Homelessness and community
So here I am in Portland, Oregon. It's lushly beautiful and hip and totally the place to be. I have enjoyed my few days here, with impossibly clear and warm weather and some of the most happening urban places in which to hang out. But in discussions with my friend Malcolm, though, it's become clear to me that Portland has a homeless "problem." This can be construed as Portland's government has a problem with homeless people, and/or Portland's middle class has a problem with homeless people, and/or there is a structural disjunction between the housing "supply" in Portland and the needs of the people who are homeless.
It is, in fact, all true. One could even say that Portland's homeless "problem" is symptomatic of a deeper crisis in American society and capitalist economy.
It angers me that this is going on at all. Given the failure of austerity policies, which have been discredited elsewhere, I'm left with a strong sense that we're well on our way down a very bad path for American society. A path where we think that more guns, blood and treasure will keep us safe - when that's clearly wrong. Where spending on the "undeserving poor" is under more attack than any time since Reagan. Where real earnings and wealth have been skewed in favor of the very rich.
So - rather than going on about the unfairness of it all, I'm left with two immediate reactions:
(1) Portland seems an ideal place to explore locally and state-supported solutions to the homeless "problem." At a minimum, it should involve changes to zoning, rediscovery of SRO housing, insistence on set-asides for low-income housing integrated into more affluent housing developments, and charges levied on development to help finance all of it. You could even build a larger economic case from a free market perspective that it would be cheaper to do this than pay for more prisons, homeless "shelters" and drug addiction treatment facilities. But to work, it needs to recognize a continuum of housing needs that transcend the free market's area of interest, and a community responsibility that is more than economic, but moral and ethical, as well.
(2) Political parties on the left in American politics need to articulate real solutions to immediate problems, and to field electable candidates to implement them. Politics is about winning elections and making change happen, rather than arguing about ideological purity. The Green Party in particular needs to provide an alternative to the increasingly shrill Tea Party narrative of "I've got mine, so don't blame me" that gets too much attention anyway.
If that makes me a dangerously pragmatic leftist, then I am guilty as charged.
This entry was originally posted at http://badger2305.dreamwidth.org/8508.html. Feel free to comment here or there, using OpenID.
It is, in fact, all true. One could even say that Portland's homeless "problem" is symptomatic of a deeper crisis in American society and capitalist economy.
It angers me that this is going on at all. Given the failure of austerity policies, which have been discredited elsewhere, I'm left with a strong sense that we're well on our way down a very bad path for American society. A path where we think that more guns, blood and treasure will keep us safe - when that's clearly wrong. Where spending on the "undeserving poor" is under more attack than any time since Reagan. Where real earnings and wealth have been skewed in favor of the very rich.
So - rather than going on about the unfairness of it all, I'm left with two immediate reactions:
(1) Portland seems an ideal place to explore locally and state-supported solutions to the homeless "problem." At a minimum, it should involve changes to zoning, rediscovery of SRO housing, insistence on set-asides for low-income housing integrated into more affluent housing developments, and charges levied on development to help finance all of it. You could even build a larger economic case from a free market perspective that it would be cheaper to do this than pay for more prisons, homeless "shelters" and drug addiction treatment facilities. But to work, it needs to recognize a continuum of housing needs that transcend the free market's area of interest, and a community responsibility that is more than economic, but moral and ethical, as well.
(2) Political parties on the left in American politics need to articulate real solutions to immediate problems, and to field electable candidates to implement them. Politics is about winning elections and making change happen, rather than arguing about ideological purity. The Green Party in particular needs to provide an alternative to the increasingly shrill Tea Party narrative of "I've got mine, so don't blame me" that gets too much attention anyway.
If that makes me a dangerously pragmatic leftist, then I am guilty as charged.
This entry was originally posted at http://badger2305.dreamwidth.org/8508.html. Feel free to comment here or there, using OpenID.