The homeless aren't the problem in this city, it's the homeless advocates. They portray all homeless as victims of Bain Capital exporting jobs to China and everyone on the street as severely mentally ill to the point being non-functioning zombies.

If you got rid of substance abuse, you'd get rid of 70% of homelessness. That's not a made up statistic either. Homeless advocates don't like to admit this because it means that there's choices and consequences to the majority on the street.

I've also been warned that "homeless" is now a pejorative. They are to be referred to as "houseless." For fuck sake people, is this what we've become?

And for crying out loud people, stop giving to panhandlers. Give to a non-profit that actually understand the causes of homelessness and uses means to address the issue. You're just fueling more substance abuse and homelessness all the while making yourself feel better about your life. I also got hit up for change for someone to buy cigarettes the other day. First-world problems, I guess.

In understanding the causes of homelessness and this being communicated to citizens, we can address the issue better. Until then, people are going to react viscerally to the homeless, either in negative terms or positive. And unfortunately for Portland, we haven't had a LEADER who could communicate the issue well between people thinking all homeless are "bums" to the range of people who think all homeless are "victims."