Modest Proposals to Address the Homeless Crisis (Part 3)
10)In 1862, Congress passed and President Lincoln signed into law, the Homestead Act. This law decreed that pioneers (invaders for sure, but that's another story) could eventually own up to 160 acres of federal land almost free of charge by satisfying requirements to live on the land for five years and improve it. Any drive along Oregon's rural roads reveals a significant number of abandoned homes, ranches and farms that have gone to seed and most likely foreclosure. There are probably thousands of such properties all across Oregon. I've seen them everywhere and shake my head at the lost opportunity here to house working people. Who knows how or why these properties ended up going to seed, but the state or counties should create a type of Homestead Act or Habitat for Humanity-like program that partners with local lenders to attract people to inhabit and rehabilitate them with the goal of eventual ownership. These places already have water, septic systems and are wired for power. Many people long to escape urban existence and try something less hectic. Remote work makes rural living possible for many Americans. A family living in a $1800-a-month apartment (not including utilities) in Roseburg might take a shot at starting a new life, say, near Myrtle Point, if it meant the possibility of owning a home in five years. True, Myrtle Point suffers from a lack of living-wage jobs, but then again, so did the frontier back in the day and people often made that work. Why not at least set up a pilot project in a rural county and see how how it plays out.
11)To celebrate my 58th birthday I toured around Silver Falls State Park. The CCC and WPA built this magnificent state park and recreation area during the throes of the Great Depression. Hundreds of men lived on site and worked for $1 a day for seven years because there was no other employment until WW II arrived. Every man who worked there is dead now but the stone walls, stone buildings, bridges, lodges and trails they constructed largely by hand continue to enhance the lives of Oregonians and tourists alike and will for many decades, if not centuries to come.
What a great notion! Put unemployed people to work, a certain kind of physical work in the woods that restores damaged watersheds or creates or maintains recreational opportunities. So why not employ a similar CCC/WPA strategy with some of the willing and able bodied homeless population in Oregon? And let me suggest the first place to start.
Two months after my visit to Silver Falls State Park, I drove Highway 224 past Estacada to see the charred aftermath of the 2020 Riverside wildfire that burned almost 140,000 acres of the Mt Hood National Forest and destroyed hiking trails, bridges, campgrounds, fishing holes and boat launches. It was an awesome spectacle to behold but I came away with some joy because the forest was regenerating, as forests always do after fires. After my trip, I returned to Estacada and struck up a conversation with a bookstore owner who told me he'd heard from Forest Service officials that it would take five to ten years to rebuild the recreational amenities wiped out by the fire. Indeed, some probably would never be rebuilt because of a lack of funding and manpower. In the bookstore, I instantly flashed back to the story of the CCC/WPA boys building Silver Falls State Park and how it was still a great notion. Why not recruit a hundred or two hundred homeless men and women from the Portland metro area and set up a camp in the woods and let them rebuild the recreational amenities with their hands. Pay them a decent wage, feed and house them, provide Wi-Fi, let them bring their dogs, let them drink malt liquor or vape weed after work like many other Americans do. Have a couple of social workers labor alongside the men and women and do some case managing out in nature. Nature is a case manager! Just imagine how this purposeful work could help certain homeless people find a new footing. There is nothing quite so therapeutic as hard work outdoors and I would know that better than most Oregonians of my generation.
Is this a preposterous idea? Why hasn't anyone or agency at least launched a pilot program? It seems shocking to me that no one has pitched an idea in Oregon, at least that I know of.
Would homeless men and women enroll in such a program? Of that I have no doubt. I have met many homeless men and women who live along creeks, rivers, in the woods, in the dunes, and chose these sites because of their close proximity to nature. Sometimes their residence destroys these areas, but many times it does not. I met an able bodied, middle aged homeless man the other day who exemplifies the latter. He lives in a tent/tarp domicile in the Mt Hood National Forest along a creek up a draw that escaped the Riverside wildfire. He would jump at the opportunity to live in a CCC/WPA style camp and work on a restoration project. He's already living in the area, catching trout and shooting wild turkeys for sustenance! There are a lot more like him, and perhaps some urban homeless that just might have their lives changed immeasurably for the better with some work in the woods. They'd also leave something positive behind with their labor, and not enough Americans can claim that distinction. I have come to theorize that one reason some people become homeless is because the work they were performing was utterly worthless and one day they just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
11)I walked a beach in Bandon on a December morning and looked up and eastward. Perched atop the cliffs above me were hundreds of ocean-front homes. Almost every one was a vacation rental or used once or twice a year by their absentee owners. Some undoubtedly had remained vacant for many years. Many had fallen into varying states of disrepair. It occurred to me there was all this unused or underutilized housing, some luxury, some middle class, some dilapidated, and there were homeless people living in the area and people who needed better housing. Such a contradictory condition exists up and down the coast. I thought: there has to be a solution to put some of this housing to a more humane use rather than just standing empty. Surely an organization could invent a program to match vacant homes with people who need affordable places to live at the Oregon Coast. Housing some of them in these vacant homes could free up other lower-tier housing for homeless people to occupy and begin their transition off the streets or out of the willows.
