There are many noble efforts being made to feed and care for the homeless in Portland, which in indeed commendable. The need, however, is enormous and the shelter model is a stop gap measure. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) foreclosures were filed against close to 3 million American homeowners in 2010 and in increasing numbers in 2012. Read more…
Solutions to Homelessness
Ever wonder who is genuinely homeless and in need?
As someone who has devoted a great deal of time, attention and money to attempting to find solutions to homelessness and to alleviate the immediate needs of individuals who are houseless, I find that I still have an aversion to being hustled on street corners by panhandlers, begging for money to ostensibly buy a meal, a bus ticket or to secure shelter. On the other hand, how am I to know if this person’s needs are genuine?
Ever Wonder about Homelessness?
We all walk around the cities and towns that we live in and see homeless individuals. I always think that these people are someone’s children, someone’s siblings, maybe someone’s parents. In other words, they just didn’t turn up on a street corner as panhandlers. The root causes of homelessness are many: mental illness, addictions, and more recently just plain joblessness and hard times.
