Unfortunately it's not what we do. There aren't enough vouchers for even a fraction of our homeless and they try to attach additional restrictions like curfews or lack of privacy or security on anything else.. That's why people refuse it.
Vagrant laws are not constitutional unless we can offer them safe and secure housing. Anything with further restrictions is just jail. We have the problem we do because we don't offer enough safe and secure housing, therefore we can't effectively provide services.
Last homeless individual I spoke with downtown said he came to portland (from the south) because he heard the drugs are really good (which he confirmed) Admitted it was so great here (for an addict) that it makes it really tough to want to stop.
Offer that here and all the homeless will move here from elsewhere which is one of the reasons it must be dealt with nationally.Also ask yourself why homeless camps sprung up all over our country so suddenly. We must find the root of that and deal with it.
Homelessness has been a problem for decades. The camps are here because it was found to be unconstitutional to arrest and harass people for being homeless unless you have offered them other suitable accomodations. We have cut services and increased housing prices all over the country for decades. This is all a direct result of lack of access to education, healthcare, and a horrible social safety net. The transfer of wealth from the bottom and middle to the top. The way the ruling reads to me is that we could arrest people if we offered enough housing for our local population. So as I read it we could literally arrest migrant transients and send them back where they came from or just put them in jail once we solve our local problem. Either way, it wouldn't be an enticing proposition to migrate here to be homeless.
What conditions would you recommend on free housing for the unhoused to help ensure that it is safe and secure for all residents?
I have to disagree with all except the transfer of wealth which is at the root. As for arresting the out of staters you can't bar people from going wherever they want in this country and if you could magically do that it would have been done somewhere in this country if that were possible. Homeless camps may have been around a long time by your standards but I remember when there were none. First came the street corner beggars and then homeless camps sprang up out of nowhere.
The same as you and I. Locking doors, protection from elements, private restroom and kitchen. Secure mailing address...
The homeless camps were there in large numbers since 2008, but they were hidden until the Court ruled on Martin v Boise in 2018. People were just being pushed around by law enforcement and forced into toxic living situations. We couldn't see them as easily, but they were there (though the pandemic and fires have certainly made it worse). If we have housing for everyone locally we can arrest people who are choosing to be homeless. If they are from someplace else we don't have to provide them with housing. We can jail them and/or send them home as a disincentive to come here. Nobody is preventing them from traveling, we would simply be enforcing vagrancy laws because we have provided enough housing for our local community.
