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Portland's Progress on Homelessness

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"This is Cookie," she says, referring to the man.

Graves has known Cookie on Vancouver's streets since he was 14. He has severe fetal alcohol syndrome, she said, and has been addicted to drugs and alcohol since she's known him. In the last few years she's watched every step of the agonizing process as he's picked himself up and gotten himself squeaky clean minus a little pot here and there. She nearly cries with pride as she talks about it. The dog Cookie hugs in the photo he just got recently, she tells me. He named it Fiona, "not after the princess, but because it's the most beautiful name in the world," he told Graves.

Just recently, though, Cookie's housing program lost funding and he went back onto the street. Now they're housing him in the Stanley Hotel, "where there's only hard drugs," Graves says, and where all his hard work -- work he did, she emphasizes -- could be reversed in days. If she could, Graves would find Cookie a home with a community of people like him, young people with fetal alcohol, with a den mother to watch over them, not too tightly, but enough to make sure they're at the table for dinner, a place with stability. But with no flexibility in funding, her hands are tied. It makes no sense, she says.

"People can't fit just into these models, and we know that because they're on the street. If they could just fit in, they wouldn't be there. Anybody who had another option would never even dream of it."

Money matters

It would be wrong to portray Portland as a city that has solved homelessness. Oregon Housing and Community Services finds the number of homeless people across Oregon rising significantly as the recession ratchets up unemployment numbers. In fact, Oregon has more homeless people per capita than any other state, according the U.S. government.

And this month more homeless people became visible in downtown Portland after a law prohibiting sitting on the sidewalk was ruled unconstitutional.

Still, some of the policies I learned about that do seem to be working in Portland might bear scrutiny by politicians in Vancouver and the B.C. government.

Regardless, Portland has one final advantage over Vancouver: a whole whack of federal funding.

In the United States, federal funding for housing programs still flows through the veins of its states and cities. Canada, from the early '80s to the early '90s, cut almost $2 billion from national housing funds and later cancelled all funding for new housing, transferring the majority of the administration of housing programs to the provinces. If the City of Vancouver, like Portland, could tap into a national fund, it might have a chance at reaching its goal of ending homelessness. But as it stands, such hopes are as only as healthy or slim as the current provincial budget.

"Ten-year plans work if they have funding. We have a 10-year plan that nobody's funding. That doesn't work," says Graves.

"If we had a budget like they have, we'd end it too." [Tyee]

Christine McLaren is a reporter for The Tyee.

11 Comments:

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  • katy

    2 years ago

    The National did a report on

    The National did a report on homelessness looking at Victoria a while back and Portland was a big focus of the report as Victoria is using some of Portland's approaches (unfortunately not enough of them :/ ). There's some great info in here
    http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/healtheducation/off_the_streets_1.html

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    I don't think funding is the issue.

    The writer states, "Regardless, Portland has one final advantage over Vancouver: a whole whack of federal funding.".

    According to links, portlandonline.com say that "About $30 million is spent on services for homeless people in Portland every year, yet only about 12 percent of that money is currently spent on permanent
    housing."

    This is peanuts compared to Vancouver. Vancouver's Downtown Eastside receives just about $350 million a year. In April 2009 The Globe & Mail did a whole series on the Downtown Eastside, with studies, comments and articles from various writers and commentators, "Nearly $1.5-billion in public spending since 2000 and little to show for it — that's the story of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside."

    If Portland is, as the writer suggests, doing a better job it ain't because of a lack of money.

  • G West

    2 years ago

    The question is not about the money

    The question is about how it is used.

    Coleman and his federal buddies like ribbon cutting and ground breaking ceremonies - they don't actually like helping the people who need help - in fact, they seem to like creating layers of bureaucracy, including requiring welfare recipients to use computers to file their claims, that don't help anyone but themselves climb the office ladder.

    The whole approach has been a costly, unmitigated failure and a complete waste of money.

    http://www.vipirg.ca/publications/welfare_time_limits_june_08.pdf

    The Portland approach, where housing, clothing, nutrition and health care comes first is far superior.

    In Canada, and especially in BC the fascination with the naive idea that the homeless and the downtrodden are going to pull 'themselves' up by the bootstraps is expensive, self-defeating poppycock.

    I posted information about Portland's successes on these pages years ago - and no one paid a moment's notice.

    Portland does better because it gives a shit - we, apart from a few socialists - don't care.

    The only important thing to Campbell and Pee Wee, and Ignatieff and Paul Martin is finding ways to bend the system to permit it to continue to practice BUSINESS as usual.

  • CourtGQuinn

    2 years ago

    Jail, dorm, tent or trailer...

