How one state is tackling homelessness by turning abandoned buildings into shelters
How one state is tackling homelessness by turning abandoned buildings into shelters
Oregon is addressing homelessness with a new transitional housing program. The United States saw an increase in homelessness in 2023, a recent HUD report found.
The U.S. saw a 12% increase in homelessness in 2023, a recent HUD report found.
Nina Jarl never thought she would be homeless.
But as housing grew increasingly unaffordable in Oregon, Jarl, 63, said a series of unfortunate events left her sleeping in her car on the street in the cold weather.
"I raised four kids here by myself and always had a home and work and we made do," Jarl told ABC News. "So for me not to be able to afford me, by myself, is just crazy."
...
The Annex is one result of Project Turnkey, a state-funded initiative that has invested millions of dollars in local organizations to renovate abandoned buildings into shelters and manage them in order to address the surge in the unhoused population.
The project was "born out of crisis" amid the pandemic and devastating wildfires in the state in recent years, Megan Loeb, Oregon Community Foundation program officer, who led the administration of Project Turnkey.
The project has created properties in 27 cities in Oregon, adding more than 1,300 beds to the state's shelter system, according to Loeb. Though the project initially began in 2020, Loeb said a second wave of grants was given out to organizations in 2022 and 2023, with several properties still being built or renovated.
Damn a 75% conversion rate to permanent housing within 1 years is pretty amazing. This shows that most homeless people just need a little help, especially those that we're stable before medical issues or accidents. Next step is to fix our socio-economic system so one or two bad events don't put people out on the streets.
You have been permanently banned from c/conservative.
Oh no... Where will I get my fake news and fake social outrage and hypocritical virtue signalling from now? Woe is me...
Super true. Just even having a break while you save up for deposits into a place is huge.
Can confirm, it just happens: hit a patch of bad luck, that turned into a skid of misfortune, that meant I had no place to sleep. Luckily got into a homeless shelter with two meals a day while I frantically tried to get my money situation under control.
Mine was a simple case of no money. Would have needed more help if I'd had substance abuse or mental health obstacles.
Now I'm always mindful of how quickly it can happen
Yeah… that’ll never happen.
Wait... are you telling me... actually telling me... that the solution for homelessness is to give people a place to live?!
Mind. Blown.
The revolutionary part is -get this- to use the empty houses -you following?- to house the people who don't have houses! Genius! We truly are living in the future!
Who would have thought that allocating funding and properties to reduce homeless would reduce the rate of homelessness?
Shocking.
If you get someone in an apartment you fix multiple problems at once. From their stuff not stolen to access to showers to case managers knowing what door to knock on to not dying from exposure.
It doesn't get you all the way it "just" gets you nearly all the way.
Oh, only nearly all the way. Well forget it then, let’s do nothing instead. /s
Oregon is doing the hard work and doing it well. Good stuff!
Tina Kotek is a super badass. I don't really agree with some of her handling of rural policies on things like logging/industry in the state but good God has she been skipping the bullshit and making stuff HAPPEN when it comes to the social program reforms. It's been a welcome change.
It is crazy how every time some type of compassionate route is taken, it works.
Why put all that money giving them a place to stay when we could spend even more on researching new and interesting malicious architecture? Maybe benches that grow spikes if you sit on them for too long.
(/s, in case that wasn’t obvious)
This is huge for Oregon in particular. I've driven through there a couple times and even visted for a weekend a few months back. Portland specifically has dozens of unhoused people in the downtown area just meandering. And those are just the people you see. Can't imagine how much worse it is under bridges and out in the woods (well I can actually the train I took drove past several cardboard camps as we rolled in)