Vulnerable People and Places Blog

As the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has turned over into the 2021 year, it has heavily impacted the ability of society to get together socially and has caused high amounts of financial burden, large impacts on mental health, and increasingly stressful times for many families in our communities due to unemployment rates and the drastic cuts of working hours for the working population. But the pandemic hasn't only affected working families, it has had a large impact on the homeless communities as well as the service providers who are on the front lines working at shelters, or those who are providing housing services when our society is still in its phases of lockdown. Specifically in Hawaii, the state has worked to reopen public restrooms and facilities for the homeless populace alongside the help of the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health. As the worry for mental health alongside the pandemic has risen without the proper basic needs being met for all of the individua...

Youth homelessness is among one of the homelessness crisis concerns that the United States is facing. With no clear way to see the population and track youth that is homeless, creating solutions is difficult. To address this crisis, the Journal of Adolescent Health conducted a survey via the phone to assess youth experience with homelessness.  The results of this study showed that there was a significant need for programs, systems and services that helped prevent the homelessness of youth. There were different categories of "homelessness," such as couch-surfing and explicit homelessness, which included running away or being asked to leave. Nevertheless, the incidence of youth, aged 13-25, being homeless and needing help getting their life on track is a big issue. With higher risk for homelessness in those that are LGBT youth, black, Hispanic, or did not complete high school, the time is now to act and we, as a community, can help youth get on their feet. Listed below are a fe...

  Getting Vaccines To Portland's Houseless Community      With the number of new COVID cases a day starting to decrease, and more and more vaccinations starting to get out at a quick rate, there finally seems to be some hope for getting back to life the way it was before the pandemic. All this aside there are still many obstacles that we as a society need to overcome before we can get to that point. One of those obstacles is for sure being able to get vaccinations to Portland's entire houseless community. Which according to an article by KGW , they estimated a count of 4,015 people who are experiencing houselessness in 2019. That same article also said that based off of economic hardships related to the pandemic, they estimated that there would be an increase of 40-45% nationwide by the end of 2020. That is a lot of people who lack the resources needed in order to get the vaccine without some additional help.      The houseless community has started to...

  The crisis is everywhere.  If you go to your local corner store, you'll see someone who is a victim of this crisis. If you get in your car and head to work, you'll see others impacted by the same crisis. Depending on where you work, the time of day, and whether or not authorities have pushed them away, you'll see even more people affected. The truth of the matter is that you're so used to it - you're desensitized to it. In this ad campaign, Crossroads Community Services collaborated with Saatchi & Saatchi to shine a light on this numbness. They were looking to focus on the good that may come out of aid or an exchange with someone who is part of the homeless community. Of course their primary goal was to call attention to this crisis, but at its core, the campaign served to show how this exchange can bring a good result for the giver.  A lot of the time we think that we are carrying out these giving actions to benefit the receiver, which is how we should be doi...

  Portland Homeless Liaison Steps Down Photo Credit:  Kaia Sand Rebecca Ellis of OPB reports that after wide publicization and a lengthy hiring process, Stephanie Herro, Portland’s first Police Homeless Liaison, has left the position with little information given to the public as to why.   The police bureau is not seeking to fill the position any time soon, with Lt. Greg Pashley pushing the prospect back to the beginning of the next fiscal year. The Office of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler put out a statement stressing the importance of filling the position again, but gave no definite dates either.  Herro’s departure leaves many essential projects left unfinished. This ranged from the prevention of jailing for drug offenses, integrated training between police and the Portland Street Response, and a reclassification of hate crimes to include those directed at the homeless.  With coronavirus pushing more people out of their homes, this restructuring of police an...

          Housing has long been a pressing issue before the pandemic and wildfires. It has increasingly become a larger problem with worsening income disparity. According to new data in 2019, Oregon's rate of houseless residents has increased by 3.5 the national average.   On Monday March 8, Oregon state lawmakers were weighing the options of creating more shelters, a grace period for rent to be extended, making home-ownership more accessible, and reducing housing inequalities faced by communities of color.  The lawmakers have presented 17 bills , including " $535 million in new state investments for increasing affordable housing, addressing homelessness, and supporting home-ownership. " They also stated that the federal government expects federal support.    One of the proposed bills is on emergency shelter expedited siting that will accelerate the process of building shelters. It is proposed that $45 million is needed to build s...

  The connections created through human interaction harbor immense power. People need to make those connections in order to flourish in their lives because no one was ever meant to live in isolation. Humans are complex and very social creatures. Sadly, the homeless populations in our society and on the streets of American cities have reached awful heights with lacking governmental policies or policing assistance to help these individuals. I always thought to some extent that one of the root causes of homelessness is addiction- while that may be the case sometimes addiction can also usually be the outcome that arises through someone experiencing homelessness. The opportunity and accessibility to obtain drugs and alcohol as a homeless person is easier than finding secure housing or employment options. A foundation called the Mission Harbor Behavioral Health organization published an article discussing how and why homelessness has become such a prominent issue in the U.S. today: “ Hom...

CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), is a program started by White Bird Clinic in Eugene, OR. This is an alternative program meant to assist those having possible mental health crises without involving police. While the mobile crisis response team is dispatched through Eugene’s police-fire-ambulance communications center, those answering the call are not police officers, but trained crisis specialists. These specialists are experts at de-escalation, suicide prevention, substance abuse and other possible mental health situations. This program has been wildly successful in the Eugene area in showcasing the necessity of having mental health experts on call for certain situations. The latest federal COVID bill recognizes their success, and has included funding to distribute to other communities to launch programs just like this one. The CAHOOTS program actually ended up saving the city of Eugene around $14 million in 2019, by decreasing the need for police presence, ambu...