    Check out armytents.com. Many affordable, strong tents of various sizes could be bought, set-up and providing shelter in no time. Putting the homeless in big rooms where they sleep a few feet apart from one another is not only degrading because of lack of privacy...but such a living arrangement is going to literally become a hot bed of germs and disease. Let's see...put a bunch of people with likely weakened immune systems all together in one big building/room where they cough, sneeze and breath upon one another...beds so close together that transmission of colds/flu is almost assured. For those who think homelessness isn't their problem/concern...after sleeping/eating in such an environment all those homeless people could then hop on the skytrain or buses and pass whatever sickness they may have come down with to all those other transit users who may be standing/sitting near-by. In fact, with the alarming potential of the upcoming flu season....i hope shelters throughout BC are stocking up on tents right now. And if the homeless agencies house people in giant rooms like sardines...i hope they're buying as many air purification/filtration systems as the budget allows.

    The very least kind of shelter given to someone should be a ten by ten tent or garden shed. Maybe plumbing might not be provided to such a living quarters(though water coolers can be), communal bathrooms, showers, laundry and kitchen facilities could be close-by. So yuts, tents, tipis or small garden sheds nearby a centralized bathroom building in a monitored park should be the absoulute least form of shelter available to any homeless Canadian. Regarding affordable housing....better then tents/sheds, yet still affordable to the working poor...trailers/RV's should be on any governments list of ways to house people. A social/intake worker when first meeting someone needing shelter options should state this to the client: "here's a map of the various parks throughout BC that have pitched tents and/or small sheds ready for you to live in...because of NIMBY, these park locations are somewhat outside of the city...but there's public transit to reach the areas...if you find a job, there's the ability to finance your own trailer...and there's locations to park said trailer nearby work areas within the city...if you can't make a living within the tent or trailer parks..there's only a couple of other places the BC gov will house you...hospital...or drunktank/jail/prison...."

  • morechatter

    2 years ago

    Rental Assistance

    Is the answer all the rest are only going to add to the problem including tent city. The ideal is to prevent people from ending up homeless as that is where the true costs in are not in providing homes for people but in not. Just visulize this tent cities everywhere as campers say forget the high costs of rent and pitch a tent.

  • CourtGQuinn

    2 years ago

    Forget rent and pitch a tent...

    morechatter- you're right about the possibility of many tents being pitched en mass...the possibility of apartment rent rates and hotel/motel room fees falling fast because there's more the enough supply to meet demands. Huge, winter tents only cost a few hundred bucks. Big garage shelters cost about the same. Over one hundred years ago when pioneers moved to the prairies, BC, and Yukon...they lived in tents for the first few years. 30 000 people moving to Dawson City for the goldrush in one season was quite a feat. If early Canadians moving from the east were able to "tough it" in a tent for a winter...i'm sure yurts/tents/tipis today made with more modern materials and hooked up to an electricity source could provide much comfort to those housed like sardines today.

    Wonder how much the current welfare system and rental assistance schemes benefit not those who need shelter...but those who need jobs and tenants. Because being able to mass produce tents and trailers...and having very affordable places to pitch/park said structures...and the ability to hook up utilities and obtain easy public transport for said locations...what would that do to current landlords, hotel and resort owners? Perhaps housing/shelter costs (and transportation costs if done right) would plummet. CPI numbers say the average Canadian spends 46% of income on housing/cars...what if those numbers could be cut in half using new ideas...dare i say that that would benefit not only "poor"/"homeless" people, but also middle class people as a whole

    poverty is an industry. what happens to real estate prices when there's more then enough decent shelter to go around?

  • jono

    2 years ago

    Tents as an alternative for real housing ?

    Temporary housing is a band -aid solution; a permanent "tent village" with communal bathroom and waste facilities -common kitchens would fall into that category easily.Weather conditions in the interior where I live mean a tent city post mid November until March are totally out of the question . The suggestion of sites out-side of a town or city core only isolates the homeless from services they need...health and legal being two , not long infrequently running buses to cope with.
    Ultimately the solutions have to be bottom up with trust by governments in locally based well managed and experienced leadership to provide the plans and create the long term Four Season housing and stability that all deserve. Isolated tent "cities" or villages- thats a non-starter and demeening to the homeless needy.
    jono

  • CourtGQuinn

    2 years ago

    Tenants, tents and trailers...

    jono- i agee with you to an extent. Certainly those who are "mentally ill" should be housed in "solid" forms of housing that are safe and looked after by the gov(s). There are different kinds of "homeless". Those who are fit and able should be housed where-ever/how-ever it's cheapest. If a healthy person is looking for social support....give them a strategic/affordable (or even free to begin with) place to pitch/park their tent/trailer...give them an allocation of 1 kw's of electricity (enough for heating/cooking/lights and net/tv/phone)...give them a certain amount of bandwidth (enough to learn, look for jobs, communicate)...give them a 40 pound bag of rice/potatoes/pasta...some beans, fruits and veggies..and other basic, nutritional foods and vitamins(enough food to last a month....(no welfare cash outlays that can be spent on beer/smokes))...and give them a bus/transit pass. For healthy, single recipients...basic food, clothing, shelter, electriciy, communications, transit can be met using different tools then currently is done so....and probably for half the cost. And giving new options to those who are unemployed/broke/homeless regarding where/how they can live for less money is better then what's being done now. Why do social services have to be concentrated with major cities. Maybe those who need detox services could do so in areas/buildings in the middle of nowhere...yet still affordably connected to utilities/services.

