevent unnecessary violence and de-escalation tactics when dealing with non-violent disturbances, many of which involve the homeless.

Portland Street Response in Action
Source: Oregon Live

The Portland Police are infamous for murdering a frankly disturbing number of houseless and mentally ill people, which often escalates tensions between the houseless community and the police while costing Portland taxpayers millions of dollars in damages and settlements. The Portland Street Response team handles the houseless community with much more care. 89% of all PSR calls do not require the intervention of police with 65% of calls involving a houseless person with zero arrests made. Along with this, in 2022, PSR were able to assist 9 people in securing permanent housing. Their website, with portals to endorse their mission, volunteer, and otherwise support their cause can be found here.

Member of SE Uplift
Source: Facebook

Another community coalition that has been fighting for housing rights and the development of more equitable neighborhoods is Southeast (SE) Uplift. SE Uplift is a group of community members that work to provide financial assistance to residents of Southeast Portland. They provide grants to people who are currently financially struggling to maintain shelter, help cover insurance costs for at-risk individuals, advocate for cheap and accessible public transportation, as well as the development of affordable housing infrastructure. They also provide community members with connections to other independent organizations for access to healthcare and nutrition. Anyone who is interested in their mission can digitally join their meetings every fourth Monday of every month on Zoom with the meeting ID:  991 0932 5940. 

What's It All For?

The fight for equitable housing and the idea that housing is a human right has it's roots in in every historic revolutionary ideal of the modern era. We see and feel the fact that neoliberalism has outlived it's usefulness every single day. In the era of deindustrialization, the contradictions and segregations of modern society become more intense. The American middle-class has all but disappeared into the annals of history. It is now impossible to rent a home anywhere in the country on a minimum wage, and one personal or familial medical problem could mean the loss of employment, housing, medical coverage, and prospects for 66% of Americans. As access to housing is paramount in living a standard quality of life, the way we view and interact with housing must change to one of a human right. The only way this can be done is through strict organization, education, and direct action. The lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the wellbeing of our environment is in our hands, we have to band together and act as a unified force against the reactionary, exploitative forces of private capital, because our lives, and the life of our home planet depend on it.