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This week volunteers across the country will take to the streets to find out how many people are homeless, and unsheltered, in the United States. It's a biennial count that attempts to paint a picture of who is living on the streets, and in the parks, and in their cars, without shelter. Volunteers ask the people they encounter for some basic demographic information like the first letters of their last name, their first name, their age and gender. It's a homeless census, if you will.
It's been known for a while that Oregon has a big problem with homelessness. On Think Out Loud we've had many conversations about homeless issues. We've talked to homeless youth, and about rural homelessness. We've heard from family members and advocates. And we've discussed the role of mental health and hunger. But there's one — well, likely many, but one for now — part that we've missed: the picture of homelessness in our suburban communities.
A Brookings study from a couple of years ago illustrated that the growth in poverty is now happening in the suburbs. A recent column in The Oregonian by Israel Bayer and Joanne Zuhl of Street Roots makes that local and up-to-date. They say:
Suburban homelessness is no longer a projection on a spreadsheet about the future. It's a reality that's getting worse by the day.
Take, for instance, the Oregon Department of Education's homeless student count. It showed that Beaverton School District had the highest level of homeless students in the state: 1,580. Medford and Portland followed. What's the cause of this growth in suburban homelessness? What can be done to halt it?
Do you live in the suburbs? How is homelessness affecting your community?
Guests:
- Lynn Hurst: Was homeless for 10 months with her family
- Bridget Daniel: Executive director of Home Plate for Youth
- J. Newson: Has been homeless for four years
- Eric Canon: Chair of Interfaith Committee on Homelessness
Tagged as: foreclosure · homeless · suburbs
Photo credit: Don Hankins / Creative Commons
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In a way the civil rights movement kick-started this homelessness mess. When Carter was Prez under some aspect of the new civil rights laws it was no longer legal to institutionalize people against their will. Overnight hundreds of such institutions across the states emptied out their zanies. Very few familes dropped by the newly opened asylum doors to pick up their loony relatives.
So they hit the pavement and became a conspicuous presence on the streets of every major city. Before that homeless people wandering the streets were rather rare. After the mass release, and others in bad financial straights saw that the crazies were not be dragged off by the cops, abd the numbers multiplied.
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One can not have a discussion on homeless populations without that nasty topic of mental illness. Given foreclosures and jobs, it is short step to not having the meds to be anything but homeless. These folks tend to stay where they know the area and that hits many suburban folks. Some stay away from the city centers for the same reason others fled to the suburbs...crime, crowding and all the busy life of a city. I still can't get that story out of my mind of the homeless vet in Forest Park that taught his 12 year old well as she lived with him years ago. We failed him and his child, but some folks came forward when his plight was known and kept his privacy intact.
In terms of the program theme of surburban homelessness, add to that towns that once were vigorous with jobs but that are now trending to becoming rentals for Section 8 and poor folks. Look at the changes in Gresham and Willamina, just for two towns with population trends that are disturbing. Where we push the poor is part of the homeless picture, as the ones that don't make the move often end up on the street.
It is cyclic. When I first came to NE Portland in the 70s, I knew where the last of the madam houses were, the communes and other life style folks that loved the nice houses and low rents. Now look at the place! Million dollar homes!
I miss the County Farm concept. While Edgewood wasn't quite like this, decentralized places where folks could go and work for growing food they could eat, as well as school children, prisoners, and others in exchange for a safe place to live sounds utopic. There does need to be places social services meet the problem directly and where folks can be processed into paths that work.
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I'm homeless. I have been for about 2 years now. It's still hard to say that, or believe it. I'm not on the street anymore, but now I'm just one step away while staying with a relative. And no, I never thought it would happen to me. I've heard people say that before, but again, I never thought it would be me. I'm college educated -- even some grad school -- and have worked in a variety of jobs for the last couple of decades.
