I saw this NYT article today and thought it was worth sharing: The Struggle to Save Portland, Oregon.
While we’ve discussed the ravages of crime and homelessness and mental health and addiction in Portland and other U.S. cities, it’s interesting to me to see the extent to which one specific drug - fentanyl - is at the center of the problem, at least according to this article.
Really sad story.The city has long grappled with street homelessness and a shortage of housing. Now fentanyl has turned a perennial problem into a deadly crisis and a challenge to the city’s progressive identity.
This city of 635,000, home to the world’s largest bookstore and majestic views of snowcapped Mount Hood, has long grappled with homelessness. But during the pandemic this perennial problem turned into an especially desperate and sometimes deadly crisis that is dividing Portland over how to fix it. While other cities in the West, like San Diego and Phoenix, face similar issues, the suffering on Portland’s streets has dealt a singular challenge to the city’s identity as a liberal bastion that prides itself on embracing transplants from across the country.
In 2022, Portland experienced a spate of homicides and other violence involving homeless victims that rattled many in the community: a 42-year-old homeless woman shot in the face by two teenagers who were hunting rats with a pellet gun; a 26-year-old homeless woman stabbed in the chest outside her tent; another homeless woman, 31, fatally shot at close range by a stranger.
The search for answers points in many directions — to city and county officials who allowed tents on the streets because the government had little to offer in the way of housing, to Oregon voters who backed decriminalizing hard drugs and to the unrest that rocked Portland in 2020 and left raw scars.
But what has turbocharged the city’s troubles in recent years is fentanyl, the deadly synthetic drug, which has transformed long standing problems into a profound test of the Portland ethos.
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Today, there are an estimated 6,300 homeless people in Multnomah County, which includes Portland. Only a relatively small number of them are still living in the homeless-run villages. Many live in tents under bridges, behind a hospital and in pine-scented groves. Some have fire pits. One has an American flag out front. A wheelchair. A library. A dead rat.
Mr. Alpert, who left government in 2016, says he has been blamed for allowing the tents to spread early on. “I wrestle even still with whether it was fair or unfair criticism,” he said.
Within a few years, the tents became more entrenched. In 2018, the federal appeals court that covers Oregon and much of the West ruled that cities could not prohibit people from sleeping outside if an alternative shelter wasn’t available.
Mr. Alpert still lives in Portland and likes to take long walks around the city. Over the past two years, he has seen at least 10 people overdosing, and has encountered a man walking around downtown naked and screaming.
“This is not the same issue that we were fighting,” he said. “This is something different.”
It’s also incredibly frustrating given some of what’s been going on out here regarding local government incompetence. In 2020 voters in Multnomah County (Portland) as well as surrounding counties approved a ”Supportive Housing Services” tax directly earmarked for funding efforts to combat homelessness. To be clear, this is people who live outside of Portland voting to pay an additional tax to fund efforts to combat homelessness in Portland. I voted for that measure and felt good about doing so. When I first moved out here, I saw Portland as a shared resource and a huge draw for many people who live outside the city. It makes sense that those people should help foot the bill to clean it up and try to get it back on its feet. But, what has our local government done with this money?
Low wages and staffing shortages plague rollout of Portland-area supportive housing tax dollars
In Year’s First Six Months, County Spent Less Than Half Its Budgeted Metro Homeless Services MoneyLike many Portland-area nonprofits, SEI’s housing programs are partially funded by the regional supportive housing services tax, the voter-approved fund meant to support organizations with programs that help move homeless people into housing and keep people from entering homelessness. This funding stream has been slow to reach the people it’s intended to support in Multnomah County, however. The Joint Office of Homeless Services, the agency that oversees Multnomah County’s pot of the supportive housing tax, reported in May that it spent only $40 million in the first three quarters of the 2023 fiscal year. That’s less than half of the $83.4 million it intended to distribute during this time period.
The underspending continues a trend from the previous year. Other counties did better.
Yeah. I’d say it’s not ideal. Far from it. And reading that NYT article today really drives that point home.The Big Number: $22.3 million. That’s how much Metro homeless services bond money Multnomah County budgeted but failed to spend in the first half of the fiscal year.
New figures for the first half of the current fiscal year show Multnomah County spent less than half its budgeted funding from the Metro homeless services measure.
Through the six months ending Dec. 31, the Joint Office of Homeless Services reported spending just under $22 million of its allocation from the Metro measure. That’s a lot of money but less than half the amount JOHS budgeted to spend—and less than 20% of the Metro dollars it’s expecting to spend over the course of the fiscal year.
That continues a trend from last year, when the Joint Office far underspent its Metro allocation (“Saving for a Rainy Day,” WW, Nov. 30, 2022).
Sometimes, when governments underspend their budgets, taxpayers appreciate their restraint and fiscal discipline. But with Multnomah County having recently reported record unsheltered deaths, and the city and county still dotted with homeless camps, underspending is not ideal.
