Vulnerable People and Places Blog

  (image from Smokey Point Behavioral Hospital) With everything going back to normal after two years of Isolation, and social distance Covid 19 has left a strain on the medical field have been affected for the last two years. So many people in the medical field have been overwhelmed trying to care for the infected patients flooding their hospitals.   Doctors and Nurses have to wear extra gear to protect themselves and it has taken a mental toll on them. (image from Aspen University) Being in the medical field during a pandemic it’s tiring them to work LONG hours and try to tend to one patient only to have another. Another stressful toll on the medical workers is not being able to save the people infected by Covid. It’s hard to see when a family member who works in healthcare has too long hours while the family has to be in quarantine. It’s a tiring cycle that has been going off for the past two years. Even though things are slowing down, the mental stress the healthcare workers, doct

     I was downtown Portland at a museum celebrating Mother’s Day this year 2022. It was a Sunday at about noon, just in the daytime, and even though my own car had been parked in a parking garage since it was the smart thing to do so our car wouldn’t get broken into, just in case to be nice, my parents parked their car on the street near the museum. They found out soon after parking there after my dad had to return to his car to retrieve his glasses he needed, that someone had broken into their vehicle.      The people who had broken in had used a skateboard to break the driver side window. A street camera showed who it was and how they had broken it. Even though it was partly their fault for parking on the street and for leaving valuable items in their car especially that was visible, it just goes to show that it is not safe in downtown Portland to park on the street.         If they had a skateboard and had happened to have been caught and yelled at at that time if my dad had been t

  Oregon, like the rest of US, is experiencing a crisis, involving misuse, abuse, overdose and death. This crisis involves both prescription pain medications, as well as heroin and non-pharmaceutical fentanyl. Oregon has one of the highest rates of prescription opioids in the nation.  Multnomah County, Portland can be a good model as it is affected by the abuse of opioids. According to an annual report on  homeless   deaths from Multnomah County and  Street Roots ,  126 people died homeless in Multnomah County in 2020, the most deaths counted since the county started tracking it in 2011.  The " Domicile Unknown " report tracks the number of deaths in the county, as well as causes and characteristics of how people died.  One of the leading causes of deaths among homeless people were alcohol and drug use, specifically  opioids   and  methamphetamine . According to the report, drug use was noted in nearly 90% of people who died while experiencing homelessness, and drug or alcoho

 On a daily basis we encounter myths and misconceptions about homelessness. We hear them from friends, family, community leaders, and strangers on the MAX. These harmful myths not only stereotype individuals experiencing homelessness, but prolong and perpetuate homelessness, the conditions that cause it, and the suffering it causes. By reviewing some of the most common and insidious of these myths, and by adding the anecdotal experience of a woman who survived three years of homelessness, you can arm yourself to combat these myths when you encounter them. Let’s start with the most common myth, that homelessness is somehow self-inflicted. Myth #1: Homelessness Is Caused By Poor Decision Making      We live in a highly individualistic society. The prevailing attitude that has flourished for roughly forty years was perhaps best summed up by Margaret Thatcher, when she famously quipped “there’s no such thing as society” in a 1987 interview in Woman’s Own Magazine maligning social safety ne

  In our capitalist model, many times companies are rewarded with little to no regulation in the name of creating American jobs and great profits. But the other side of this is that it can also lead to great, almost irreversible harm being done to people. One of those groups of people are the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN). What I want to focus on is the industry targeting and advertising aimed at the Native population and the lasting effects. Why do Native Americans use more tobacco/e-cigarette than any other group? Yes, there is cultural significance to tobacco use among some tribes, but the AI/AN people have the highest tobacco/e-cigarette use of any other race in the United States, why is that? Native Americans have different uses for tobacco which include: prayer, healing, and ceremonies. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the Tribal methods of making tobacco are much different than what is sold on store shelves, “it is carefully handpicked and offered res

(Image from Portland Government) Food is necessary to live but we waste a lot at the same time. Food waste is one of the largest portions of our garbage. In Portland, there are enough food wastes to fill 5,000 long-haul trucks every year. When sent to landfills, methane, which is a greenhouse gas that boosts climate change and is at least 24 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, is generated.  Seeing food scraps is heartbreaking in terms of the efforts of producers, chefs, people who don’t have enough access to food, and environmental concerns. I never had a day I didn't see food waste including at a restaurant I work at. Portland is going to take one step toward an eco-friendly city. Portland will make a change in the policy for food scraps produced from food businesses starting from 2023. Food businesses that produce over 1000 pounds of food waste or more per week will be required to compost by March 31, 2023. If businesses produce over 500 pounds of food waste or more per wee

Is healthcare in the US a privilege?                                              DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM      This may be a question that you have never had to ask yourself. Perhaps it is because you have always had health coverage or know the pain and tribulations associated with not having coverage. Either way, the answer to the question is YES healthcare in the US is a PRIVILEGE .      In order to have healthcare, you either must be employed or have a consistent home and the means to apply and keep track of state medical. These two things that are essentially tied to having health coverage are things the homeless community does not have so, they simply learn to go without. This cause rampant health issues within the homeless community along with the spread of diseases and the inability to treat them. The inability for people to get basic common needs because they do not have a "home" is arguably killing people. With this information, there needs to be an inc

