A recent article says that homelessness is likely to increase through 2027 in Portland, (“Homelessness likely to increase in Portland area through 2027, Multnomah County officials say,” May 6). It reports on a joint county/city meeting during which county officials presented their forecasts of ever-increasing homelessness. They predicted that if they got more money, they might be able to keep homelessness from growing, possibly stabilizing it at the current extremely high levels.
But the homeless services departments had that much extra money in the past two years, and during that time homelessness increased dramatically. Now they are proposing to continue with essentially the same policies. Why does anyone believe that restoring that funding will help matters?
During the meeting the city councilors and county commissioners meekly accepted the forecasts. Instead, they should have demanded a total rethinking of our homeless policies and how they are implemented. Other jurisdictions, such as Washington and Clackamas counties, do much better. Why can’t Multnomah County and Portland?…