Does this idea seem absurd? Are there owners of oceanfront property in Oregon who might sign for such a temporary program, perhaps enticed by tax credits or a steady source of rental income, from say a teacher, visiting nurse or manager of a grocery store? Are there oceanfront landowners, typically people with significant material means, who might want to help alleviate the crisis out a sense of altruism? They should at least be presented the opportunity. We might be surprised by how many want to help.
12)In my mind, one of the more jarring and vexing images of the homeless crisis in Oregon is the amoral juxtaposition of storage complexes and homeless encampments. I frequently drive past one such complex, a recent construction of gleaming steel and glass with exquisite landscaping, that advertises move-in specials, heated units, around-the clock security, Wi-Fi, and other amenities. Below that complex rests, if rests is the proper word, a tent and tarp encampment of approximately 20 residents. We build nice and secure places to house and heat shit we aren't using and likely will never use. (Why do you think they broadcast all those cable shows about auctioning off the contents of these units whose owners died or stopped paying rent?) I have read (and observed) several stories of homeless people renting storage units and secretly staging their lives or living outright in them, particularly if there is no onsite management. And why not? They can suffice as a suitable minimalist studio apartment. They are affordable. Why shouldn't cities or state purchase or rent some of these complexes, quickly retrofit them for temporary shelter (they already have water and restrooms) and throw them into the mix to get people off the streets and out of riparian areas as they make a transition to permanent affordable housing? Legislate some zoning changes and make it work! These complexes are everywhere in Oregon, typically removed from residential areas, and I've driven by dozens that have gone almost to seed as newer fancier ones come on line. I know somewhere in America, perhaps in Oregon, an agency or organization has repurposed a storage complex into housing. I can't be the only one thinking how this might work.
13)Suppose a tsunami smashed into Oregon's Rockaway Beach and left most of the residents homeless. It's going to happen one day. What would the state and federal government do? They would treat it as a crisis. They would immediately erect temporary shelters. The Red Cross and other relief agencies would show up to help. There would be little or no debate. The governments would act because elected members (politicians) of government swore an oath to act, to serve, and as a result, place their reputations on the line in defense of their actions and service because that's the nature of the political beast.
State and federal governments always act this way in the wake of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, forest fires, floods and tornadoes. It's the chief reason governments exist—to act decisively and efficiently in the face of dire emergencies. Of course, sometimes they bungle it criminally like Hurricane Katrina, but sometimes they get it right. Think Herbert Hoover's timely and unprecedented federal response as Commerce Secretary in the Coolidge Administration to the catastrophic Mississippi River flood of 1927. He set up tent cities. He went on the radio to raise millions for the Red Cross. (Unfortunately, he forgot all about this when he became President and the Great Depression hit two years later.)
The current homeless crisis in America represents a grotesque and cumulative human-made disaster of greed and capitalism and should be treated like the dire emergency it so obviously is. Erect the shelters immediately as if a tsunami hit Portland and displaced tens of thousands. Convince or compel homeless people to move in and self govern. Administer services there, then direct them to various options of affordable housing as they emerge. Extinguish the burning building and take it from there! I never thought I would live to see the day when progressive people paid excellent wages in the public and private sector stood around and watched people in dire need of immediate action die because of policy disagreements, bureaucratic incompetence or because progressive people couldn't get off their asses and die trying. You can't take weekends off during emergencies.
14)If every person daily performed a concrete act of kindness toward one homeless person, over time, these acts would accrete into something concrete to help alleviate the crisis. A ride. A shower. A meal. A book. A greeting. A conversation. A tent. A sleeping bag. Gloves. A job mowing a lawn or raking leaves. An internet search for services. A bottle of Old Crow. A tin of Old Kentucky pipe tobacco. A night in a garage. A quote. A story. A bag of dog food. Acts of kindness bestow gifts upon the giver and receiver. Often these gifts are known in the moment of giving and receiving. Often they are not. It might take days, months or even years before knowing where the kindness went and worked its magic. Usually the results are never known. But I believe with all my heart that performing daily acts of kindness on behalf of homeless people will help many of them find a better life. And Americans don't have to look very far to help. Just walk out your front door and begin