I was married and living in Portland just a few years ago with a good job at a major medical university. You know which one. It was a good place. My big mistake was trusting a spouse who I came to learn was a very selfish, manipulative person even though I thought she was a good person just because she was a doctor. I learned that the hard way. I left my job to return to grad school and she left a few months later, even though we had talked about it for years and I had supported her and waited until she was out of residency and comfortably into private practice before I made an attempt at school. Just cleaned out our bank account one day and left me high and dry. The first rumbling of the Great Recession in the US began shortly after that and I haven't been able to find work since then. I kept thinking it would change, but it didn't. And that's after sending out hundreds of resumes for everything under the sun. It's been hard but I've had to survive on no unemployment assistance. I can't really say how I've survived. Or at least I shouldn't say here.
The stress and destabilization of that time brought on depression and anxiety (maybe PTSD) like you wouldn't believe. I lost everything: a marriage, a home, pets, all my savings, my health insurance, car, possessions. It was just a big avalanche after a while and I couldn't believe it kept falling, but it did. It's made for some interesting conversations with credit card companies. And I can tell you that there aren't many mental health resources out there for people without insurance. Mostly it's just people saying there's help out there. But that's mostly what help there is: just people saying there's help out there.
I'm tentatively back in school now, not graduate school but just another undergrad program. Something that sounded interesting and gives me something to do during the days. It's difficult doing it with little to no resources except bare bones student aid. It covers about half what the school estimates it will. I barely have enough to eat most weeks and go without most of the books. But I only have to get C's to stay in school. It's not the way I'd like to do it, but the way I have to. I was a good student once but maybe that's just not in the cards now. Anyway I figure as long as the loans are available I'm going to take as much as I can get. If I never complete the degree or never get a job out of it I'll not worry about paying back the loans. It's a common theme now among undergrads, I'm finding out; not a lot of hope.
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The framing of suburban homelessness on this website creates a false impression of homelessness.
Suburban homelessness is caused in part by families in economic crisis due to our "jobless" economic recovery in the Great Recession. But homelessness in Oregon's richest county has existed for decades.
Homelessness is caused by poverty not by drunks moving out to the suburbs from Portland because of MAX. That is a stereotype of the homeless - everywhere.
The faces of the homeless in Washington County are most likely families with children - often single moms - some of whom are victims of domestic abuse.
The homeless also include school aged children, vets who suffer from PTSD, the abandoned elderly, Latino farm workers, the long term unemployed and yes, some people with mental illness.
The most significant cause of homelessness is a catastrophic illness which drains family resources. Where are foreclosure most likely - the suburbs!
50% of American families who lose their homes do so because of catastrophic illness.
Homelessness in Washington County is a national phenomenon. The primary cause is increasing poverty in sububia.
The county has over 5000 individuals and families on its "waiting list" for low income housing.
As a member of the Housing Authority's Advisory Committee for 9 years I learned the crisis exited in the boom years of the '90s and has gotten worse in the Great Recession.
The County's 4 homeless shelters can only take 12 out of 100 people who ask for assistance. That means 88 are turned away... mostly families.
Many Washington County residents are one job loss or major medical illness away from ending on the streets - as LostHope exemplifies.
One night counts done annually estimate there are @ 1200 to 1400 homeless in Washington County. The real number of homeless in our county is more likely triple that number!
Oregon has one of the highest homeless rates in the USA as a % of the population - @ 16,000. Given likely budget cuts at the federal and state level, the problem will get worse not better.
The most enduring cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable low income housing for the working poor.
What We Believe:
- Hardworking people should be able to afford housing and still have enough money for groceries and other basic necessities.
- Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life, which is tied to having a stable home.
Russ Dondero
Member, Interfaith Committee on Homelessness & Oregon Housing Alliance
Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics & Government, Pacific University
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Yep, as you stated, it was one major medical event that really pushed me over the edge. And I had insurance at the time. BCBSO just decided not to cover a pre-approved hospitalization and then punted the bill back to me afterwards. With everything else that happened and with the hospital bill, I was sunk.
