Vulnerable People and Places Blog

  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...