Vulnerable People and Places Blog

The psychological health theory of people requiring a system of basic needs to be met in order to reach one's full potential was first introduced to modern psychology in 1943 by American psychologist, Abraham Harold Maslow. Although Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is usually depicted as a pyramid that ranks certain needs as more important than others, later studies have found that this ranking depends on each individual's background. However, one common thing that most success stories have is the support vulnerable people receive from local organizations to meet the physiological basic needs of having food/water, basic necessities, income, shelter, safety, and security. In this video, we explore how covering basic needs can psychologically benefit individuals to motivate themselves into living the life they want.                                      ...

  This video I made was inspired by topics we engaged with in the Winter 2025 Multimedia Capstone at Portland State University. For more reading, please check out Our class blog: vulnerablepeopleandplaces.blogspot.com Our community partner, Rent Well: rentwell.org

Approximately 26 states in the U.S. require proof of address in order to receive a state-issued ID. This requirement leads to many people without stable home addresses or the ability to afford the upkeep of a P.O. box from their local mail carrier unable to receive state IDs. From one proof of address problem, a person could potentially be denied the ability to vote, to drive, to receive federal aid, or to enter any area with an age requirement. While Oregon is not one of those 26 states, an ID isn't the only thing that proof of address can bar homeless people from. Most U.S. banks are mandated by federal law to require proof of address to let someone open a bank account with them. Without a bank account, many jobs will overlook a person without a second thought. Housing, even temporary housing, won't rent to a person without a bank account or a source of income. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle. Many government interactions also require proof of address, such as registering to vo...

The stigma around mental health in the United States has only served to harm individuals who should be met with compassion and care. Homeless populations in particular are met with this harsh treatment all too often. This harmful and pervasive attitude only makes things more difficult for lives that are already ostracized and excluded. These difficulties include both social and structural barriers in accessing the help they need.  A recent survey commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive, indicated roughly 63 percent of Portland’s homeless population suffers from mental health and substance abuse struggles. Mental health challenges only further the vulnerability of homeless individuals and limits their ability to seek help. Untreated mental health-related issues can lead to devastating consequences including difficulty maintaining employment, isolating behavior from friends and family, as well as impaired judgement and decision making. These difficulties combined with the risks and ...

  Portland's homeless population has been facing not only housing instability but also significant health challenges. In recent times, an outbreak concerning dysentery in the Oregon area has shed light on how vulnerable the homeless community is, which further emphasizes the urgent need for improving the public health infrastructure and support services set in place today. In January alone, at least 40 individuals were reported sick due to a highly contagious strain of dysentery, with experts suggesting that the actual number of cases is likely much higher among the homeless population. Multnomah County recorded 158 locally acquired cases in 2024, which is a concerning increase from previous years. The disease, which primarily spreads through fecal contamination, is made worse by the lack of public sanitation facilities. Dysentery is an awful disease that can include symptoms such as frequent diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain. Treatment involves antibiotics, however, the strains ...

  Portland, Oregon, like many urban centers across the United States, has been dealing with an affordable housing crisis that has forced many residents to be perpetually homeless and not stable in their homes, which are hardly affordable. An original housing solution that, alongside the CLT model, the city of Portland, Oregon, is fighting with housing insecurity by the inclusion of the CLTs of the City of Portland is a measure of sky-high lands and sky-high rents The metro of Portland was struck by the disaster in the middle of a vision that this is what they must go through if they want to preserve all the nature. The utilization of the CLTs has been seen as the creation of a success story that the civil rights movements era would have been proud of and supportive of. Today they are used to combat more and more rising housing cost by the ownership of houses being separated from that of the land. CLTs do it by leasing people land at cheap rates while they retain ownership of the l...

    Image from New York Times      In the United States, roughly 38 million people are at or below the poverty line at any given time. That’s 38 million people who live on the streets, with no job to keep them afloat. 38 million people who barely scrape by every day. 38 million people who have never had anything, or at one point lost everything they had. And out of these 38 million people, around 5 million of them are senior citizens—people aged 65 years or older. Of all age groups in the United States that are at risk of experiencing homelessness at some point in their life, seniors are one of the fastest growing ones, projected to triple by 2030.      One of the reasons for this is the economic status of the vast majority of senior citizens. By the age of 65, many people are on a fixed income, like social security or welfare. The problem with this is that while the income is fixed, the price of living is very much not, and many senior citizens c...

