By Deborah Kafoury, Kathryn Harrington and Sonya Fischer
Kafoury is Multnomah County chair. Harrington is Washington County chair. Fischer is a Clackamas County commissioner.
Every day, we see more and more of our neighbors trying to survive outside. Families, older adults and people with disabilities — all struggling without a safe place to call home.
This should never be normal in Oregon.
No one with a job should have to live in a tent next to a freeway. No one should have to feel the terror of trying to sleep night after night, alone in a doorway. And yet, for too many of our neighbors, this is their daily routine.
But the truth is, we actually know what it would take to end people’s homelessness once and for all. And this May, voters across Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties will have the opportunity to voice their support on the May 2020 ballot by approving a measure to fund homelessness services.
For some, temporary rent assistance is enough to stabilize their housing. But for many people who are experiencing homelessness, addressing high rents alone won’t solve their instability. They also need supports such as mental health and addiction treatment and other services such as job training.
“Supportive housing,” as it’s called, provides both affordable rents and the essential services that we can tailor to address those specific and personal circumstances. That’s how we can best help families and individuals transition to the kind of safe, secure life that we all need to thrive.
We know these solutions work, because already we see them saving lives, everyday throughout the region. As “safety net” governments, counties have a duty to be there for our neighbors who need us the most. And for people who have fallen into homelessness, we have watched how the supportive housing we pay for has ended their homelessness.
But because the housing market continues to force people into homelessness, our three counties cannot meet the need with our current budgets. We need to expand the proven strategies that house people and keep them there. That’s why we fully support a ballot measure in May 2020 to fund these services through a surcharge on higher earners and a tax on the profits of larger businesses.
It’s been more than a decade since the average cost of housing in our region matched the actual income made by a full-time retail associate, nursing assistant or veteran on a pension. As a result, it’s not just the thousands of neighbors who are homeless in our three counties that cause us concern. Another 56,000 households are just one personal emergency — a medical bill, a car wreck, a surprise rent hike, or a lost paycheck — from losing housing on any given night, according to a 2018 ECONorthwest study.
And for people whose only income is a disability check — people forced to somehow juggle food, housing, transportation and medicine on less than $800 a month — nowhere in the tri-county area is affordable.
Knowing this, our challenge today is finding the will and the compassion to take decisive action and ease the suffering of our neighbors — not just in one city or county, but across the region.
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Those on the frontline of addressing homelessness understand this, and according to recent polling, so does the public. Homelessness is now the number one issue voters believe should be prioritized in the Portland metro region.
After all, “nobody chooses to be homeless,” Angi Eagan, an employee at Portland Homeless Family Solutions, reminds us. Eagan, a single mom who used to be homeless, now helps other families like hers transition back into housing. “Nobody chooses to live like that — abandon every human thing they know,” she says.
But with limited local resources, even after major new investments, service providers still can’t do their work on a scale that’s adequate for the number of people in need across our region.
That’s why, together with providers, business leaders, community advocates and many more, we have spent the last year crafting a region-wide policy framework that offers solutions that can meet the size of the problem head-on.
The homelessness measure on the May 2020 ballot is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.
We can’t spend the next few years inching along. Because the toll of this crisis won’t be measured in years. It’s measured in people. And we’ve already lost too many. There is no time left to waste because, for the first time, we have a common vision to help our neighbors throughout our three counties. Please join us in making that vision a reality.
"Opinion" - Google News
March 01, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Opinion: Metro homelessness measure offers once-in-a-generation opportunity - oregonlive.com
"Opinion" - Google News
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