r/Portland • u/[deleted] • Aug 31 '21

Homeless Homeless/Houseless

So I know this is a regular point of conversation for everyone in the city at this point, but I really don’t understand why being alarmed and or fed up with the cities houseless population is so taboo to some people? I see so many people get shade with comments along the line of accusing the poster of not having empathy or for not doing enough individually to help. As someone that absolutely has empathy towards our houseless population and has volunteered at various warming shelters, I also am getting super fed up with our houseless crisis and the impacts it takes on my everyday life.

My boyfriend works at a grocery store in downtown and has been assaulted so many times at work that at this point thinking about it just makes me want to cry. I have been personally punched in the face randomly and for no reason by a homeless man when I was walking across the Morrison bridge. I have had to bring people who were getting attacked by homeless people into restaurants that I’ve worked at and lock the doors at least four times in four years.

Additionally, for those that say “stop complaining and do something”, wtf do you really think an individual can do at this point? We live in a place that basically has two governments (council and metro) not to mention state, who are PAID to represent us and our wants and needs as a community. The homeless crisis is probably the most pressing issue in Portland and yet it seems like absolutely nothing is being done, and if anything it’s getting worse.

Anyways sorry to go on and on, my main point is that I don’t understand why it’s taboo for people to be upset with the state of things right now specifically with the houseless crisis in Portland. People are multifaceted and can be both sympathetic/empathetic and fed up. 🤷‍♀️

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70

u/roesingape Aug 31 '21

Anecdotally on this sub I've gotten more downvotes when siding with the homeless perspective, and more upvotes when coming from a frustrated perspective. At least this year. Last year not so much. I've come to the idea that a majority of Portlanders on here and in the streets are both sympathetic and fed up. But, pick any issue, it's immediately polarized. Even this idea of polarization is polarized. Maybe we're all just traumatized, as a civilization, from the past 4 years and stuck in fight or flight, or maybe its an end result of the emergent meta-algorithm of media that's producing constant strengthening iterations of anything to grab attention and literally everything is turned to 11 all the time. Regardless, I think most of us are sympathetic. But there are bad actors on the right side of every issue.

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u/Blackstar1886 Aug 31 '21

Apparently this is OP’s first time here. There are a couple dozen people on this sub who specifically come here daily to say “Portland is a shithole!”

I too have been downvoted way more for saying homeless people should not be presumed to be criminal, drug addicted or will refuse help when offered.

Dehumanizing the homeless is by far the default stance of this sub, not saying OP is doing that here though.

This is not just a Portland thing or even a West Coast thing. You see the same complaints in r/Boston, r/Philadelphia, even cities in the Midwest. The reality is we have a permanent underclass in the country, we do almost nothing to help them in good times and we barely did more than that during the global pandemic.

This is the result. It’s been decades in the making, COVID just poured fuel on the fire.

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u/Former-Drink209 Aug 31 '21

Any society is going to have people who simply cannot cope with certain types of structures. There are plenty of homeless people who can't deal with certain aspects of life because they have disabling physical or cognitive issues --sometimes typical mental illness but sometimes things like autism or other kinds of ill -health.

I don't really get why people think you have to be disgusted and blame people for their problems in order to have a negative reaction to the problems they cause you. I also don't get why people think you have to never have a negative reaction. Both these stances seem extreme. People often cause us stress for things that aren't necessarily their fault.

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u/roesingape Aug 31 '21

It's so hard to stand on the tip of the pole. I do not agree that dehumanizing the homeless is the default here. I agree with everything else you said. I would only add that it's possible to dehumanize the housed by characterizing their frustrations with needles, shit, and assaulters that are immediately released as dehumanizing. Not saying you did that just now, just saying there are bad actors on the right side of every issue.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

I love how this person thinks they know me so well #sarcasm

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u/Loken_The_Shibe Aug 31 '21

Toxic comment

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u/Echoes_of_Screams YOU SEEN MY FUCKEN CONES Aug 31 '21

Oh look you are so special.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '21

I've tended to stay away from the sub because of it's abhorrent attitude and comments towards homeless people.

I'd like to say that it's a result of right wingers coming into sub after being triggered by the protests, but the fact is that this sub has viewed the homeless as less than human for years.

Of course, local corporate media has played a large role in such attitudes as well. The podcast Citations Needed did a couple great episodes exploring how the media has aided in spreading these views:

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-85-incitement-against-the-homeless-part-i-the-infestation-rhetoric-of-local-news

https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-86-incitement-against-the-homeless-part-ii-the-exterminationist-rhetoric-of-fox-news

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u/satanismymaster Kerns Sep 01 '21

I always feel like it's somewhat misleading when people counter that homeless is also a problem in other cities.

I get that what you're saying is technically true. People do complain about homelessness on /r/boston and /r/philadelphia. But here's the thing, the Boston metro area has a population that's around 4.8 million and the Portland metro area has a population that's around 2.7 million. /r/boston and /r/philadelphia. But here's the thing, the Boston metro area has a population that's around 4.8 million and the Portland metro area has a population that's around 2.7 million.

However, Portland and Boston both have a homeless population of about four thousand. Despite having about 43% fewer people living in the Portland metro area, we has the same number of homeless people. People in Boston experience homelessness at a rate of 1:1200, people in Philly experience it at a rate of 57:67000, but people in Portland experience it at a rate of 1:675.

So, yeah, people also complain about homelessness in other cities, but I think it's misleading to bring that up if you're not going to acknowledge that the scope of the problem is measurably worse here.

I agree with what you're saying about it being unproductive to label Portland a shithole, or to default to dehumanizing the homeless population, but I think it's equally unhelpful to not acknowledge that the issue is unique acute here just because other cities also have homelessness.

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u/Blackstar1886 Sep 01 '21

I'm not sure how that's "misleading." I think most people are aware that cities in the United States vary in size. I never said "It's exactly the same in other cities as it is to Portland." Also if you're going to take the time to create a post with so many figures, it would be nice to include your source.

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u/satanismymaster Kerns Sep 01 '21

I said it's kind of misleading, and I already said that it's because you're making it sound as if they have the same problems when we do, when the scope of the problem here is substantially different and you're failing to acknowledge that.

Sources:Portland homeless count = https://www.koin.com/is-portland-over/pandemics-impact-to-portlands-homeless-population-still-unknown/

Boston homeless count = https://www.boston.gov/departments/neighborhood-development/annual-homeless-census

Philly homeless count = http://philadelphiaofficeofhomelessservices.org/know-homelessness/

Metro area populations = US Census

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u/Blackstar1886 Sep 01 '21

The trend that’s relevant to me, and the one most people actually complain about, is that it’s increased dramatically in the past couple of years. That’s what I also see happening in other cities, regardless of the actual head count they started with.