 A new bill is looking to be passed on 3/9 called the Oregon Right to Rest Act HB 2367. This bill aims to decriminalize being homeless. It will allow the homeless to be able to rest in rest without worry. They cannot be arrested or harassed for being in public places. To be more specific, they will not be allowed to be arrested for using and moving in public spaces, resting, eating, praying and parking in public. This bill will also look to prevent unlawful seizure and destruction to personal belongings as if they were personal property. Criminalization doesn’t directly reduce homelessness but instead is a waste of public resources. Taking them in and processing them wastes time and resources that could be allocated for actual crime and investigation. Decriminalizing would help redistribute these public resources to where they are needed. According to a survey, 88% of the homeless are harassed for sleeping, 83% are harassed for sitting or lying down, and 78% are harassed for ...

 In 2017, almost $84 million was spent to help housing and homelessness. But how is the money being used? Who is it going to? And is it doing any good? An analysis that was done to assess exactly how much was being spent in order to fight against homelessness. This analysis looked at which government agencies were spending money and what programs they were spending money, specifically the A Home For Everyone Program. This was done to see which were the most fiscally effective. A Home For Everyone is an advisory body made up of homeless and housing experts that oversees homeless policy and services in the Multnomah County. They help advise with Joint Office for Homeless Services to see what homeless services should be prioritized and then make budget recommendations. The review only looked at from the years 2014 (the year that the program was created) to 2017 (the latest full year of the program). In 2014 $20.1 million was spent for supportive, $20 millions for housing placeme...

  The Portland Metropolitan area is experiencing more pressing manners as the pandemic rages on. Before the pandemic, the houseless crisis was already on the brink of imploding, and the rapid expansion of the spread of the virus has only brought on the inevitable sooner rather than later. This has caused the Joint Office of Homeless Services to come up with a plan to rent and buy various hotels and motels around the areas where the crisis is more prominent. Although this may seem like a good idea to start getting off the streets the worry of costs and future upkeep of these programs concerns many citizens and both current and former government officials within Portland. It is estimated that Multnomah county has now reached $4.2 million in payments to the motels and hotels that are being rented and bought for the houseless crisis during this tumultuous time. Majority of the funding is coming from federal aid in the CARES Act passed 2021 to combat the financial troubles many states...

     Over a year into the coronavirus pandemic, it looks like we are finally starting to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. With a number of vaccines slowly starting to roll out, a big question has arisen that needs to be addressed. How are those experiencing homelessness going to receive the vaccine? According to the Oregon Health Authority’s vaccine distribution list , those experiencing homelessness are eligible to receive the vaccine no later than March 29th, 2021. They are eligible even before most frontline workers. Some people may be questioning why that is and it’s because since those experiencing homelessness are less likely to have health insurance, they are less likely to be tested and diagnosed with Covid-19. Many also live in homeless communities, making transmission of the virus extremely easy.      This raises the question, however; how will those experiencing homelessness be able to receive the covid-19 vaccine? The CDC has set up ...

    Today, downtown Portland is overpopulated with no help given to the homeless, full of business and beautiful buildings boarded up or even shut down, and it seems as if the sun barely touches the city anymore like it used to. On the contrary, we are still a city united and we must fight for a brighter day. I believe our city will come today to become the environment it used to be just three years ago.       Growing up just an hour south of downtown Portland, some of the most blissful memories include taking weekend trips to the "big city". This perspective on the city throughout my younger days into adolescence grew to become a mindset as somewhere I would want to live someday. It's crazy to remember the days of the waterfront walkways in downtown Portland being full of people enjoying the views to thinking back on the hot summers where no basketball court or park was empty. It was these dreams I had hoped to live continuous...

Facing the stigma set upon those with deemed mental illness will open the doors of opportunity for thousands of people if we are able to come together. Placing the fear amongst those diagnosed as mentally ill sets these individuals up for fear of rejection and discrimination which often lead to longer roads of recovery. It is commonly advised to get the help one needs as soon as possible in order to prolong the chances of becoming socially as well as medically neglected. Spreading the awareness for people at a early stage of mental illness can defeat the chances of stigma faced amongst these people as well as creating a stronger chance of defeating the illness in its early stages. On a larger scale, we as people must unite in order to create a larger awareness for those left in the dark facing mental illness. By doing so, we must change the narrative towards those dealing with mental illness from those who are "weak" to those who are "brave & different". From a ...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           (KATU photo – Tristan Fortsch – Jan. 11 2017)             With 2020 bringing us a pande...

The Portland Homeless Crisis. An Article on Mental Health and Portland Oregon's Homeless Population. Portland Oregon has been one of the leading cities in homeless for awhile now and the problem seems to continue. Mental illness has now become more common among homeless people in Oregon than any other state which has created various amounts of urban environmental issues throughout the city of Portland. The Portland Police also have no official policy on clearing out camps or relocating the homeless population which leaves thousands of homeless people stuck all throughout Portland. Garbage, drugs, and needles can be found almost everywhere and that has also created hazardous complications throughout the city as well.  Mental health is also a rather large factor in Portland's homeless population and a recent study from 2016 show that 35-40% of homeless adults in Oregon suffer from mental illnesses. Homeless populations have also been contributing to ruining the natural environm...