How Weather Effects the Houseless

-

Weather affects houseless people in the worst ways, because they have no choice but to stay out in the cold, rain, heat, thunder, whatever the case may be, with nowhere to clean themselves or nowhere to turn to for shelter. Many people in Portland care about the houseless community, and are pretty generous when it comes to spending money to try and help them off the streets. The public officials are blocked by the courts from regulating vagrancy in many places, a law which made it a crime for a person to wander place to place without visual means of support, criminalizing being houseless and jobless, which is why many houseless people want to travel to Portland. In Portland, the houseless are so visible that it’s encouraged nonprofit relief efforts so much that other cities have, and still are considering adopting these efforts. 


Another reason why people travel to Portland is because of the weather. New York has a third more rain than Portland, and California is normally hot all year round, and in a night in subzero Chicago may be fatal, where in Portland the weather ranges an average of 58 degrees in winter, to 84 degrees in the summer. This summer, everyone across the states witnessed a record breaking heat wave, which could have been deadly for anyone. Extreme heat can be deadly to everybody subjected to it, especially people who are houseless and living on the streets with no air conditioning, water, food, or shelter because they are more prone to having heat strokes. 



With rising global temperatures it doesn’t help, it decreases the air quality and increases the ground-level ozone which is the main cause for city smog, and is no stranger to Portland, OR. When exposed to this long enough it may cause shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing, and decreasing lung functions. The hot temperatures open doors to warm weather insects, which directly affect the houseless because they must live outside with them, being bitten by mosquitos constantly, carrying ticks, receiving a variety of different diseases, and not being able to clean themselves from these insects. 



The weather crisis isn’t just making it more difficult for people who are already houseless, it is also creating the very conditions that leave many people with nowhere to go. The houseless are less able than the average person to find respite, a short period of relief from something difficult, from the polluted air of the city. They are also less able to fight off the mosquitos and ticks who carry life threatening diseases, and are unable to seek help from medical practitioners.



Many houseless people end up in the West because of the weather. Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are the most populated for the houseless. With these big cities being the most populated, the houseless here in Portland are directly effected by the weather in the worst ways possible. Houselessness is not something that can be totally eliminated, and the weather is not something that anyone can control. We would like to hope that someday we could get all the houseless help, and off the streets for good. But, realistically it will remain something that can be managed, and not solved.


Below are some links that help the houseless get off the streets, please check them out if you feel the need to donate and help out the community.


Written by: Ellie D Skinner


https://joinpdx.org/donate/

https://www.mustardproject.org/our-services?gclid=CjwKCAjwuvmHBhAxEiwAWAYj-ERLmbDJ0SDdtxaJIH_FnqV9UDGoC-NIAmIgRS9g0H8i_Aoo2UR5tBoCq0EQAvD_BwE

https://oregonharborofhope.org/take-action/

https://portlandrescuemission.org/

https://saintjohnsprogram.org/program/?gclid=CjwKCAjwuvmHBhAxEiwAWAYj-C6QHMbKMTjg_lX0ybRbQV_U03n8IqeWFPDgCm_TH4yj9d8LiFAiARoCzbgQAvD_BwE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community

-
Image
  Domestic Violence within the Homeless Community Source: Unsplash The Facts                                                                                          According to  Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 233,832 are people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the United States. Of the 233,832, 50,767 are families with children.  Currently, 30% of homeless people are adult women.  (portlandoregon.gov)   Bradley Angle , which works to support survivors of  domestic violence , reported that 70% of domestic violence reports are from homeless women. ( www.kgw.com)  Homeless women are 1/3 of the fastest growing populations HUD homeless populations. ( portlandoregon.gov)   Specifically, in Por...
Read more

Understanding Homelessness

-
Image
  Source (American Addiction Centers)      Homelessness has a myriad of different reasons it can happen. The similarity between all scenarios in which a person is experiencing homelessness is that each person is human. A popular belief is that homelessness is a choice. People believe there is a set amount of circumstances that cause homelessness and that it is a choice not to fight to get out of those problems. The problems can range from mental health issues to drug addiction. There is no one size fits all, and it is not a choice.  Over the last few weeks, I have learned that there are many factors that can lead to homelessness. One big one that focuses on our class is how affordable housing, or the lack thereof, is a significant contributor to people not getting back on their feet. If you want to learn more about that subject and if affordable housing can help, click here.   This lack of affordable housing is a big roadblock for those trying to ove...
Read more

Air pollution caused by wildfires may increase risk of dementia

-
Image
  There are already more than 57 million dementia sufferers in the world, and by 2050, that figure is predicted to rise to 153 million. It is estimated that risk factors like exposure to air pollution account for up to 40% of these instances. Even when annual exposure was lower than the current EPA annual threshold of 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (g/m3), the researchers discovered continuous evidence of a relationship between PM2.5 and dementia. The researchers discovered a 17% increase in risk for dementia for every 2 g/m3 increase in average yearly exposure to PM2.5, specifically among the studies using active case ascertainment. Despite the fact that the data was more sparse, they also discovered evidence supporting links between dementia and nitrogen oxide (5% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in yearly exposure) and nitrogen dioxide (2% increase in risk for every 10 g/m3 increase in annual exposure). According to a recent University of Michigan study, wildfi...
Read more