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In Rare Alliance, Democrats and Republicans Seek Legal Power to Clear Homeless Camps
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this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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This line was pretty interesting to me: "the Portland brief reported that about 75 percent of some 3,400 offers of shelter were turned down". I'm wondering if there are any prevailing reasons as to why. If people have good reasons to not go then maybe some money is better spent solving that instead of simply pushing people from one sidewalk to another
Portlander here:
What it boils down to are most of the shelters have restrictions, like "no drugs or alcohol" and the homeless who refuse shelter either can't or won't abide by those restrictions.
Also, aren't the shelters notoriously unsafe, even moreso than living on the street? I know they are in New York, don't know if it's also the case in Portland..
The claim is they are less safe, but it's hard to imagine being less safe than homeless in a place where you can't put your back to a wall.
It might be hard to imagine if you don't know much about it, but situations like this is sadly not uncommon in New York shelters:
source
You may note that it's an old article, but things have gotten much worse since then, in large part because the current mayor is a fascist cop, but I repeat myself.
I believe it has to do with drug use. Even weed isn't tolerated at these facilities. There's not really a fix for that other than housing. A bunch of people doing drugs in a dense population like that wouldn't be good. Doing drugs in your own home like a normal person would be fine. But not even the libs want to house these people.
Not just drug use. Shelters don't let you keep your stuff there during the day. They don't let you keep your dog who's been with you on the street. They don't let you stay with your buddy or partner. They don't even assure you a bed two nights in a row. So going into one can immediately lose you a lot, in exchange for only one night's dubious protection.
I'm the libs. I say build bathrooms. Find ways to legalize camps and make them safer and more sanitary. Nobody's ever gonna lift themselves out of poverty if the government comes along every few weeks and takes all their personal property away.
I think you will like to hear this- we live in a small city, Terre Haute, Indiana. However, we still have a significant homeless problem.
That's not the good part. Here is the good part- my wife is an administrator here at the public library system. They are currently building a new library branch. It will include a signup required, one person at a time shower and washer/dryer free for anyone who wants to use them. Obviously the hope is that the local homeless will take advantage of the situation, but anyone can.
I hope more libraries follow suit. You can't lift someone out of poverty if they have dirty clothes and haven't showered in a month either.
Now here's the question: If our town can do it, why can't Portland?