Despite “Ten-Year” Plans, Oregon Homeless Numbers Increase
Monday, January 19, 2009
Portland, OR – The number of homeless people across Oregon has risen nearly nine percent over the past two years. A new report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness says the increase has been greatest in rural areas around such places as Bend, Redmond, and Medford, and in the rural parts of Lane County in the west central part of the state. This increase has come despite state and federal ten-year plans to help alleviate the problem.
Michael Anderson, with the Oregon Opportunity Network, says it's not just individuals who end up homeless.
"The main group of new homeless in Oregon is families with children, school-age children."
While Portland and some other communities in the state have seen a decrease in homelessness, thanks to intensified efforts to provide affordable housing, Anderson says those efforts could be short-lived.
"Oregon doesn't have the same stable funding at the state level for affordable housing that many states do across the country."
Anderson says the Oregon legislature is considering a new 15-dollar fee on home sales; the revenue would go towards affordable housing, to help prevent homelessness.
Read the report on the Oregon Housing Alliance web site, at
www.oregonhousingalliance.org
get more stories like this via email
Social Issues
More than 300,000 children have been dropped from Medicaid and Peach Care for kids since the pandemic ended. A report from the Georgetown University …
Health and Wellness
A Chicago mom who lost her son to cancer in 2022 is using the occasion of Mother's Day to call on Illinois lawmakers to pass medical aid-in-dying legi…
Environment
Wisconsin's clean-energy portfolio is growing. Communities seeing the transition happen at their doorstep might get benefits, but sometimes have …
Social Issues
Teachers in Louisiana are trying to stop an upcoming constitutional convention proposed by Gov. Jeff Landry. The governor, who has been in office for …
Social Issues
Ohio lawmakers are considering legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for most Ohio workers and create a refundable Ohio Earned…
Social Issues
Voting-rights advocates continue their push to restore these rights for formerly incarcerated Mississippians after lawmakers failed to act. House …