How can I have faith in the American way of life when events like this happen so often to people?
P.S. I studied in your same field.
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Just 5 months ago I moved to Washington for a new job, having invested over 30 years into a quite successful career. Within 2 months I found myself without a job in a city where I knew no one outside of work because of cutbacks. Being one of the new employees, I was "let go."
Three months ago I began couch-surfing at a friend's in Portland. A month ago my father died. Despite multiple interviews, in-person and over the phone, an elusive job has not materialized. While I desperately need to talk to someone to deal with the "situational" depression, I don't have the finances or insurance to cover. One therapist has one sliding scale slot in his schedule, otherwise I need $85.
While I am grateful for the couch, I also have to endure put-downs and inneundos about not doing enough to get a job or my "free loading" status. Too often I walk in to find the teenager trashing my "living area", piling heavy history books on top of my lap top. I chose to go sleep in my car that night rather than fight with the teen and her two peers who were having a mid-week sleep over. It was cold and very uncomfortable. I appreciated the psychological shelter of privacy and protection from verbal barbs, but this body didn't do well.
A search for affordable housing is fruitless. Without a job, even with unemployment, new landlords won't take a second look at you. I've talked to some homeless about how they survive and the one thing that strikes me is the empathy, dignity, and non-judgmentalism they have. One man offered me some of his money. It is too easy to judge those who are homeless and/or jobless and blame them for their situation. It is also easy to assign mental illness as an underlying cause that lead to the homelessness or joblessness. But which really came first?
Take away you job, your family (am gay and disowned 20 years ago), a partner who died, a place to stay, add a car that needs repairs, no insurance, and friends who judge you as not doing enough to get a job. How easy would it be for you to stay positive, maintain your self-esteem, and maintain your mental health in a city with increasing opulence and public reminders of some very affluent members of the community.
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How timely is this topic? ;)
My partner and I are currently experiencing homelessness. We both lost our homes in ugly divorces, and when you comine that with unemployment due to chronic illness and poor economy you have a perfect storm.
I had stayed home to raise and home educate children for 16 yrs prior to my divorce and illness. He worked in construction before a serious injury. Disability process is a very long one, often years before you can get to a steady income. What are these people... people like us to do? My 19 yr old was able to get a part time job and a roomate. My daughter is 17 and a new college student... she has bounced between her brother's apt, a boyfriend's apt, and her grandparents house.
We managed to get an old RV to stay in and we have family that took pity by letting us "visit" their "yard". The situation will wear out eventually though. Then what?
What really irks me about homelessness and how rampant it is, is that we have tons of tools available to us to fix it. I know this to be true because alternative building and housing have become one of my passions (err obsessions). GREED is the reason we have been "unable" to fix the homeless crisis. What stands in the way of fixing it is city and state building codes, permit requirements that take forever and are expensive, not allowing alternative/micro building to take place, people with funds not donating to finance buildings, altvillages,or programs to treat mental illness that runs so freely in homeless populations.
The options exist, but alt buildings don't fit our in the box idea of what housing or cities should look like. Greed and narrow mindedness are a huge part of this issue.
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homeless affects middle-class people too. the oregonian had a story this weekend about it. more middle-class people becoming homeless bc of the recession and just falling on hard luck. i think that's an important point to consider. it's not only the destitute and hapless.
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Will somebody please ask this woman what everybody's thinking. Why do you have six children? I would love to have children one day but cannot afford them as I am sometimes live paycheck to paycheck. Children are very expensive and this ought to be part of the conversation.
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She said something about six children total which sounded like perhaps like it was a blended family - children from previous marriages.
