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.

“It makes me feel good. Gives me purpose.” I met a young homeless couple in Bend picking up trash. Nobody was paying them and nobody asked them to do it. They were doing it because they want to “give back to the community” and to also fight the stigma that some have about the homeless. This was wonderful to see and a great example of the importance of empowering a person. Everybody needs purpose, but when you are homeless that isn’t always possible to find on your own. They both want housing and are working on it. In the mean time they will

Homeless fentanyl dealer and his three story tree house. I toured a treehouse that was a front for a major drug dealing operation. It was near a river with no bridge and a zip line that crossed the river. Drug seekers would text the dealer or shake the zip line and then attach money. The money was transported over the river and into the treehouse. Then fentanyl/meth was transferred back. Nobody knew each others names or what they looked like. Today it is getting cleared after years of complaints and the tree house is getting taken down.

Trigger warning “ Sometimes I have to sell myself for sex” My colleague found a young homeless man on the streets of Portland Oregon who is a daily fentanyl user. Out of desperation for this highly addictive substance he says he sometimes must sell his body. He gets his supplies to use from Harm Reduction workers/clinics. Even in tears they don’t offer help because it goes against their policy. Last year I spoke with the director of a National Harm reduction program. She admits that fentanyl is deadly, but said “The worse thing we can do

I met a group of homeless people living under the remnants of two old buildings. Kyle the unofficial mayor of the area gave me a tour. Once inside he showed me his sleeping space. His tent was stolen the night before by someone who is burrowed in much deeper and why he was holding a golf club the entire time. His area was easy to access and not that big. He offered to show me the much bigger underground dwelling next to him with multiple tunnels people had dug. Squeezing in was harder, but once inside it really opened up. Every twenty feet I

“The DA is refusing to prosecute a lot of people” I met Jay a formally homeless man describing a recent ‘Livability mission’ to rid the streets of criminals. He said this mission was a joint effort with five different agencies and within 15 minutes they had 20 people in handcuffs who were wanted on a variety of crimes. Despite the severity of some of these crimes (stabbings and rape) he saw everybody back the same day and nobody ended up getting prosecuted. Jay and his friend told me of these twenty people some are reoffending regularly and believe

“You can see them in there and be knocking on the door with literally a fire and they would not come to the door” I met a paraplegic living in HUD housing with his dying mom telling me the issues he has with the place and staff. He said his building primarily houses the homeless, the mentally ill and the disabled. Due to the complexity of the residents there are many problems everyday and staff do nothing. In a recent incident he described a recent outbreak of bed bugs and the near impossibility of

This is a powerful photo of a homeless man I met in the middle of a snowstorm. He struggles with developmental issues and told me quite bluntly he expects to die soon. He tried to sign up for housing but couldn’t understand the paperwork. He said it was “lots of pages” and when he couldn’t complete it and was not offered help he gave up. I have filled out many housing applications and they are a nightmare. Even case managers dread doing them and are equally overwhelmed. To end his humanitarian crisis we need to make it as easy as possible for this

“I got here to Portland..it was so easy to get drugs, they all but wanted to give them to me” I met a homeless man that was just visiting Portland on a job while in mourning over the recent death of his brother. He is a biochemistry graduate that just needed to get away. Covid hit and he became stranded and was given free drugs to try. First it was heroin. Then heroin laced with fentanyl making it 50-100 times stronger. Once he became dependent he graduated to just pure fentanyl. Then he started using

“For real do they want more people to die?” I met a homeless developmentally delayed man who questions why harm reduction activists are teaching vulnerable people on how to use and telling them about the new and better drugs out there. He is newly homeless and recently overdosed on fentanyl with supplies he received from them and then was told about a new stronger drug called ‘tranq’ sweeping throughout the country. He admits he is both vulnerable and desperate and questions why he would be told in very specific detail about how this

I went to Salem and met with Danielle Bethell, Marion County Commissioner, Julie Hoy, Salem City Councilor, Deanna Gwyn, Salem City Councilor, Ed Diehl, Oregon State Representative, HD17, Salem policy advisers and Be Bold Street Ministries. We toured a huge encampment spread out over hundreds of acres known as the Wallace. This is the largest encampment I have seen in Oregon. We talked to several homeless and the common thread was that most wanted help but had barriers to getting housing. Barriers such as medical issues preventing employment

The biggest flaw of the Housing First model is the ‘Voluntary Personalized Services’ component. This means a person placed in free permanent housing gets to voluntarily decide if they want to stop using drugs, take mental health medication or work on any other barriers that either led them to the streets or has kept them on the streets. Without any expectations or requirements what do you think they choose most often? And because it’s permanent there is also no incentive to reach self sufficiency. They will now be taken care of the rest of their

“It’s a piece of cake…you get three meals a day and don’t have to do shit…wake up, eat get high, wake up eat get high” repeat. A homeless woman shared with me why it’s so easy to be homeless. She was brutally honest because she hates the enablement “They are loving us to death” Wendy is a trained hairdresser and wants to work but recently had her dentures stolen from her tent. She said the lawlessness and the enablement is not working. She misses the police because things then were safer. I asked her about outreach workers. I was the first in years to