I witnessed a homeless man smash grab a SUV and steal a laptop. Something clicked in me and without thinking I chased him. Fortunately I had my phone out and the second I heard the smash I started taking photos. You can see him sprinting away, holding a few bags.

An interview with a serial arsonist. @tarafaul503 and I met a homeless man who readily admits he loves fire and loves to watch things burn. This was evident as he burned things the entire time we spoke to him. He admits to only being caught twice but has been in jail over thirty times for other reasons. He said he came to Portland from California because you can get away with a lot more. It felt ominous when he said that and I pray he doesn’t do anything.

We found a homeless dwarf who’s a trained lawyer stranded on the sidewalk and unable to move. She asked @tarafaul503 to physically move her into the shade. She goes by ‘Lady Boss’ and has been on the streets many years. She is unable to walk unassisted due to her advanced medical condition. She studied law fifteen years ago but never passed the bar and soon after went to the streets.

Searching for the ‘mole’ people living under the city. @tarafaul503 and I were tipped off that some homeless have been living in underground caverns for many years. Getting there was very difficult and in certain places an extremely tight fit. Once we made it into the main chamber, we found multiple old homeless camps but no people. We went to a second location and hit pay dirt. Through a near impossible hole and then down a long cavern we came to a small square door. On it was written ‘Heavens Demon Hell baby Cooridoor’ Inside

Warning Extremely graphic. @tarafaul503 and I found a homeless woman punching her head as hard as she could hundreds of times. I have spoke to other Homeless who shared she has been trafficked more than any other woman on the streets. One homeless man suggested she has easily been r*ped a thousand times. I’m told there’s specifically a group of men that use a certain apartment in downtown Portland. She is picked up about once a week, forced to shower and for couple hours is used by multiple men and then they dump her back onto the streets. Tara

We met a homeless woman getting brutally terrorized by a well-known homeless man but she refuses to report him. She told @tarafaul503 and I he has sent multiple people to the ER in the last few weeks. Because she knows his name and where he camps I asked if she reported this to the police. She said she did not due to her lifelong hatred of the police. On her fingers is tattooed ACAB and ‘Fuc* 12’. I asked her where this hatred came from and she said it all stemmed from when she was 17 years old and she told the police it was her marijuana not her

“Once you become homeless, you stay in that hole” @tarafaul503 and I met a developmentally disabled, homeless woman who’s been on the streets since she was about eight years old. She said when she was very young, she was terrified, but now as an adult woman, she said “ I can’t not be out here” She was in special ED as a child and for some reason, her mom brought her to the streets with her. I asked her about housing and she said it is so difficult for her and many others that they just stopped trying. She said the only way this would

Exactly a year ago today I was in Vancouver BC Canada with @tyleraloevera reporting on the decriminalization of drugs. It was easily one of the most chaotic environments I’ve ever been to. The first part of the video is me sneaking into a shelter to get to this shocking footage. Drug use was absolutely everywhere. There was a person passed out in a bowl of soup, you could hear screams in the bathroom with people guarding the door, There were people weeping in the corner. It was a complete shi* show. Outside was even worse.

An endless line of homeless camps and millions of pounds of trash. It’s mostly on private property and no one has been able to reach the owners who live out of the country meaning there’s very little local government can do. @tarafaul503 went there to deliver supplies to a homeless man we met. He has MS and is unable to hold down steady work. He started working when he was 15 to support his family and hates what’s happened to himself Getting access to disability benefits he paid into as a working person even with a medical diagnosis

A homeless nonprofit funded tiny home that was completely destroyed by the occupant within a month. I know many deserving Homeless that would thrive in a tiny home. My question is why did they allow this person to make such a mess without intervening? I’ll answer my own question. Because in most cases once a person is housed they are then cut off and expected to thrive. When in fact without proper support, most homeless placed in the housing will end up back on the streets within months because they were not prepared.

