Some Political Thoughts on Homelessness

Elmer the husky and I met an elderly woman one afternoon not too long on a walk. She was going door-to-door handing out campaign literature for a city council candidate in one of the newly created districts in Portland, probably the most liberal of the four. The woman and I chatted briefly and I asked why she was supporting this particular candidate: “I want the homeless off the street and open drug use stopped.” That was it. I get the sense that patience (and compassion) toward the homeless has dramatically shifted in my very liberal area and voters won't be raising their taxes again in the near future for additional spending on homeless services.

One of Portland's candidates for Mayor, Keith Wilson, says he can end homelessness in the city in one year. According to his website:

“As mayor, I will swiftly end unsheltered homelessness in Portland by providing enough nighttime walk-in emergency shelters to take in every unsheltered person in Portland.

My non-profit, Shelter Portland, is focused on growing a network of homeless shelters. We know how to remove barriers and serve the neediest population at a tenth of the daily cost of a Temporary Alternative Shelter Site.

This pioneering model, based on previously successful efforts from around the world, can rapidly scale into underutilized city and private facilities, driving costs down and ending unsheltered camping.”

Wilson has gained considerable traction with his bold plan, coming in first in a recent poll and receiving the endorsement from the Willamette Week. My Dad and I went through the ballot and voter's pamphlet together and discussed the choices for Mayor. Wilson is clearly not an outsider of the Bud Clark zany barkeep variety who upended Portland politics with his election in 1984 and ushered in the Keep Portland Weird era. That era feels long, long gone. The Homeless Industrial Complex has been quoted over and over again in the media that Wilson's plan won't work: most homeless people won't use mass or communal shelters, etc., etc. What I like about Wilson's plan is that he wants to invite churches and other community partners with underutilized building space to help implement his program. Why not? I walk by churches in my neighborhood three times a day that could accommodate ten homeless people each for emergency shelter until they can move into more traditional housing. I wrote about this kind of solution in The Old Crow Book Club. Such a program in my neighborhood could produce instant results. I know three or four homeless people who need a few weeks in a local shelter to help them make a transition into places like Safe Rest Villages and subsidized apartments. Obliviously, church and community volunteers could not staff or oversee these facilities. But they could lend a major hand. Some already are but the efforts aren't necessarily leading toward getting someone off the streets and I know that better than anyone.

As I survey the current crisis of homelessness in America that emerged in force a decade or so ago, it feels like there has always been a need for a national policy to address the crisis. Not just grants to states. We need the federal government on the ground like a natural disaster had struck. An American humanitarian crisis has struck, the worst of my lifetime, and the federal government response has been tepid. It's not even mentioned in the campaigns for President even though it transcends Red and Blue state labels. Homelessness in America is everywhere. It recently polled as the number one issue in Oregon. There should have been a national effort to combat it.

And look at the State of Oregon's response under Democratic Governors Brown and Kotek: let the cities and counties of Oregon deal with it with a hundred different policies or no policies at all. I've written for years there needed to be a Homeless Czar appointed with sweeping emergency powers to override indifference or incompetence in certain localities. The Governor should have led on this issue. Making money available to establish shelters or build affordable housing was not enough. But you always get the feeling politicians want to pass the buck on addressing the crisis, mostly because it seems like a totally losing battle. That's why you've seen the rise of the monolithic non profits to implement and administer policies on the ground when these should have been handled by government officials. Politicians can always blame the non profits and none of the non profits ever seem to face real and sustained scrutiny.

I sometimes wish a rich benefactor who has read my writing about the homeless would pay me $25k for one year to work full time in my neighborhood to help move people into housing. No affiliations with any non profit. Maybe an office, maybe not. Just work behind the scenes and organize a cadre of volunteers to assist. I am so up for that kind of challenge. Call it a kind of free lance pilot project, done in quasi stealth. No press releases and no meetings. Action on the ground.