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I must have somehow heard wrong. I love kids and I'm sure this woman's kids are loved and I'm not somebody who thinks all homeless people are to blame for their situation. My Cobra insurance just ran out after a year due to me getting laid off. I spent 6 months living in the back of my car after a medical incident previous to that but all too often I hear people on the radio saying their unemployment is about to run out and there is another child on the way.These are choices but I do appreciate you maybe shinning a light on this particular situation. That said, don't you think that maybe these people would have an easier time finding jobs, food, and shelter if they didn't have six kids whatever that ratio? Maybe they each have three but three kids is an awful lot of kids. They sat each kid costs about $250,000.00 before they set out on their own. That's the price of a nice house. It's like taking on six house payments. I may very well be homeless right now if I decided to have kids.
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Sometimes I've had an extra bedroom or two and wished there was a way to offer housing to someone who really needs it. Are there any programs that do the screening (which goes both ways) and ongoing support to help households with extra room open their homes to homeless people? Is this a crazy idea? Thanks.
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Yes, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon has a program called Shared House. Learn more at:
http://www.emoregon.org/shared_housing.php
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The program also mentioned a program for homeless teens in Washington County. What is the name of that program?
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I applaud your idealism, but I hope you stay safe and can sustain your generosity. Like fish, houseguests begin to stink after 3 days.
Imagine your worst houseguest experience, multiply by two, toss in some small or expensive theft, poor hygiene, and the insecurity of having someone with a potential crime record within your home. And they bring home a friend or girlfriend and keep it a secret.
Add pathological dysfunction and dependency seeking and a carnie's idea of suckerism.
It is more than a loss of towels. Homelessness is a longterm chronic problem that can last years or decades. And it is MORE than just having a warm room or a home. Many have made bad choices, have addiction problems, have mental illness, and at worse are sociopaths.
There is a small minority of transient homeless who will bounce back once they get a job, have a sense of responsibility, and decency. I would love to meet and help such persons. But screening is essential. And mixed in with this crowd are felons who would pose.
Be safe.
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HomePlate is a weekly drop-in for homeless youth ages 11-24. It is open every Thursday evening from 6 to 8 and offers a hot meal, showers, resources and referrals or just a place to hang out. More info at the website: www.homeplateyouth.org.
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Churches Ask President To Address Poverty In State of the Union
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-chuck-currie/president-obama-should-ou_b_812259.html
- Rev. Chuck Currie
http://www.chuckcurrie.com
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I'm sure a lot of people -- especially the homeless -- would like him to address homelessness in America. But the SOTU address is always one of blind optimism without ever having to say how the programs enumerated there will be financed or conducted. It's not a particularly uplifting subject so it might get briefly mentioned but then quickly moved away from.
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Here in Bend, it is all suburb or rural. Here, homelessness is very prevelant here. We have nothing here for homelessness except the Bethleham inn. The city is trying to get the bethleham inn facility out of town because they think the facility is ruining the city image.
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On this topic, Lunacy Stageworks, in association with Street Roots (as part of the Fertile Ground Festival) is producing Stories From the Streets. Stories, poems, and readings created and performed by people who are or have experienced homelessness. This is the second year that we've done an event like this. One of the thrusts this year is to illustrate the nuance of this part of the human experience, that the idea of "homeless" can hold a lot of very different experiances. http://www.lunacystageworks.org/attractions.html
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I wonder if some of the fear we feel when we see or hear about homelessness is a deep down feeling that we could easily end up in the same circumstances.
It's sobering to realize that all it would take is an illness, accident, layoff, or any number of events that could push any of us into homelessness. The homeless are not the other - they are us.
Plenty of middle class people are now becoming homeless now.
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Homelessness was always my greatest fear and now here I am. I remember gathering up a whole bunch of excess things from around the house when I had one and taking it down to Dignity Village. Batteries, soups, food, clothes, basic hygiene stuff. It was good to help out but I always felt it was somewhere I didn't want to end up.
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Shelters, severe weather networks and people giving people help are all necessary and needed approaches to homelessness.
But these are NOT permanent solutions to homelessness.