A powerful photo of a girl hugging her father after being rescued from a homeless man that kept her captive in his tent for a week. I found her one day while doing outreach in the deep woods. I saw a tent and approached it and announced myself. Inside a man nervously told me to go away. Something felt strange, and I decided to stand my ground and insist that he open the tent. He reluctantly opened it, and in the very back, I found a young girl curled up in a ball, terrified. I called the police, but I was so far in the deep woods it would take them

Last week, Michael a homeless Marine Corps veteran had his flag stolen and other items. This was really upsetting to him. he served 7 1/2 years and was in the Gulf war. He had proudly displayed his flag the last decade on the streets. I tweeted the story and something incredible happened.
Dale @usmcvetusa1 who is also a Marine Corps veteran got Michael a flag, shirt, two hats and other items.

This is Allie and her son Rex. They live in a van and have been on a waitlist for housing for months. Rex is five and has ODD (Oppositional defiant disorder). They were kicked out of the family shelter after Rex escaped a few times which is something a person with his condition will do. Allie does her best to remain hopeful dealing with a dysfunctional social service system. They were supposed to be in housing two months ago but now there is no timeline. Rex is just old enough

We tried to warn you!!! There is currently a massive fire in Lapine Oregon that started in a large homeless encampment. The fire has so far spread to over 3000 acres while a thousand homes remain on evacuation alerts. I did extensive work in that exact area last summer and even sat with Senator Ron Wyden and discussed the high risk of fires in those woods. I brought up my concern with manmade fires due to homeless activity but he wanted to discuss climate change reasons for the fires.

A cemetery for the homeless built by the homeless. I went into the Oregon State woods near a freeway and was shown a cemetery near a huge homeless encampment. In total I saw twenty five or so burial plots. A man that’s lives in these woods told me there is both people and deceased pets that are buried there. I asked him if there were other bodies in these woods and he said there are dozens but did not want to get into detail as it might incriminate himself. He said a recent body was buried in the area and he would no longer be “bothering anybody”

I found a MASSIVE abandoned camp in our Oregon woods. Easily 2-3 million pounds of trash and no sign of people. Multiple half built houses, thousands of pieces of clothing, hundreds of cans of paint, over a thousand bicycles piled up over 15 feet high, basements, treehouses, dozens of clearly stolen catalytic converters and a needle pit with over ten thousand needles.

“Door knobbing” is when you put fentanyl powder on a door knob of a business that an unsuspecting customer will touch and potentially consume” A fentanyl user describing the behaviors of certain “mean” addicts and what a “nice dealer” is. Fentanyl has flooded the market and you can now buy a “roll” bag of 200 for $400. What they resell them for depends on a persons “privilege” Having served time in prison, know the person from school or simply if you are known as a good person. A good person is someone without a mean personality. When we were

I offered a ‘homeless and pregnant’ woman who was panhandling an immediate shelter and she declined. She did so because she never wanted a shelter, nor is she pregnant. (She admitted it) I have offered hundreds of panhandlers the same thing and only about 5 percent have ever accepted help. They are not starving and are not interested in housing. They do it because they can make $300-500 a day which then usually goes to drugs. I have talked to hundreds of others that are not actually homeless, but panhandle because they make more money

“People are taking over the streets. They are attacking cops. They don’t feel scared. They are being emboldened” I returned to Chicago to do homeless outreach and asked the homeless about the SAFE-T Act which “creates a more equitable system where pre-trial detention is based on community risk rather than financial means” This though opened up that flood gates and the message was sent. You commit a crime in Illinois there is a good chance you will not go to jail. There is a strong anti police sentiment in Chicago. Most homeless

“It’s a moral obligation” I met a homeless man that admits he uses fentanyl and regularly gets supplies to get high at the Multnomah county Harm reduction clinic. He routinely sees the severely mentally ill, the developmentally disabled and even kids receiving the same supplies at both the county and the non-profit Harm Reduction clinics. They walk out with pipes, burners, straws foil and instruction guides. He says that particular group of people are the ones getting victimized the most after they become addicted. Once addicted

A homeless camp was found directly on a hiking trail in Willamette Valley that one man decided to make his home. I counted 35 carts, a good 30k lbs of trash and several cans of paint spilling into the dirt. Incredibly he had a second camp twenty yards away where he sleeps. There was a dozen more carts, multiple bikes and two motorcycles. Again this was one person. He said he will never accept housing and he admitted people have offered for years.