Climate change poses a significant threat to everyone. Floods, wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters displace millions of people around the world every year. When natural disasters occur, vulnerable populations like  people of color, people living in poverty, and people living with mental illness  are disproportionately impacted and are often left without a place to live and they lack resources to get back on their feet. As the climate crisis continues to worsen, the gap between housed and unhoused will continue to widen. According to research conducted by Community Solutions and Georgetown Environmental Law, organizations that examine the impact of climate change on the housing crisis, homelessness will become more common in the face of climate change. Climate change is one of the leading causes of global displacement, only second to conflict and violence, depending on the year in question. Millions are displaced yearly as a result of disasters: 32.6 million dis...

  Medicaid, the public health insurance program that provides coverage to low-income individuals and families, has been undergoing significant reductions in coverage. As policies tighten eligibility requirements, millions of Americans are losing access to essential healthcare services. The consequences of these changes are profound, affecting not only individuals' health outcomes but also the broader healthcare system and economy. The Shrinking of Medicaid Coverage Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly increased access to healthcare, allowing millions of low-income Americans to enroll in the program. However, in recent years, federal and state-level policy changes have resulted in a rollback of coverage. The expiration of pandemic-era continuous enrollment policies, stricter income verification requirements, and political shifts in state governments have contributed to these reductions. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), nearly 15 millio...

     Many people know of the struggles that occur to a person when they experience homelessness. With over 22,000 homeless individuals in Oregon, homelessness becomes more and more of an issue. There are so many troubles and hardships that come with being homeless, some issues are widely known, while others are problems that many people do not consider to be apart of the problem. Oregon is very fortunate to have programs that are better programs than other states when it comes to these problems, but that does not make it easy. One of the major issues that people experiencing homelessness is the issue of replacing ID’s. Replacing an ID for everyone is difficult, but for people who do not have an address it increases the difficulty exponentially. While living on the street it can be very difficult to lose things such as a birth certificate, Social security card, or Drivers license. Replacing these require documents and information not available to those experiencing homeles...

Inflation has been a big worry for many Americans post the 2024 election. Part of Trump's campaign, he had stated that he would implement a 25% tariff on all Canadian products, and another 20% tariff on supplies being imported from China and Mexico.  Trump has tied this into stopping the flow of Fentanyl to enter the U.S and with the higher tariff taxes, hoping that business owners will look in the direction of using American owned supply chains not knowing that it is hard to substitute from big trading partners.  Many people who are in favor of Trump don’t realize that the tariff tax is a tax that an importer pays, many people are under the false impression that the exporter pays this tax. This is not the case. We are expected to see a major increase in inflation by the end of this by 50 bps even if this tariff tax were to only last 3 months. This will highly affect the lower and working class population of the United States. This is a perfect example of what democrats mean w...

         In early 2025, thousands of nurses across Providence hospitals participated in the largest healthcare labour action in Oregon's history. The strike, which lasted over six weeks, came about due to unresolved negotiations related to staffing, wages, and benefits for healthcare workers. However, this fight wasn't just for themselves - it was also for the patients they serve, including those who already face barriers to medical care like the houseless population.      The strike resulted in a new three-year contract for nurses which includes substantial pay raises and improvements to staffing. Despite securing this crucial win, the bigger fight for accessible healthcare is far from over. Without reliable housing, basic medical needs are also prone to going unmet. This leads to preventable illness, untreated chronic conditions, and unnecessary deaths. Organisations like Portland Street Medicine emphasise that a lack of access can increase...

Housing insecurity is defined as the lack of security in a home – often caused by increasing costs, homelessness, housing availability and poor housing quality. Housing insecurity is experienced differently by many, however, the unsheltered and those living with disabilities experience housing insecurity at a disproportionate rate. In Portland, in particular, mental health and addiction are two key factors in the prevention of security high quality and affordable housing. [Weisenbloom] These barriers are exacerbated by the gap between average cost of living and median income. Portland, for example, has the one of the greatest gaps between these two in the country. Multnomah County alone has over 5,000 individuals that meet the federal definition of homelessness.    Photo by Nathan on Unsplash. In a renter’s market, renters often spend above 50% of their income on rent. This leaves little for life expenditures – such as medical costs, food, transportation, childcare and other n...

The national statistics revealed that 30% of the homeless population has a mental disability; in some cities, that number is 70%, and over 80% of the chronically homeless experienced drug and/or alcohol dependency (Lurie, et. al., 2015). Nearly all chronically homeless individuals have a disability of some sort, ranging from substance use disorders to physical to mental (Lurie, et. al., 2015). This should be a big enough sign that disability is highly relevant to the issue. Homelessness only exacerbates those disabilities and health conditions, and laws criminalizing homelessness make it harder for them to escape those conditions due to adding a criminal record to the mix. While all homeless individuals face a stigma, the stigmas and discrimination surrounding disabilities and substance use only make matters worse. Leaving out the exploitation and the victimization that often occurs towards those with more severe physical and cognitive disabilities who are unable to advocate for or def...