Vulnerable People and Places Blog

The Revolving Door Effect The Predatory System Targeted at Homeless Individuals      Formerly incarcerated individuals, especially those with multiple incarcerations, face a severe housing crisis upon release, with homelessness rates nearly 10 to 13 times higher than the general public . They frequently struggle to secure stable housing due to explicit discrimination from public housing authorities and private owners, using credit checks, income requirements, and other methods during screening processes. This pervasive instability often pushes individuals into marginal housing like hotels or motels, a small difference from literal homelessness, significantly hindering their ability to access essential resources like healthcare, employment, and education crucial for successful reentry.      This cycle of homelessness and incarceration is severely exacerbated by the criminalization of homelessness , through laws that prohibit essential survival behaviors s...

Hit While They're Down The Cycle of Homeless Incarceration      The connection between incarceration and homelessness in Portland, and across the nation, creates a harsh cycle that traps vulnerable individuals in systemic instability. People released from jails and prisons face a nearly ten times higher likelihood of experiencing homelessness than the general public . The more times it happens the chances of a way out become exponentially harder. As judgmental creatures and a system built of reputation, this grim reality fuels a "revolving door" effect: housing instability increases the chances of re-arrest and re-incarceration, while release from prison significantly elevates the risk of becoming homeless. This cycle is often exacerbated by local policies that criminalize basic survival behaviors for unhoused individuals, such as sleeping in public spaces.      Individuals experiencing homelessness, especially those with a history of incarceration, simply ...

  There are thousands across Oregon who are suffering from housing instability. Permanent Supportive Housing provides a model that brings an opportunity for housing along with services that will enable individuals to stay housed, such as job training and substance abuse treatment. Although the data on its effectiveness so far is limited since it’s a new approach, they can help bring us out of this crisis.  However, not everyone may feel comfortable going from living on the streets directly to an apartment complex. Additionally, most of these places are already completely full with massive waitlists. That is where places like Opportunity Village come in. They offer an alternative with transitional stability. The residents earn their keep by working on projects around the village to keep it up and running.  The village helps provide that much needed physical and emotional stability for its residents to plan ahead for the future as they work towards more permanent housing. S...

In Portland, where the crisis of housing insecurity remains urgent and visible, grassroots solutions are doing powerful work to meet people’s basic needs with dignity. One of the most impactful of these is the Community Free Store —a mutual aid effort grounded in compassion, solidarity, and trust. Unlike traditional charity models, mutual aid is about community members supporting each other directly, without hierarchy or strings attached. It operates on the belief that we all have something to offer, and we all deserve to have our needs met. At the Community Free Store , people experiencing homelessness or poverty can access essential supplies—clothing, hygiene items, snacks, harm reduction tools, and more—completely free of charge. Volunteers often organize, sort, and distribute donations in public spaces or through pop-up events. These spaces become more than just places to get help—they are places to be seen, welcomed, and treated with dignity. Why It Matters Immediate impact: A cle...

In the heart of downtown Portland, the Behavioral Health Resource Center (BHRC) stands as a beacon of compassion and stability for people navigating the difficult realities of homelessness, mental health challenges, and addiction. More than just a building, the BHRC is a trauma-informed, peer-led space that meets people where they are—with no judgment and no prerequisites. It offers a warm place to rest, connect, and access essential services. Showers, laundry, meals, and storage are available daily, but what truly sets the BHRC apart is its emphasis on dignity, empowerment, and community. Staffed by individuals who bring both lived experience and professional training, the center fosters connection through peer support, de-escalation, and mutual respect. Whether someone needs help navigating the mental health system, wants to explore recovery, or simply needs a break from the chaos of the street, the BHRC provides a space to breathe and rebuild. The center is a partnership between ...

One of the issues affecting the housing crisis in Portland is the way that it affects people of color. With black, native american, and latino residents that earn an average income and are still unable to avoid a home anywhere in the city in the year 2022. While there are income gaps with white households who earn $6,400 monthly compared to a black households who earn $3,000. With housing costs rising about 17% between 2016-2021 yet income increases were “significant” for white households while “only minimal” for households of color, creating a widening affordability gap. The rental market also shows similar disparities. The average rent for a two bedroom apartment is $1,904 which is completely unaffordable for black families and unaffordable for most of the city for Latino and Native American households. Even though the city created over 4,300 affordable housing units since they declared a housing emergency crisis in 2015. City commissioners have acknowledged that these efforts hav...

  Oregon’s housing crisis stems from decades of underproduction leaving the state 140,000 units short of what they actually need. It comes from multiple factors including restrictive land laws from 1973, as well as historically racist zoning policies for single families, and bad infrastructure funding. This directly impacts Portland residents' ability to afford housing because more than half of Oregon renters don't have enough money after paying rent to afford other basics, including food, child care, internet access and transportation. The severe housing shortage creates limited rental vacancies, allowing landlords to raise rents with few repercussions and pushing people into cost-burdened situations - exemplified by the article's featured friends who had to buy a house together because neither could afford one alone. To learn more visit this link https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/26/oregon-cost-of-living-housing-construction-building-land-use-high-rent/