  “Here in Portland, you can’t be in the parks and you can’t be covered. They would wake you up in the dead of sleep and you have to walk around in the cold and rain trying to find a new place. When you finally get settled, an hour later, they move you again.” - Ibrahim, Portland OR “The hardest part for me was when I started working again. I was teaching kids, working in the school district. Having to wake up in the morning, find a shower somewhere and get to work on time was an obstacles every day. Having to be productive was even harder. I was sleep deprived, hungry, and scared that if I couldn’t keep it together, I’d lose my job.” -Mel, Eugene OR “You are out here by yourself. When you finally get away from downtown and the police harassing you, you then have to worry about other people. And if you got pushed far enough out, you’d have to worry about cougars.” - Cara, Eugene According to a survey conducted in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ther

      As more and more people are experiencing troubles related to housing, it is important to look at possible remedies for the situation. One such remedy could be utilizing “tiny homes” to house those who are currently unhoused. Tiny Homes have gained much popularity in recent years for a number of reasons. For some, tiny homes are simply trendy and something that they saw on television, but for others they are a more environmentally friendly way to coexist with our planet. There are many more reasons for people to choose to live in a tiny home and I believe it could be the answer to many people currently living on the street.     A tiny home would be a great alternative to something like a tent for people without reliable housing because it has many of the benefits without the downsides. As tiny homes have become more and more popular they have become cheaper and easier to build, they are oftentimes built on a trailer for greater mobility and there are some ingenious uses of space t

  Photo by William Navarro on Unsplash Sometimes, trying to solve problems internally may require looking at outside forces and what they do to find inspiration. While the United States has a homelessness crisis within the country, it might do it some benefit to see what other countries are doing to find solutions. Here are two countries that have a lower rate of homelessness and what they do to help their homeless population:   Finland: When looking up “How do other countries deal with homelessness” on Google, Finland and its way of helping the homeless is one of the top results. While their way isn’t perfect, it still has dropped down the number of citizens that are homeless through what is called, “Housing First.” Fitting to its name, this adopts the focus of helping homeless people find housing based on their needs. Cynics believe that the issues lies within mental health and addiction that may attribute to why some people may be homeless. While this may be true for some p

⛺⛺ ⛺          There are those in Portland, Oregon who do not have a place to go and are homeless as many are aware; however it is not only a problem for those who do not have a place to live, but also for those do already have a home to live. Even though they are not homeless, they are also being affected by the current housing crisis and high rent prices. It seems like if someone can see where they set up their camp, then wherever they go, someone might upset about the homeless deciding to live near them. These residents of a mobile home park are concerned and frustrated about the homeless who live so close to where they do.           Some are not feeling safe and miss the way it used to be in their neighborhood when they could walk there and feel safe still. The owner is having a difficult time getting new residents to move in. They say that the city is not doing anything productive to help them with this situation. More information can be found at the following link.   https://www.k

Single Mothers and Houselessness   In 2018, the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness documented that 60% of homeless families are headed by single mothers.  Parenting is very difficult, especially being a single parent. The most common houseless family is a single mother and two children.  Rose Haven is a women-focused shelter in Portland, Oregon. They offer shelter and support for women who are in need of help. In a news article by KGW8, Katie O’Brian, the executive director of Rose Haven said, "there are so many more homeless women that we don't know about because women hide.” She says, “they hide because of the abuse they experience outside." Women who experience houselessness have difficulty trusting people. O’Brian says there should be more shelters for women, as well as more mental health resources for them. Another shelter similar to Rose Haven is Portland Homeless Family Solutions. They offer housing, shelter, and houseless prevention to families in need.  The Ba

     It is no secret that the city of Portland has a current homelessness problem. There are at least 4,000 people living without homes in the city and it is quickly becoming one of the biggest concerns for the public. Countless efforts have been put forward to try and alleviate the number of people living on the streets, but none have seemed to have a considerable impact on the issue. One relatively new plan has some promising potential involving homeless villages.      These homeless villages are not a cluster of tents with garbage strewn around like you may think of when it comes to homeless camps. The villages consist of tiny homes funded by $16 million in federal American Rescue plan funds. These tiny homes have sleeping pods with locking doors, windows, electricity, and heating. The community shares kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry facilities. These facilities are a clean way to help unhoused people find a safe and comfortable place to stay, while simultaneously cleaning up the s

INCLUSIONARY HOUSING: WHAT TO KNOW & HOW TO GET INVOLVED  Written by: Dylan Blane City of Portland Unveils New Meadows Affordable Housing Community Since 2017, the City of Portland has utilized their inclusionary housing policy in order to account for the need of 23,000 additional housing units to serve low and moderate-income households. All residential projects proposing 20 or more new units must supply a percentage of the new units at rents affordable to households earning less than 80% of the median family income. Under the umbrella of this obligation, the City has identified further regulatory possibilities. Permit submissions must provide one of the affordable housing choices in their proposal, or the applicant can pay a fee-in-lieu when the permit is issued. The Portland Housing Bureau reviews all permit applications that are subject to or elect Inclusionary Housing. PHB employees are ready to answer queries. The Portland rule applied to practically all apartment buildings g