Politically, Portland is one of the bluest cities in the United States. It’s also blue in terms of policy; drugs are legal, police don’t stop small-scale shoplifting, and social services go on overdrive to look after the homeless, addicts, and criminals.
Instead of helping alleviate the problem, all the coddling actually created a permanent and growing underclass of homeless folks who don’t even want to work anymore.
Instead of looking at the deeper roots and solving them, Portland now plans to build a special homeless city with houses that have water and electricity.
Homeless Cities
These places are called Safe Rest Villages and will be functional by the beginning of next year. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler must be thrilled about this, considering how he encourages and turns a blind eye to the homeless folks overrunning the city.
He also ignores the Antifa extremists who flood the streets every few days to cause mayhem. The details of the Safe Rest Villages have also been released: they’re going to have heat, basic electricity, and places to wash clothes and cook food that are shared in common.
Multiple homeless cities will be opened by 2022 and each hold around 60 individuals, according to the city of Portland’s municipal government.
BREAKING NEWS: Portland announces that it will create six “villages” for the homeless — complete with bathrooms, kitchens, laundry stations, and even heat and electricity — in order to help them “transition” to “a stable job and a home of their own.” RT IF YOU SUPPORT THIS IDEA!
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) October 1, 2021
What Do the Homeless Need to Do to Get a Spot in the Homeless City?
In order to get a place in the city, homeless people have to get a recommendation from social services or caseworkers. The idea here is if they’re trying to better themselves and take responsibility for their lives, then they can get permission to enter the camp.
Portland is basically overflowing with homeless people; so the amount of folks who will be applying to get their own small home with necessities is going to be huge. After all, a small home is a big upgrade from a tent on the sidewalk.
These tent cities have corresponded to large rises in crime, as well as violent incidents, drug use, and filthy messes all over the streets. As you can imagine, this disturbs neighbors who live near the tent camps.
Building the homeless cities for a few hundred people is obviously not going to solve the crisis; it will succeed in raising the expectations of the homeless in what the state owes them and what they can get from it.
The problem with taking the empty houses and giving it to Portland homeless is that many of those empty houses are nowhere near major drug markets or stores in places that permit shoplifting. https://t.co/VpsGHku4YQ
— Seth Barron (@SethBarronNYC) October 3, 2021
Even More Problems With This Idea
Another problem with this idea is the homeless cities are going in bad locations, including next to a grade school full of kids. Parents are a bit worried about homeless folks (many of whom have mental health or substance abuse issues) wandering around near their kids.
The fact of the matter is homeless people can use encouragement and opportunities just like everyone else. However, handouts, including free housing, aren’t going to solve the underlying issues of social and Democrat-caused economic breakdowns that are producing homelessness.
