Homeless Shelters: Are We Fixing a Problem the Wrong Way?

Shelby Ryan became homeless after the death of her husband. She has chosen not to go to a shelter due to her disinterest in the crowded conditions (source)

With the homeless problem worsening in the past few years, policy solutions have struggled to keep up. When so many individuals are becoming homeless and struggling to climb back out, the question of how to provide refuge for these individuals becomes increasingly difficult to answer. Shelters are opened and expanded to accommodate this growth, but it is often not enough to cover for everyone, and the growth of homelessness is outpacing the rate at which resource organizations can get these people housed. Just last year, the Joint Office of Homeless Services was able to get over 4,000 people out of homelessness (source), and yet there are still more on the streets.

It is interesting to note that homelessness was not nearly as much of an issue in the US only a few decades ago. Housing was far more affordable, and even those who were direly poor could pull together enough money to pay for cheap hotel rooms nightly. Issues arose when urban renewal projects demolished these low income neighborhoods, cheap hotels began to disappear, and rental properties became owned properties. This loss of affordable housing units mixed with increasing costs for property ownership spelled trouble for those with housing insecurities (source).

Lacking secure housing makes one highly vulnerable to being forced onto the streets when a big shock such as a loss of income happens. Some of the biggest factors to cause houselessness are a loss of income and the rising costs of housing. The predominant response to combat this issue has not been to build more affordable housing or keep the housing market under control, but instead to create shelters. The aforementioned JOHS has been pursuing new shelters as well as expanding old ones to meet the demands of the growing homeless population, and have even worked to get cheaper hotels available. Yet, homelessness continues to rise faster and faster. Shelters are helpful as a temporary solution to keep people off the streets, but they are not designed to house people permanently. With the removal of the aforementioned housing options that were far more aligned with their income levels, they cannot easily make the leap from being homeless and living in a shelter temporarily to owning or renting a permanent dwelling. So why build more shelters? If it cannot address the root of the problem, then will it help at all?

Graphic from the National Alliance to End Homelessness breaking down the demographics of the Oregon homeless population (source) 

Shelters certainly do seem to help with getting some of the more vulnerable homeless individuals off of the streets and into a safer environment, but it seems as though relief efforts need to focus on pushing housing prices down to levels that lower income individuals can realistically reach rather than opening yet another shelter that difficult for them to get out of. This is also related to Mayor Ted Wheeler’s new policy to shift homeless camps into designated areas, where they can more easily access resources. This step could be helpful for unsheltered individuals, but it also requires them to be uprooted and resettled, and it does not even provide them with the security that a shelter would provide. It seems to be more of a cosmetic fix than a tangible one as homeless individuals and families would instead be moved out of sight.

Portland area homeless people have also discussed disinterest in going to shelters, as they are uninterested in their crowded living conditions. Not to mention the fact that the shelters don’t offer a long term fix, they have been feeling as though they are left behind. “The people come down and they want to help you and different agencies and resources, and we thank them so much but then when it comes down to it, they come by one time and talk to us and never come back” states one Portland homeless woman (source).

While new shelters are important as a ways to get as many homeless people off of the streets and into some temporary refuge, this is all that they really can do: house temporarily. Luckily, it seems as though JOHS is trying to attack the factors that land people in homelessness in the first place, according to a report they published just last month (source). Whatever their plans for achieving this task is, we can only hope that a more equitable housing situation can emerge in the coming years to give people the homes they deserve as members of our community.

• To find out more about the Portland Area homeless issue and JOHS, read here.
• To read the Point-In-Time report released by JOHS last month, look here.
• To find out more about urban renewal projects and the destruction of poor neighborhoods, read here.
• To read more about causes and solutions of homelessness in the US, read here (If this link does not work, the book is titled In the Midst of Plenty : Homelessness and What to Do About It)
• To read about Ted Wheelers homeless camp plans, read here

Written by Eric Bacon