workingitinportland: Like the rest of the world, Portland doesn’t have enough affordable housi
workingitinportland:Like the rest of the world, Portland doesn’t have enough affordable housing. We have enough housing, there are empty houses and empty apartments and places being used as temporary vacation rentals that could be returned to the market but aren’t—but not enough housing that is priced affordably. I’m a sex worker specifically so I don’t have to feel money stress, and I feel the crunch as well. The number of people experiencing houselessness in our community keeps growing, and so does the number of people in housing that costs more than 1/3 of our income. It’s not that we’re stupid or greedy or want luxury we can’t pay for, it’s that we don’t have better options and even moving out of the city to a cheaper place costs money (and comes with its own problems like transit, employment, &c). Houseless people take care of themselves the best they can after society and the government abandon them. With help from some housed community members and from each other, they try to create spaces they can safely sleep and leave their stuff while they try to keep going with their lives and move forward. And the government, which should be protecting people—making sure shelter is affordable, making sure health care and food and education and clothing are all accessible—instead sends law enforcement out to take their possessions their tents, the things keeping them alive, and forces them to move to a different location, without any of their stuff. Where does the stuff that’s taken go? Can anyone get it back? That’s literally still being explored by people who are better off, who have cars and the time to keep searching. In residential neighborhoods like Sunnyside and Irvington, housed people talk about letting the air out of the tires of cars that people live in, of setting vans on fire to force people to move on, of patrolling with weapons to make sure no houseless people get comfortable or safe. 80 people DIED last year, including an infant whose mother had no shelter. This is our business. Like the sign says, it could easily happen to us. Bad luck, an accident, a lingering illness, or an employer going out of business—we’re all walking that fine edge. Photos by Ibrahim Mubarak of the aftermath of a sweep that happened today -- source link