What is a permanent long term plan to end and prevent homelessness is first fully funding of 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness like we have in Washington County based on a "housing first" strategy.
This strategy puts the homeless in permanent and safe rental housing while they can access wrap around services to deal with improving their education skills, deal with addictions or domestic abuse issues or health issues.
The second strategy is to create a more robust economy which does a better job in preparing people with the skill set required in a hi tech, information age based economy.
This requires re-schooling many workers who are currently unemployed or under-employed. Community colleges will be the front-line resource for this part of the strategy.
But in the current economy given the likelihood of reduced funding at the state and federal level - fully funding Washington County's 10 Year Plan and similar state wide plans will be very tough.
But a society that spends $1 trillion dollars per year in two wars in the Middle East can afford to respond to this crisis on the home front, now not later...
It's a matter of our values and priorities.
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Excuse me. Reschool them for what? Where is a growth sector? Wal-Mart? Only when our labor force accepts the same wages and working conditions of the average wage earner in Brazil, India or China will we be able to compete. Only when we ease all restrictions and EPA rules governing manufacturing and taxes are reduced on these companies will global capital consider reinvesting here.
The idea of a thriving American middle class was an illusion that lasted a bare fifty yrs. Poof! Gone. Now one tenth of one percent of American residents (God alone knows their citizenship) own most of the nation's wealth and they get richer every day even as the other 99. 99% grow daily more wretched.
Better reread Karl Marx. He said this would happen. It did. Just not on his estimated schedule. No! I'm not a commie.
If we had the gumption to chase out all the illegals and send them packing back to Mexco where they belong a couple million jobs would miraculously open up in Oregon over night for US citizens. They might not be great jobs, but they would keep a roof over your head and food on a table.
But what are the chances of anyone in Liberal Oregon demanding the Governor take action on that front? ZERO! Instead, they open soup kitchens, and cheer Obama's announcement of a new push to legalize millions of job stealing Mexican illegals.
Our country is crimbling under our feet. All I heard from Obama was standard politician's BS. It was supposed to be a report on the state of the union. Instead it was a campaign speech.
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Modern social structures don't really have a solution to homelessness. Ultimately all the programs to help get people off the streets rely on our ability to befriend those who haven't been able to cope with the world. Mental illness, addiction, even thievery (in most cases) are rooted in the instituitionalized practice and conditioning of social isolation into every aspect of our lives.
We've relegated the work of homeless outreach to "social workers" , as if common people have nothing to offer one another. This is our social dysfunction, and I've grown weary of the heartless, cavalier attitudes of the privileged.
I'm not saying everyone has to take in a homeless person, but I am suggesting that we need to honestly observe how we perpetuate the social isolation in our daily lives, how we label the unfortunate as "worthless", and blatantly discriminate against poverty and the poor in our midst.
Work toward changing your priorities to reveal the ways you could offer compassionate action and rebuild human dignity into every day's work and deeds.
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What about a touch more social engineering? The Lord knows there is quite enough of it going on in the schools. Which may be one of the reasons Johnny and Tyrone can't read or write. A good sound eugenics program to prohibit the mentallyand emotionally unsound from reproducing may help. We had such in the 1920s and it was stopped on the basis of sentiment, NOT because it didn't show promise of working.
Right here on these boards I read speculative comments regarding how much abortion on demand had reduced crime! That seems okay with most folks. If the general public must ultimately bear the cost of homelessness due problems arising from low IQ and psychiatric issues then society has a right to intervene in the name of the greater public good. Doesn't society have a right at least equal to that of the individuals creating the situation society must pay for?
When the families of these unfortunate people refuse them shelter and help and put them on the streets, that action means the unfortunates become wards of the state. As the state is fast going broke, it must begin shaving away costs it can no longer sustain. Creating a healthy, stable, capable citizenry is one action they can still afford to take.
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CharlaC
"Mental illness, addiction, even thievery (in most cases) are rooted in the instituitionalized practice and conditioning of social isolation into every aspect of our lives".
