Since 2007, Oregon has "frequently reported the highest rate of unsheltered family homelessness in the nation"

The Revolving Door Effect

The Predatory System Targeted at Homeless Individuals

    Formerly incarcerated individuals, especially those with multiple incarcerations, face a severe housing crisis upon release, with homelessness rates nearly 10 to 13 times higher than the general public. They frequently struggle to secure stable housing due to explicit discrimination from public housing authorities and private owners, using credit checks, income requirements, and other methods during screening processes. This pervasive instability often pushes individuals into marginal housing like hotels or motels, a small difference from literal homelessness, significantly hindering their ability to access essential resources like healthcare, employment, and education crucial for successful reentry.

    This cycle of homelessness and incarceration is severely exacerbated by the criminalization of homelessness, through laws that prohibit essential survival behaviors such as sleeping in public or panhandling. People experiencing homelessness are 11 times more likely to be arrested than housed individuals. When individuals cannot pay associated fines or miss court dates—often due to a lack of stable address or financial resources, and likely transportation—these minor citations can rapidly escalate to additional fines, bench warrants, and re-arrests, funneling them back into the legal system. Moreover, outstanding legal debt from these offenses is directly correlated with longer periods of homelessness. 

    Once re-arrested, formerly incarcerated individuals face compounded disadvantages within the legal system. They are more likely to experience incarceration again, perceived by lack of community ties and prior criminal history often cause of overenforcement. This detention often leads to worse case outcomes, including higher conviction rates and harsher sentences. Furthermore, probation and parole conditions—such as fees, curfews, or restrictions on association—are often impossible to comply with for someone without stable housing, significantly increasing their risk of violations and further re-incarceration, a burden frequently borne disproportionately by people of color. We have developed a predatory system, one that bullies and targets those that system knows it can abuse. Additionally it's a waste of money, time, and resources better spent on uplifting and reintegrating people than spinning them in circles endlessly, hence the revolving door.

Sources Researched

https://hulr.org/fall-2024/criminalizing-homelessness-the-dangerous-precedent-set-by-the-supreme-court-in-city-of-grants-pass-oregon-v-johnson

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/07/30/multnomah-county-sheriff-nicole-morrisey-odonnell-says-wont-jail-homelessness/

https://www.ojrc.info/

https://oregonworkforcepartnership.org/reentry/Z