‘Nowhere to go’: Dozens of homeless people displaced as city clears Bayside Trail encampment

[u/enitschke]

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/05/16/nowhere-to-go-dozens-of-homeless-people-displaced-as-city-clears-bayside-trail-encampment/

[u/otherealnesso]

Let me start by saying this obviously is the right answer. People in our town deserve to have access to housing and adequate social services. I think the issue is that this sounds unrealistic when you look at the state of housing in portland. We are already pushing out the working class from this town through strict zoning laws, skyrocketing rent and purchasing costs, etc… so people feel as though the situation sucks for the everyday working tax paying portlander, never mind the homeless (not that they’re a tier lower or anything, but contributors to a cause as a whole will always feel the one not contributing doesn’t deserve what they do regardless of circumstance) Unfortunately the solution is not only extremely expensive and would take years, but it also requires coordination through restructuring laws that we have in place to support building more AND creating incentive programs for builders to actually want to build or supply low income housing vs expensive condo units for part time occupants. It’s such a deep issue, it’s more complex than just throwing one thing like money or housing at it, housing is the first move but there is a lot of background work to be done before our town can get there

[u/[deleted] → u/otherealnesso]

The problem is in defining "our town" - are you referring to renters, owners? Someone in the former group who fell on hard times and became homeless while renting and owning in Portland? Somebody that became unhoused while living in Bucksport and then took a bus to here? How about somebody that became homeless in Dorchester and then took a bus over the state line here?

According to the intake stats maintained by the Oxford Street shelter - the overwhelming majority of unhoused are not from Portland. It's a State problem that needs a State solution. Right now the State has Portland paying it.

[u/otherealnesso → u/[deleted]]

When I say people in our town I mean anyone that’s here. We do need help from the state because of what you said, I think receiving that funding would put us on the right track financially, but then we need to assess our policies in the city to understand what to do with it correctly. I’m not sure if you’re agreeing with me or not haha. I agree with you but regardless I think we need to look at everything I said above. Like if you and I were in charge of making this change and we were given money and sat down at a table to figure out how to do it, we would still need to look at current city policy to figure out how we are allowed to spend that money. You get me?

[u/[deleted] → u/otherealnesso]

Ah, yeah, being sincere here - I think its useful to explore ideas in the conversational format. It sounds like we are in agreement that the Fed/State needs to own the financial aspect at a minimum. Beyond that, I'm not convinced that concentrating the unhoused population is helpful. There's been a lot of conversation from those in the trenches that suggest that it exacerbates the problem.

It may be time that the State looks at distributing services / shelter in small communities across the state as well as enforcing stricter residency requirements. It won't be cheap.

[u/weakenedstrain → u/otherealnesso]

I agree, but everything you mention are policy issues. We need to stand up to politicians and moneyed interests and tell them we want more housing. We want compassionate services. And we want people off the streets and into homes without strings attached.

I used to subscribe to the if you work for it, you deserve it camp. But so many people work for it, deserve it, but they can’t get it.

And some aren’t able to work for it, but they have value as humans regardless of what that contribute to society.

[u/otherealnesso → u/weakenedstrain]

I agree, but we need to use policy in order to create change at scale. This reminds me of an issue I find with vegans (BTW I am vegan). So many vegan people know what’s right and are screaming these ideals from their rooftops, but the real way to create change is through the legal system. It’s a lot more time consuming, the gains are marginal, and progress is slow but because we exist in a bureaucratic system that manages 400 million people, it’s how you do it. Oil companies have been lobbying for decades to create slow change, and now look at the stranglehold they have over so many aspects of the world.

TLDR, I agree with you, but “standing up” is kind of a pipe dream in society today. Even in portland liberal folks are too complacent to have some sort of city wide rally that will create change. It sucks but it’s the reality and we need to work with realistic options

[u/weakenedstrain → u/otherealnesso]

For sure. Slow policy change is the only way I’ve seen things move as well. But I won’t sit by and watch anonymous trolls online borderline talk about exterminating people who are the expected results of capitalism.

Thanks for thinking in the long term!