As the city of Portland, Oregon, clawed its way out of the pandemic, it faced a new set of crises: The city’s homeless population was growing. Tents lined some city blocks. High-powered business associations held press conferences demanding the city remove homeless people and touted self-funded surveys saying that without action, businesses and residents would flee the city.
By late spring 2021, the city committed to a new strategy that then-Mayor Ted Wheeler said would “reprioritize public health and safety among homeless Portlanders,” ultimately allocating $1.3 billion by the end of 2024.
But although the city spent roughly $200,000 per homeless resident throughout that time, deaths of homeless people recorded in the county quadrupled, climbing from 113 in 2019 to more than 450 in 2023, according to the most recent data from the Multnomah County Health Department. The rise in deaths far outpaces the growth in the homeless population, which was recorded at 6,300 by a 2023 county census, a number most agree is an undercount. The county began including newly available state death records in its 2022 report, which added about 60 deaths to the yearly tolls.
So the bit of the article quoted doesnt cover the salient points its making. It reads as if its saying “spending more on the homeless is bad” when actually its saying “bad policy can cost more and make things worse”.
The death rate went up because Portland started aggressive anti-honeless techniques of sweeps to clear homeless encampments and a reduction of longer term stable housing in favour of short term shelters.
What the article is saying is Portland enacted bad and expensive policies that have made the situation worse not better.
Who is surprised that systematically destroying the meager shelters that people have created to protect themselves, would amount to more deaths from exposure and malnutrition?
I don’t understand how anyone can look at that and think of it as a solution unless they would prefer the homeless people die.
Many taxpayers would prefer the homeless die.
Well it turns out, I too, would prefer that those taxpayers died. They can literally eat my shit.