Younger working people have real reasons to be pessimistic about
our economy that have nothing to do with the short term. To put it
simply unless we make some drastic changes most of them will never own a
home. We're a prosperous country. It should be easy for everyone to own
a home. It isn't because of our thinking and our laws.
This is far from a perfect example, but it demonstrates that
reasonable shelter doesn't need to be all *that* expensive.
"Where are Portland’s homeless pods coming from?
by: Elise Haas
Posted: Jul 20, 2022 / 04:43 PM PDT
Updated: Jul 20, 2022 / 06:22 PM PDT
Neighbors in the area say they see people show up on their streets,
build them quickly and then take off, not saying who they are.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Homeless pods on wheels have been popping up
around Portland.
You may have already started to see these structures around town. They
are roughly 6×8 foot pods that have wheels — but are reportedly heavy
and hard to move.
Neighbors in the area say they see people show up on their streets,
build them quickly and then take off, not saying who they are.
“Popping up just about anywhere and everywhere over the last month
without really any description of who is creating them,” said Larry
Smith, a homeowner in Southeast Portland.
While neighbors are confused, KOIN 6 went out in search of answers.
Reporter Elise Haas stopped by a pod next to Kern Park. She found Nancy
and Jim sitting inside. They preferred to keep their last names off the
record. They say their families don’t know they’re living like this.
“I’m not trying to do anything to hurt anybody or make anybody’s life hard or make their home look filthy,” Nancy said. “We just don’t have anywhere to go.”
They told KOIN 6 a man is building these tiny structures on his own and
that he has a website and phone number. But they don’t give out his information. They said he prefabricates the structure elsewhere, then
quickly builds it on site for people living on the streets.
“You get more privacy and it’s kind of like a step closer to being in a real place,” Nancy said.
Homeowners nearby said they understand the motivation behind the mobile
huts — but stress they don’t fix the deeper issues.
“The problem is a lot of these people need a physical space to occupy. I mean, you can’t get a job if you can’t put an address on an
application,” Homeowner Chris Engbretson said. “You want someone to have
a safe space to occupy, but I’m assuming it’s still not an address, so it’s not necessarily a solution to the problem.”
While some people living in the pods are friendly and neighborly,
homeowners say others are not. Larry Smith said a woman came out of a
pod screaming at him while passing by near Southeast 80th and Bush as he
was out for a walk.
Engbretson said there used to be another pod next to Nancy’s, which he
says the city already removed.
“One of our neighbors [has] photos looking in because the structures
have windows, have drug paraphernalia straight up inside the structure,
just like tinfoil drug paraphernalia. So, these are people that are
really in need of a lot of help,” Engbretson added.
Smith said this is a difficult problem."
[snip
https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/where-are-portlands-homeless-pods-structures-coming-from/
Yup, that's the message blasting out of the TV here. "DRUG PARAPHERNALIA!" OMG! ALL of those people need a lot of help.
It's the same way with housing. Nobody wants poor people living in
their neighborhood. The easiest way to stop that is making sure everyone
has an expensive home--or they have to live somewhere else. Everyone
needs a registered address, so the neighbors feel safe and it's easy to
find you. Even more importantly, if we let people live in cheap houses
what will happen to the value of the nice homes all those "middle class"
people own?
TB
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