A quick rant about rough sleeping and homelessness

[Recursion]

So, this bullshit makes me see red.

Portland, OR, spent a million dollars buying a bunch of fucking boulders to drop them where homeless people sleep, so that they can't sleep there anymore.

I'm trying to imagine that conversation:

"Hey, boss, we have $1m free in the budget. Should we buy some portable shelters we could use to strategically entice people to sleep in places where a homeless population does not bother city residents?"

"No, let's buy a bunch of big fucking rocks and dump them where they are sleeping now."

This gets to a larger rant I have.

When most people hear "homeless" they think of rough sleepers: people sleeping in the median or in the city park or in the bus terminal. Rough sleepers are a particularly vulnerable subset of the homeless but they are not a statistically large subset of the homeless. Unfortunately their visibility means campaigns to end homelessness focus on "make that man stop sleeping in the median" and not "get the single mom and her two kids out of the sleazy motel and into permanent housing."

Most homeless people are not sleeping outdoors, but on friends' or family's couches, in short-term hotels, or in abandoned properties. You can evict your entire rough sleeping population and in most cities you wouldn't put a dent into homelessness.

Rough sleepers are some amazing people who put up with all kinds of horrible treatment, and one of the worst is that they are used to represent all of the homeless population to make people think that removing rough sleepers solves homelessness. It doesn't.

[Wounded Bear]

1. I spent a couple of years couch surfing a while back...

I was lucky to have family in the area that allowed it.

There is a lot about 'homelessness' that most people don't understand, and the old NIMBY attitude of "just go somewhere else" doesn't really fix any problems, it just shifts them elsewhere.

[CrispyQ]

2. Excellent post.

[Aristus]

3. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating:

It's easy to pick on the powerless and the vulnerable. That's why so many people do it.

[Moostache]

12. That is how history will judge us...not by the glorious wealth palaces and discrepancies...

but by how shabily and cruelly we allowed the powerless and indigent to be treated.

What absolutely grinds my gears is that many of the people who come up with new, terrible ways to increase the suffering of the downtrodden are the very same asshats who preach about "Christian-values" and crusade as "pro-life". Makes me want to puke.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Criminalizing being poor has been accelerating in this country for a long time

Disgusting that they'd do this to the most vulnerable among us.

And you have it right on the unseen homeless. Homeless people are mostly women and children.

[Recursion]

8. Yep. Generally employed women and their children

Go to the outskirts of any city and you'll see a ring of absolutely shitty motels, most of whose rooms are filled with women of color who work 60 hour weeks. It's inexcusable.

[panader0]

5. If I ever became homeless

I'd go to the Gila Wilderness. Hot springs abound. Trout. Watercress.
I'd never want to live on the streets.
It's the largest wilderness in the lower US.

[mountain grammy]

6. My dad died while on active duty

In 1958. We became homeless for 3 months while my mom worked to get a roof over our heads when a single woman couldn’t get a credit card. We stayed with relatives. My kids say “you weren’t really homeless.” Ha, guess you had to be there.

[Recursion]

7. Yup

It wasn't until I was 30 that I realized I'd spent half my childhood homeless, and that it wasn't normal to move month to month from one relative's place to another.

[wryter2000]

9. OMG

Unbelievable. They even got rid of a rose garden instead of helping a few people.

[dlk]

10. The War on Poverty is Now the War on Poor People

Progress...

[Moostache]

13. Seems to have been a war on poor people for a long time already...(n/t)

[dlk]

18. Yes, Remember Ronald Reagan's "Welfare Queens"?

The demonizing of poor people by rich Republicans has been a strategy for decades.

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R

[MissB]

14. I've seen those installed in Portland along I-5

near the Rose Quarter. Homeless folks were cutting across I-5 by the train tracks, presumably to get to the east side esplanade. I’ve nearly hit a homeless person on I-5 in that area a few years back; I’m glad they put up the boulders. It’s not possible to skid to a stop on I-5. I was lucky in that it was very early morning with light traffic.

The city’s reasoning for this round of boulders seems to be twofold- reduce hostility between the homeless and residents in the area and to keep homeless folks from dashing across the highway.

I’m not horrified by this. It does move them to another area. I’m seeing that a lot of the same “move along” tactic on the east side- moving folks off Water Ave because the encampment was too close to the I-84 on-ramp.

The homeless population is a large problem for all involved. I’m not sure what the solution is. I’m happy to see the harbor of hope roll out their portable shower and laundry trucks. I’d be happier if the homeless folks that wanted to live in some sort of permanent housing had that option.

I’m a bit dismayed to see Old Town again becoming a place for drugged out people on the sidewalks in the middle of the day - that indicates that the drug problems are spiking not waning. In the past couple of months I’ve watched the population of homeless folks near Naito and Burnside explode to the point where one sees a bunch of drugged out people sprawled awkwardly on the sidewalks or with their heads practically in the street, or even just buck naked on the sidewalk. And we aren’t talking late at night- we are talking mid-afternoon. It’s not that it is hard to look at (except maybe the naked folks)- it’s just that it represents a bigger problem of drug use than in recent years, and that’s a problem that begets other problems.

No easy solutions. The mayor and City can’t do nothing, and each thing they do will cost $. Folks are going to be unhappy with any solution.

[Amyishere]

15. Oregon is the most evil state in America toweards their homeless, bar none.

period. I have been in all but eight states of the Union, and have seen people and been around and read a few things. The hatred and contempt and disrespect for the humanity of the homeless in Oregon is without parallel. This article is just one example, but I can site dozens that are Oregon specific, including literally closing down inpatient mental health hospital beds for "security reasons" and closing down the only library in mid sized cities just to leave homeless no place to go. Oregon is famous also for slashing sleeping bags and tents of homeless in locations. This is documented.

My personal opinion, with only anecdotal evidence, is that a lot of it is based on subconscious and conscious racism. Many are angry they can no longer tell black people they cannot live in Oregon, since it was taken out of the state's constitution, so they find another vulnerable and "other" population to vent their frustrations on. Iwould be willing to bet that Oregon probably has one of the highest non-homeless on homeless murder rates in the nation, too. I was amazed when I moved to this state and talked with older people especially, how casual hatred and racist words and expressions just drop from their lips like it's part of something normal. Truly hateful things, too, like how all of a certain group deserve to die and what they would do with them if they could. I am talking about what seems to be a nice old man and striking up a conversation in a grocery store, only to have the conversation all of a sudden turn racist as hell. It's acceptable to talk like that, like that old man did, out in public in Oregon. It's okay to talk about hurting people you don't like and what you really think of them because it's just a sweet old man talking about what he feels like.

and it's okay to be the most evil state towards the homeless, overall, in the nation, too.

I know there are good people in Oregon, I have met some of them, and I am not saying everyone is like that. I am, however, saying that the CULTURE of Oregon is one of institutionalized racism and ostracizing and killing the 'other', and it shows.

[gtar100]

16. Denver did that. Jagged rocks where people would normally be.

It's nothing but shear cruelty. Or signs under bridges that say area is closed, no trespassing. I just want to rip those out of the wall! It's as if the cruelest, most cynical people are in positions of power to make these decisions and nothing but cruel, stupid policies are passed and enforced. Intelligent, compassionate solutions are ignored because too many people are afraid someone may get a free ride while they're working so damn hard.

Homelessness is not a crime. It's a fucking failure of the system to adequately support its population.

[appalachiablue]

17. K & R More people need to know the reality.