Homelessness in Portland, part 1

During my Aug. 1 Best of Portland walking tour, a guest from Santa Clarita asked about “the homeless” in Portland. Very helpfully, a passing street person overheard her and began yelling his opinions on the matter as I went into my three-minute explanation of the situation (and why “homeless” is a misnomer) in Portland.

I also mentioned offhand that I intended to write about this on my blog. (I’ve been saying that for years.) Nearly two hours later, as I wrapped up the tour on the west bank of the Willamette, the woman asked: “Where do we read your blog?”

A bit startled, I didn’t even have a business card to give her, but I told her my full name and the title of my blog, which she might or might not remember. I thought: Dang, now I’ll have to write something. So here goes.

Does Portland have a homeless problem?

Well of course it does . . . but, in some senses, the answer is no. There are massive legal, economic, social, and political factors, of course, but before they can be addressed, we have to clarify what we’re talking about when we say “homeless.” Much of the public disagreement and rhetoric arises out of confusion over categories.

When we use the word “homeless,” we’re often speaking of at least four fairly distinct populations (and maybe more), with not a lot of overlap between them. I would argue that at least two of these groups do not qualify as homeless in a technical sense, and those two may include most of the people on the streets who cause most of the problems we automatically blame on “the homeless.”

So let’s separate ’em out.

Category 1: The Traditional Homeless

First, we have the familiar type of homeless person we’ve seen on the streets for decades. These folks know the locations of many of the social-service beds and meals in town, and they make use of them, more or less. They shift from one shelter to another when they can, dutifully show up for free food at various agencies and churches, and may collect bottles and cans for money.

Such people may or may not have mental or substance-abuse issues, and they may or may not ask for money on the street, but even when any of these is the case, by and large these homeless people are quiet, polite, and well behaved. They keep their head down and go about their business among the rest of us.

Sometimes they get into housing and either make it or get thrown back on the streets due to cash flow, drug, or mental problems. They indisputably qualify as “homeless,” but I suspect they’re a minority of the folks we see on the streets today.

Category 2: The Temporary Homeless

The second category involves the individuals who have found themselves suddenly without a home. Loss of a job, a medical crisis and resulting financial catastrophe, or perhaps an abusive partner, has driven the person out of house and home, and she or he is crashing with friends, living out of a car, or in temporary shelter on or off the streets.

Carole and I encountered an example of this type some years back through the discovery of a lost puppy in Couch Park. The scruffy brown terrier mix was an absolute love; he looked a bit like a Wookie, so I decided to call him a “teacup Wookie.” He was sweet enough to keep, but Carole dutifully took a photo of him and put up signs in the park. Several of our neighbors traded off looking after him.

After several days we heard from the evident owners: a woman and three small children the puppy obviously recognized. She said they were from Montana, and living out of their car. (The subject didn’t come up, but I suspect they were fleeing a domestic abuse situation.)

They called their four-legged friend Putzi. We had a big bag of dry dog food that didn’t suit our rat terrier, so Carole gave that to the family in the car, as well as some groceries. They lived out of their vehicle in our Northwest Portland neighborhood for roughly a month. Several months later, my wife ran into the woman again, who said she had found work and housing.

Members of this category also qualify as homeless. When we feel the urge to give money to people on the streets, most of us may picture the homeless as working-class and middle-class Americans who are down on their luck, perhaps because we have been or know someone in a similar circumstance at some point.

But such people know how to find help, or quickly figure out how, and readily cooperate with social service agencies to obtain it. Running into helpful citizens like Carole and me is (and should be) nothing more than cream in their survival coffee.

More pertinent to this discussion, these homeless people may still constitute a minority of the folks on the streets. Even more than the people in category one, they’re unlikely to panhandle. They’re certainly not the center of the homeless problem in Portland. We have yet to meet those folks, whom I’ll describe in a later post.


NEXT: The Professionals


Go to Homelessness in Portland, part 2 - the professionals

Go to Homelessness in Portland, part 3 - the road warriors