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RE: “Cutting Homelessness in Half” [Feature, Nov 18], regarding the city’s new plan to address the homelessness crisis, including a report from the new Hazelnut Grove homeless camp.
PORTLAND MERCURY—This week’s article about homeless people begins [by] blaming a homeless person for the tag “rowdy” or “rowdy ypc.” I know for certain that tag is done by a 20something white male who hates authority, not the homeless person you are blaming! Fucking check your sources and don’t go around publicly blaming people for problems that they didn’t cause. This is the final fall. R.I.P. Old Portland.
Anonymous
There’s not enough acknowledgment in this piece of the primary culprits of long-term homelessness: mental illness and addiction. This is a much harder problem than the issue of the working poor who are (most often) temporarily homeless due to an eviction, not being able to afford rent, etc.
posted by extramsg
There will always be more. The “homeless” isn’t some discrete block of the same people and as soon as you house them you’re done. Helping house 3,500 people in a year actually seems pretty darn good. But you’ll note how it didn’t help the overall numbers or visibility of our homeless problem.
posted by Blabby
Who said homelessness needs to be “solved”[?] Many hobos want their freedom, not your charity, but people focus on the select few asking for money and apply it to the majority.
posted by yoshi