    Never been to BC interior...but i can't imagine it's worse then a Yukon winter. 100 years ago Canadians (and many Americans) went to the noth for the goldrush. Tents now can be bigger, made out of better materials and if they can be hooked up with electricity...you've got fridge, microwave, hotplate, heater, tv, net, phone ability. A centralized bathroom/laundry/shower facility with hundreds of feet of cheap power extension cords could allow for dozens of tents/trailers within a few acre parcel of land.

    And who say's living in a big yurTenTipi an/or trailer isn't "fair", or good enough for homeless people? Hollywood actors and rockstars live in trailers when on the road or filming. Why couldn't the homeless or working poor be housed in new kinds of affordable structures and parks? In some ways having a mobile trailer/yurTenTipi allows one to see, work and live anywhere...

  • The Blackbird

    2 years ago

    Competing Interests, National and Municipal

    "If the City of Vancouver, like Portland, could tap into a national fund, it might have a chance at reaching its goal of ending homelessness."

    There will be no national fund until Canada's involvement in Afghanistan comes to an end. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Taliban controlled state exported 450 tonnes of opium in the year prior to the post-911 allied invasion. In 2007, six years after allied occupation, the nation exported 8400 tonnes. It produced 93% of the world's opium supply that year.

    Take a look at Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and its heroin problem, the proximity to Canada's busiest port where small inspection teams and the minimal scanning equipment they are provided with are able to check a minuscule percentage of cargo containers that come onshore, the perpetual open black market, the lack of treatment facilities not only to save money but to maintain a "healthy" pool of active addicts to sell product to, the ease with which money laundering is enabled by our federal government with its targeted deregulation of laws governing financial services, securities and exchanges laws. About the same time the feds stopped funding housing, they also stopped prosecuting, convicting and fining Canada's major financial institutions for laundering drug profits. Illegal narcotics, behind oil and weapons, is the world's third most lucrative commodity. If Canadians don't believe our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect our stake in the Afghan opium trade while many of our most vulnerable citizens suffer addiction and die in decrepid conditions.

    The Government of Canada doesn't give a rat's ass about homeless people. It is interested in doing the bidding of the corporate elite. So, way to go Portland and lucky you for having access to some major dollars through the US Government. From the sounds of it, though, a lot of homeless people from other places are crowding into your town because they've heard you've got something good going on. Make your case for more federal stimulus funding for increased social housing contruction. You'll win, given you've got the highest homelessness per capita in the country.

    Stephen Harper stated his belief on CNN last March that the Afghan insurgency can never be defeated yet he insists on continuing to place our brave and loyal soldiers in harm's way until the end of 2011. Where is the sanity in that? What I think he means is they hope the country will be stabilized well enough by then so the product can keep moving out of the country without the need for Canadian military involvement. Poppy farms and supply routes would be secure and we can pull out knowing the banks will still enjoy the cash flow.

    There's only so much taxpayer's money to go around and fighting a decade-long war halfway around the world sucks an awful lot of it away from whatever it is people are bitching about this month.

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    How do you measure success?

    The Portland Approach. They are number one!

    Highest homeless per capita in the good old USA.

    http://www.portlandobserver.com/story.asp?record=10253&section=Features

    ...and people here in BC pontificate, praise them and want us to emulate them.

    Yes, Vancouver is the most depressing place in the world - for some.

    http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-08-03/blog-forum/arthur-salm-the-most-depressing-place-in-the-world#ixzz0NTNkS3hw

  • realisticman

    2 years ago

    More great stories from Portland.

    Let's go down there and find out what we can do to acheive the success they have.

    "Homeless villager Gaye Reyes.

    “The government doesn't help us here. We're self-supporting, self-sustaining. We built these (temporary houses) ourselves. Nobody came in and did it for us,"

    http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071609_news_homeless_portland.496823e9.html

    http://www.oregonlive.com/hovde/index.ssf/2009/07/feeling_uncomfortable_is_part.html

    Reading these articles by Christine McClaren then doing a tiny bit of research clearly shows that Portland Oregon is not to be admired at all. It's a bloody nightmare! A complete failure! The highest homeless in the nation!

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