Families would rent out a room or spare part of their house to an individual who needed the space. The families, patients and psychiatric center all worked together to form an agreement that included education, consultation, habitation and an ability for any one party to end the contract at any time, for any reason. The ritual of families taking in mentally ill people dates back to a time when a mentally ill princess ran away to the town and families brought her in. It worked then. And it works now.
Moving to Portland, and living downtown, I see at least seven homeless people every day. When it's cold, we sometimes get "bums" sleeping inside the vestibul to the back door of the building. It's certainly annoying to bump into someone as you're walking out the door, but it's also sad to see people in such conditions - for the most part. It has many reasons, including financial exploit. It sucks for us and it sucks for them.
This got me thinking a lot about homelessness in Portland, the U.S. and around the globe. As an urbanist, I began to think about how the cities could potentially adopt an elegant solution. I thought about FARs, square footage, building materials, community ... and I realized that there are different needs for different types of homeless citizens. I broke it down into three categories and later added a fourth.
1. Long term / Chronic (50%) - often suffer from mental illness. Have experienced homelessness for longer than 2 years. In need of structure and perhaps mental evaluation.
2. Short term / families (9%) - used to have a job, car, house ... still have debt. The head provider(s) lose their jobs - or some other misfortune - and they are suddenly living out of their car or a tent.
3. Adventurous (40%) - young and looking for adventure. Usually "homeless" from 6 weeks to 2 years. They'll hop trains, hitch-hike ... nearly anything except shower. They tend to bring dogs with them and smoke pot.
4. Criminals (>1%) - on the run and probably quite dangerous. This would be the fugitive-type person who has the police hot on their trail. They haven't built a new life and are desperate, trying to stay under the radar.
Really this is true
ReplyDeleteThis is good. Another contributing factor to the chronic homeless is that they usually have some type of disbarring criminal offense on their record, such as a crime of violence; murder or assault, sex crimes, or something else of a predatory or aggressive nature in their behavior. Like everything else in life, it's all about insurability and liability. Most non-profits that specialize in transitional housing, recovery or retraining programs cannot accept them for these reasons.
ReplyDeleteI found myself homeless due to drug abuse 13 years ago. First i lost my job, then my family. I made it out thank god. But it came from me being out on the streets almost 3 years. At first i would stay with people i met in the drug scene. That gets old after a while then i would hustle up money for motels and weekly stays but with a drug habit, it gets hard to maintain. Finally when i got tired and started to miss my kids and had danger and death breathing down my neck so close i could taste it, ( lucky for me i was able to dodged any criminal offenses on my record, for this reason i was able to get back into society easier then most) i checked into a treatment facility (with the help of my uncle, the only family member that didnt shun me out) from my experience you have to reach your rock bottom and really want a change it was not easy, I've been able to get back on my feet and havent been in danger of homelessness in 10 years but with bad chioces comes consequence and regret that i still deal with every day. But i still consider my story, one of success. Thank you, i hope this helps someone.
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