Understanding the homeless crisis and what we can do about it - Part 6

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What to Consider When Formulating Policies to Reduce Homelessness

In the five previous posts I presented the following arguments why Portland’s homeless crisis is far worse than most other cities in the country.

Part 1 – Three Common Misconceptions About Homelessness

Part 2 – Permissive Public Policies Inadvertently Encourage Homelessness to Thrive

Part 3 – Our Compassion is Actually Enabling the Homeless Crisis to Continue

Part 4 – The Real Causes of Homelessness

Part 5 – Applying the Wrong Solution to Solving the Homeless Crisis

If you missed reading any of these posts, click on the links above. 

Today I present what I believe are the four criteria to consider when formulating successful policies for solving the homeless crisis. They are:   

1)   Avoid public policies that inadvertently encourage homelessness to thrive

2)   Address the twin problems of substance abuse and mental illness 

3)   Balance the rights of the unhoused with the rights of everyone else

4)   Measure compassion not by good intentions but by outcomes   

So how do Housing First and Hope for the Homeless Foundation compare based on these four criteria?

Housing First

Housing First proponents believe public camping should be allowed due to the lack of affordable housing. They favor the legalization of drug use. And they also oppose involuntary treatment of the mentally ill. By their actions, they believe that the rights of the homeless supersede the rights of the community. Housing First proponents are long on good intentions but are short on measuring their policy outcomes. There is almost a complete lack of data on the homeless in Portland.  Understand this: You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Elected officials are lacking the most basic information to measure progress towards helping the homeless.

Hope for the Homeless Foundation

Hope for the Homeless Foundation believes the existing vagrancy laws should be enforced, and that the legalization of drug use for meth, heroin and other hard drugs should be repealed. We are in favor of using coercion (treatment vs incarceration) to encourage drug users to get treatment. We believe in involuntary treatment for the mentally ill. We believe the rights of the community should be balanced with the individual rights of the homeless. We believe outcomes should be measured to find out what works and what does not in reducing our homeless crisis.   

Housing First fails on all four criteria for establishing sound homeless policies. With these four criteria in mind, Hope for the Homeless Foundation has developed a nine-step plan for significantly reducing homelessness in the Portland metro area. 

Nine-Step Summary Plan:

1. Gather data to help understand and solve the homeless crisis

2. Provide shelter facilities and/or camping sites with services at multiple locations

3. Provide funding for the most effective non-profits assisting the homeless

4. Enforce existing vagrancy laws that ban camping in public places

5. Repeal Measure 110 that decriminalized heroin and meth possession

6. Establish a crisis center for homeless people exhibiting behavioral problems

7. Change criteria for involuntarily treating the mentally ill

8. Establish a substance abuse court modeled after Beaverton’s B-SOBR program

9. Establish a long-term care facility for the mentally ill

In the next several posts, I will present the specifics of each of these nine steps for solving the homeless crisis in Portland. 

These are my thoughts. I welcome yours. What criteria do you believe should be the foundation upon which to formulate successful policies for solving the homeless crisis?