"ending homelessness"? I'm a liberal, and even I recognize the ridiculousness of that statement. For better or worse, "homelessness" is something you can't cure. There are people out there who WANT to be homeless, whether due to mental illness or simply preferring the lifestyle. Unless Portland becomes a neo-Gestapo state where being homeless is a crime and you either land at this facility or jail.... which I *CAN'T* see in a million years because of the permissive nature of city government... Old Town and it's surrounding areas will continue to see people who live on the streets. That being said, I welcome this facility to help the people that really want to escape that life, and hope that it is a success.
man, you hippies sure try....Im sure the local land owners are thilled a bunch of homeless people will be moving in...or is it already a hellhole in that area?
I think you are better off looking at the reasons people are homeless and trying to deal with them. Homeless will just flock here from other cities. =)
I hope it's helpful. It's good that there will be a home to social services but spending that much money on what will be basically known as "Free Place To Live" creates a lot of problems. What about the struggling people who work and make ends meet. Once they get a look at these new studio apartments, they might want to quit their job and move in, no?
No it won't. They WILL fill it up. And they will do so PDQ. And like a magnet it will help attract homeless to Portland from other cities.
So what's the answer? Or is there one? One that doesn't trample the civil liberties of an individual?
There are people who WANT to be homeless. But very few. Mental illness is the greatest factor that leads one to homelessness. Maslow's theory says that security is the the first step towards self-actualization... Having a home IS a great part of that security. Most of all mental illness has to do with anxiety. I feel this anxiety has most to do with insecurity. This is a step in the right direction as it counters the main problem with homelessness - THE LACK OF SECURITY.
Jesus, it's like taking a thimble hoping to empty an ocean. By my math, $46.6MM for 130 apartments equals $358,461.54 per unit. Heck, let's be nice and inclue the 90 beds and call it 220 units total. That's still $211,818.18 per unit. That amount is shocking and shows just how wasteful this project is. If you're interested in offering housing options for the homeless, you'd be better off buying apartment building for around $40-$60K/unit, which is the going rate for class B apartment properties in Portland currently go for. And they'd be 1,2 and 3 BR units, not just studios. Even using the high range, you're talking about 777 units. Let's say they average 1.5 bedrooms. That means you can house 1,165 homeless people instead of 220. Of course, then you wouldn't get a shiny new building. I'm sure someone will come on this board and call me a "hater" or "anti-homeless", but if you really want to help these people, building a shiny new project isn't the answer. There are all kinds of underutilized multi-family units all over the city that could be acquired instead.
^Well, look on the bright side: It'll provide a lot of construction jobs $200,000-$300,000 per unit is insane for a homeless shelter. At first this project was planning on being 350' - roughly 32-34 floors.
Being homeless in Portland is more of a lifestyle choice than bad luck or mental illness. The majority of the homeless people you see downtown are kids that choose the lifestyle and have migrated TO Portland due in large part to our local governments liberal minded stance to the problem. This shelter will do nothing but lure even more of this punks to Portland. It's getting unbearable downtown, and it kills me because I love spending time down there. Portland needs to quit being so fucking liberal about it's homeless problem, and make it illegal for these kids to loiter all over the city. Our local government is beyond embarrassing.
Kind of like a war on flanking attacks, or sneak attacks, or a war on night time attacks. You can't cure homelessess anymore the you can win a war against a tactic, like terror. What you can do is to address the root cause of homelessness and/or terror. Both of which are primarily driven by extreme poverty. Fighting homelessness during an economic crisis is pointless. No doubt the deep poverty and homelessness in our city and our nation is a huge problem. However, this structure is akin to putting a bandaid on your 12 year old skateboarder but not buying him knee pads and a helmet. You aren't addressing the real problem. Far better to hold accountable those who created it (the international banks along with the heads of a number of Central and Private Banks) and reforming those institutions and possibly arresting a number of the people who caused the collapse through fraudulent financial instruments rated AAA and numerous other pseudo-legal enterprises. I'm a big believer in relieving poverty and the basic human right of desiring shelter. Unfortunately, our economy is held hostage to the banks and the Basel II accounting standards of the Bank of International Settlements. Our banking system desperately needs reform and oversight. We need to limit our regulations of the banks, but the current system is unsustainable and practically - if not actually - a criminal enterprise. The banks can't lend because they lack sufficient collateral per the Basel II requirements. The work around of credit default swaps removing the risk aspect of mortgages has now blown up in their faces. The reality is that the vast majority of our banks, including the behemoths, are insolvent. Liquidity (most of the bailouts) isn't the problem, it's solvency. We are creating conditions ripe for frightful inflation by stuffing the banks with cash. Currently, it's sitting with the FED drawing interest, but when released inflation will hit. The Chinese are sick of it and are diversifying away from the dollar even as we speak. What's worse is these banks are writing even more derivatives right now, sowing the seeds of a future crisis. While I appreciate the gesture of this facility it is, like the soccer stadium, a huge waste of public funds during an emergency. If they could just add water create this place it would be great, we don't need it in two years it's needed now. There are cheaper and faster ways of housing these people using existing structures. Sadly, until the financial crisis is resolved this problem will only worsen.
I don't think there is one. There will ALWAYS be poor people... it's just a question of how poor. Given the limited nature of urban space and natural tendency of homeless people to congregate in cities, I don't know that it will EVER be cost-efficient to provide free housing in perpetuity for anyone who wants it. Of course, that doesn't stop government from trying, occasionally... Ed O.
I think you're way off-base if you think that homelessness is caused by--or ever HAS been caused by--international financial institutions. It seems like you just want to go off on a rant against them, and are putting a square peg into a round hole. Ed O.
Really? You don't think that the recent banking crisis has increased homelessness? I guarantee you it has. I'm just going to say it. I'm a Social Worker and I can tell you first hand that homelessness has dramatically increased due to the financial crisis. I'm not guessing I know it as fact.
