Portland's Homeless Youth- question for Portland RZers

[WMR]

I saw a really interesting documentary the other day on MSNBC about the homeless youth problem in Portand. They said that there are roughly 100 new homeless kids on the streets of Portland each month and that Portland has the highest population of homeless youth in the country.

According to the documentary, Portland has the highest number of per capita heroin-related overdose youth deaths in the country.

Apparently Portland has some of the cheapest and most accessible heroin in the nation. It also seems that Portland as a city is fairly permissive in terms of what they will allow as far as panhandling and vagrancy.

What do you Portlanders think about all of this?
Is the problem as bad as this documentary indicates?
Is anything being done to combat this problem and do you think things are getting better, worse, or generally staying the same?

[westofyou]

What was the documentary date? PDX used to have a big problem prior to the mid 90's, Drugstore Cowboy like.



What do you Portlanders think about all of this?

I live in the city and I can say that 5 years go it was worse, as of now I can't discern between the drunks and the users.

Is the problem as bad as this documentary indicates?

I lived in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, I saw more homeless there then here.

Is anything being done to combat this problem and do you think things are getting better, worse, or generally staying the same?

Portland is a progressive city, hence why so many folks come here expecting something for nothing, the battle is finding a middle ground that recognizes that it's a social problem, not a regional problem.

[WMR]

Hmm, WOY, I want to say it was around '02 or so.

They really approached things from the "youth" standpoint. To me that was the most interesting aspect of the documentary.

[Doc. Scott]

I can personally attest to Portland having plenty of cheap cocaine around, at least. I can't personally attest to anything about heroin.

It is true about the city being generally permissive of panhandling and vagrancy. The city has even let homeless people build their own village-ish settlement on unused municipally-owned land. The difference is that panhandlers are generally not as aggressive as what I witnessed in Cincinnati- if you simply decisively decline (or, even better, just wear your iPod), the vast majority of them will not hassle you beyond the initial request. I lived in the middle of downtown for eight months and had no major problems.

There was a book written fairly recently by a woman who ran with some street gangs (which here are mostly white kids from working-class or middle-class families, not black kids). I haven't read it- just an article about it in the newspaper- but I intend to soon.

If I could speculate myself on why Portland has gotten this way, I'd say it was because the city is generally "working-class" but without much of the manufacturing base that you typically see in the Midwestern cities. The city has also generally been relatively hard on larger business with regards to taxes and zoning. So, you have higher unemployment and fewer decent jobs that don't require a college education. To compensate, there are more small independent businesses and the like... but as you know, not just anyone can pull off the complex mix of skills needed to be successful in small business.

I freely admit that I've lived here less than two years and could certainly be proven wrong, but these are some of the theories that have taken shape for me.

[pedro]

I haven't seen anyone nodding off at bus stops lately. There was a time however.....

[Boss-Hog]

Originally Posted by westofyou

What was the documentary date? PDX used to have a big problem prior to the mid 90's, Drugstore Cowboy like.

I caught some of it as well, and I got the impression it was set pretty recently.

[pedro]

Originally Posted by Doc. Scott

I can personally attest to Portland having plenty of cheap cocaine around, at least. .

so says last weeks weekly anyway....

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by Doc. Scott

I can personally attest to Portland having plenty of cheap cocaine around, at least. I can't personally attest to anything about heroin.

It is true about the city being generally permissive of panhandling and vagrancy. The city has even let homeless people build their own village-ish settlement on unused municipally-owned land. The difference is that panhandlers are generally not as aggressive as what I witnessed in Cincinnati- if you simply decisively decline (or, even better, just wear your iPod), the vast majority of them will not hassle you beyond the initial request.

Cocaine?

It is the USA after all.

as far as the homeless, it's a hell of a lot easier to work the coast and the streets on the coast. Not that a large percentage of the homeless are "working it" but I know that a good portion of the young and mobile street monkeys move up and down the coast taking advantage of the weather and the rich with disposable income.

[pedro]

There used to be a lot of junkie activity in that park at corner of Belmont and 11th but the cops cleared that out a couple of years ago.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by pedro

There used to be a lot of junkie activity in that park at corner of Belmont and 11th but the cops cleared that out a couple of years ago.

Now there's hipster Tetherball and body painting!!!

[pedro]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Now there's hipster Tetherball and body painting!!!

that's at 33rd and belmont.

[pedro]

On the whole WilyMo while I'll say that Portland, like any other city, has its' issues, it is as nice a city as I've ever lived in and and it's getting nicer everyday. One thing I have noted over the last 5 years is that it's gotten way more expensive to live here so the city is losing a bit of it's arty edge and gaining a lot of Californians.

[westofyou]

the city is losing a bit of it's arty edge and gaining a lot of Californians.

The food in the city from restaurant to store is WAY better now then it was five years ago, thanks to us "Californians"

[pedro]

Originally Posted by westofyou

The food in the city from restaurant to store is WAY better now then it was five years ago, thanks to us "Californians"

yeah, but you're skewing the tattoo ratio.

[Doc. Scott]

Originally Posted by pedro

so says last weeks weekly anyway....

Right, but that backed up what I already knew and witnessed.

I've always heard that the heroin problems are Northwest-wide (read: Seattle), not just something localized to Portland.