Do you honestly believe that statement? It seems to imply that indivduals are 'other' directed in the choices. That the greater society is at fault for these aberrative behavior problems. It shifts the responsibility for one's own actions to the community. Is this a follow-on to Mrs. Clinton's nonsense about it : "takes a village to rear a child"?
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I live in Suburban Clackamas County and just completed my volunteering with the homeless count here. I am also on the Community Action Board for my county. I've worked at a church here for four years administering our emergency assistance program among other things.
I am fully aware of the prevalence of suburban homeless. I have a storehouse of stories to tell. In fact, we currently have a young man living in our home. He has been in foster homes since he was 5. WHen he turned 18, he was out of the system- expected to make it on his own; ready or not. He had a job an dan apartment but lost them both about one year ago. He will be turning 20 next month and is unemployed wiht no home.
There is only one resource in the county for this young man, which is located in rural Oregon City/ Estacade- off of the bus line.
Encountering countless stories just like this one has spurned me to begin a nonprofit organization for youth an dfamilies who are struggling to make it.
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Dear lady, there are several thousand NGOs of various type already working on these problems. At the same time the population of people financial able to support NGOs is dwindling. For growing numbers of folks just taking care of their own broods is difficult enough. Compassion, like resources to give it form, is a finite quality, and presently in short supply. For many compassion MUST stop at the front door. Or else they too will be adding their numbers to the lists of the homeless.
I truly hope you find financial support. It is a worthy cause.
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I recently visited family in oregon for the first time in about 10 years and was nearly reduced to tears with one homeless guy i was talking to. This is a really great cause you guys are working towards, keep it up.
Gary
euro millions results
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Comments are now closed.
Homelessness is a spectrum. The man sleeping in the doorway next to his shopping cart downtown is only one form. Many do not like the shelter culture at downtown missions. Also the higher density of pedestrians downtown make begging for change easier compared to the suburbs where everyone is surrounded in a bubble of glass and steel, or car. That is why they hang around lucrative freeway entrances.
Depending on resources--short of an apartment--homeless can couch surf with friends, live with your detested Aunt Bea, squat in an abandoned building, live long term in an unofficial trailer park, live in an immobilized RV down a rural road, live in a car, or under a bridge. Used cars can be had for a few hundred dollars. And homeless can be mobile, pinching people for gas with a well used sign kept on the dash. And migrating south for the winter.
I have witnessed the rise of the commune in some overly large suburban homes with multiple unrelated unadults cobbling resources. Kind of a boarding house from the Great Depression, but with seedier persons who look like Friends of Bill or heroin addicts.
Some homeless have more options, when they are young, want to travel, have a car, are unburdened by mental illness or addictions. A lot of the downtown homeless seem schizophrenic. And the non-mentally ill homeless predictably avoid them.
Homelessness is the symbol of DYSFUNCTION in our Society. Mental illness, addictions, poor choices, lack of self control, poor work ethic, unwillingness to work, poor budgeting, poor education, poor priorities, refusing to pay simple bills, poor planning, magical thinking, no plan B. We all want and deserve a second chance.....but a third, fourth, fifth........20th chance? Unlike a ball, there are some that do not rebound.
Even during the boom times, we always had homeless. I predict we always will even if the streets are paved in gold. Remember Kato Kaelin--he is back on the streets in Beverly Hills. It is a product of naturally occurring mental illness, addictions and dysfunction. And poor choices. And lack of family support. And the inability to stay employed. It is not simply the absence of a home. Mental illness treatment should be the start. Prozac in the water?
If you still have your mind, can buy a car for a few hundred, dislike bone chilling cold and wet, don't have kids to send to the Beaverton school district....probably you will be in Mexico before long.....There you are not a homeless person, but an 'Expatriate Abroad.'
" .....Buddy, Do You Have a Dollar for Gas?"