Marking the fourth year that Portland has renewed its State of Emergency regarding homelessness, it is clear that 2019 is an important time to recognize this issue. According to the City of Portland’s website, around 3,801 members of the Portland metro area community may be homeless. These people are more likely to have health issues, experience drug addictions, and end up in the justice system. Given these negative effects, it’s paramount that we take a good look at this crisis in order to better understand and attend to it.

Portland citizens are often exposed to the severity of this crisis. Rebecca Stefoff, a Portland resident since 1993, has been a witness to the changes that brought homelessness to it’s epidemic state. At the time of her arrival, she was “barely aware of homelessness,” but things have changed.

“By the early 2000s, I was seeing more and more people of all ages with shopping carts, big backpacks, loaded bikes, most of whom appeared homeless. Then about five or seven years ago, I started seeing camps, both large and small, and now they seem to be the dominant appearance of homelessness in Portland,” she says. She often bikes the springwater corridor, meaning she is regularly experiencing the camps and shelters of these individuals. “I feel pity and compassion for people who have to live in camps, especially families with kids. But I have other feelings as well. I don’t have much feeling about official shelters, other than that we need more and better ones, properly managed. But unofficial shelters such as lean-tos and tent camps make me nervous. I feel that they must be insanitary, so not great for the health of people living in them or close to them.” In her time here, she’s also seen the way in which stigma can negatively reflect these people who need our help. “On a really basic level, fear of contact, even eye contact, makes a lot of people I know resist interacting at all. Maybe a dollar or two here or there makes no real difference to such a big and seemingly intractable level, but it is at least a bare minimum of connection.”

Even with programs set up to help the homeless and several good places for them to stay, 49% of homeless individuals will be unsheltered tonight. Those who aren’t sheltered have few options, and often lead to the camps most Portland residents are familiar with. Remington Powell, a Portland resident who has lived beside homeless camps before, describes the experience by saying that “the homeless camps that I have lived near have not affected me directly. Beyond the smell and knowledge that is was there.” However, he went on to say that: “My sister, who lived with me however was scared and never walked past the camp after it grew past a few campers. This was valid, as the camp by our house had several sexual assaults before being disbanded.”

Another person who experiences Portland’s homelessness crisis head-on is Sarah Knut, a member of the Write Around Portland staff. Write Around Portland offers writing workshops and other writing-related opportunities to those who may not otherwise be able to get it. According to their website, 75% of these people are below poverty level– and many are homeless.

“So many people I have met who are experiencing homelessness have shared how demeaning and demoralizing it can be, how invisible they feel, how unimportant,” she says. “I think writing and publishing that writing can be transformative for both the writer and the reader, and allow us to see our shared humanity. I also think it can be nice to escape into a story sometimes, when the reality you are facing is hard, reading and writing stories can provide a welcome relief and release, and provide new perspectives.” From her experiences working with the homeless community, Knut has seen things that she wishes other people could know about these individuals. “The issues surrounding homelessness are complex and require a systemic approach to creating solutions,” she expresses. “Individuals are not to blame here, but rather the lack of affordable housing, lack of mental health services, lack of affordable health care, lack of recovery services, etc, etc. People are people, and we need to remember to take care of each other.”  

 Portland’s homeless community has grown and changed in the past few years. Although the eighteen hundred plus unsheltered homeless individuals we see every night in Portland may not be under our control, the way we interact with these people is. Whether it’s volunteering at a soup kitchen or simply addressing your own prejudices towards this community, there’s always a way to make a difference.