Homeless / Housing Costs Initiatives

It is Sunday morning and my first stop at 8:00am was imaging for a MRI of my spine for an auto accident Christmas eve last year it is now September. I made it home to catch the final minutes of a couple football games. I watched a little bit of Multnomah County commissioners debate silly thing not policy. Then I sat on my porch an spoke with local kids about the baseball game they just finished. I sat there thinking, dreaming I wish I had a magic wand and could fix our city problems like many cities have with a wave of my wand. Inside fighting in our government does not help, they try to keep it hidden. Each elected official has a different vision and different priorities of their own. Voters passed a way of implementing a new government looking for answers from our leaders to fix our problems.  Every major city has one common problem homelessness'. Our housing shortage has been in the making for 3 decades from bad policy Portland is no different. This housing shortage has made it more expensive to live in our cities. I was at Mt Tabor and overheard a family talking about out bidding another family on a home by 10000 thousand dollars last summer. I hope voters stay engaged and read more about what is going on in our great city getting past the sound bites and one liners. If JFK were running for office today he would be considered a Republican. I myself am a person who wants to represent all parties not an easy thing to do with identity politics. Every city has many things that take away from living our lives in peace. Homelessness had an added push people living on the edge of just being able to pay rent now are stuck learning how to survive on our streets which makes it easier to get involved with drugs, theft, and other ways to survive. Our policies have pushed some onto the streets. This topic is number one as it is how we look at ourselves and others there are many things creating the foundations to being homeless. Our current leaders struggle to move our city forward but they are trying. Governor Tina Kotek is trying to do what is right but other leaders lack supporting her. The bill she is evolving is working at changing building codes to expedite or speed up the building process. I don't know who is in charge of policy changes but maybe it needs to be builders and the people that approve each step!! In my past working with Multnomah and Washington county permits and inspections was very time consuming and people in charge that needed their respect. That was a while ago I'm sure this does not happen today, right! Our state has put 500 million towards making this happen setting goals for how many houses or dwelling will be built annually. I believe the first goal set was 36000 new housing units per year the current rate for builders is 22000 unites per year i believe that the numbers are state wide. 

In my opinion it is a start lets call it a down payment for the future they keep adding and changing things to make it better like covering infrastructure sewer, roads things like that. The days of free money are gone meaning low interest rate and a environment that's inviting to investors and builders. I think the builders need incentives to produce more homes apartments. We need changes now not in 10 years. I think we should allow builders for every home built free fees if they build a 2nd or 3rd of low cost housing is built. We need to up the number of units built and do it in a timely fashion that will make a difference now. You as a voter need to ask leaders what their idea they make statements they make using the term affordable housing, put some numbers to their words. We listen to local news, national news, internets news and they all talk about income and averages. The per home median income is lets say 70000 thousand annually. It sounds like everybody is doing great. What it means is anyone working in that household 15 years and older it is all their income combined it could be one person or 3 or 5 people glued to that number. According to the social security numbers last year 49 % of wage earners and this year 51 % of wage earners make 30000 dollars a year and less. The poverty level for a family is approximal 31,200 dollars a year. Now add inflation which could have been avoided but political parties love to give away money at the tax payers expense. Our local agencies that handle subsidized housing for low wage earners needs to be reformed and new goals set not waiting lines that never move, we need opportunities and commitment that will help communities' thrive. The HUD contract administration section is in charge of section 8 housing [PBCA]. Whenever a Politian says raise the minimum wage they have no clue how a free market systems works. It gives those workers a feeling of accomplishment but costs low paying jobs and the cost of food or goods to rise even housing. Getting the homeless off the streets is not going to be easy they are ardent in their thinking i can only afford this life leave me alone they say. My idea is called STREETS TO PROSPARITY. Among other things that rise because of homelessness is crime , theft, assaults, loss. I had a vehicle stolen tools too. It was missing for many, many, months. When i got it back it was destroyed, they even took parts off it where they left it and the parts, they took off it. It was used as a place to live. The city of Portland did nothing but tell me to move it this was during the time of no traffic division. All I heard were excuses the laws on the books will not work the DA won't prosecute because they can't win, we don't have enough police force workers to investigate. What if it was a friend of yours and that was all they had to get to and from work with minimal insurance that will not replace their stuff? Change the laws get a DA that will do their job and work with all our leaders to fund a police force that will work for its citizens. Back to homelessness. Every city has standing buildings that are empty we need to utilize those buildings set them up with ability to use a deflection program using other programmed at making change, and all are other government funded and nonprofit programs helping homeless find good transitional housing while in these programs. Set it up for opportunities of job training, education, skills shops for good employment those that are addicted get them the help they need to be successful. Every city every state has many of these programs available that we don't even know about. Our city needs a real department set up to lead with qualified people running them so they can have success. I think a person like Keith Wilson would do a good job running a department formed just for homelessness as its only focus. If someone is in that setting give them pieces to the puzzle so they can earn extra things they don't have good cloths get them, a night out to dinner job placement services as a city make a real effort to help make it better for everyone. It is time to get to work and start each day with a SMILE Today I spent time getting some funds for some people who needed help so instead of running for office today i kept a promise. Our homeless crisis has or is the result of leaders doing little while in office. Now that the effect of homelessness is at every corner of society voters are asking why? In any case it is not a quick fix we can ease the pain a little immediately, but we need a formal structure in place that will continue no matter who is in office. Homeless is not like a disease take a pill and forget about it. Right now, with current conditions in our cities another person is only 10 dollars away from giving up and living on the streets themselves.  People among are homeless were just a bill away from being on the streets all of our cities have empty buildings which could be used to provide temporary housing. There are funds that we have from our city and Multnomah County somewhere around 400 million to be used for homeless. Most of the homeless would love a bed a warm meal and a true night of sleep. Streets to prosperity is a term i use and our city needs to adopt with all are leaders working on this goal no exception. Helping them to return to work with a step in a ladder for success at each level. Drug addiction is prevalent in all walks of our society. Right now, we are talking about those who are in real distress today. As they go through making successful steps up, we need to offer job placement, job training, career choices, charter schools trade school placement making sure they have the pieces to re-enter society and be productive for themselves and society. This program is already out there in many different forms but needs a leader to put this together,,, today. Our elected officials all pat themselves on the back yet here we are a broken city which was once the envy of all cities in the USA. Tina Kotek has started something big in housing but needs help from everybody. We have been in a downturn in our economy no avoiding it but why not have a housing boom instead. Our leaders use terms like affordable housing that term can mean anything let's say low-cost low rent housing for our future. The American dream is still here it just needs the leaves raked away so you can see it. Destroying our downtown buildings to accommodate certain builders for profit right now is not a good Idea. Some of our buildings in downtown are good to make a change. When we start enforcing the laws our downtown will return, and it will be bigger and better than it was before. All of our new elected officials need to get on the same page and finish the book. Something on my mind is simple ways we can all help the homeless get a little change to buy dinner. I stopped returning my empty bottles a long time ago as I give them to and elderly lady that is how she makes money. I have tried to give her cash but she refuses. I even tried to sneak it into her basket when she found the money she lectured me and thanked me for the bottles that day. Make it easier for homeless to retrieve your bottles please it will also cut down on people going through garbage making a mess. Someone needs to speak to the people in charge of the bottle drop buildings. Outside of their building homeless people have to stand in the sun, stand in the rain to return bottles. PUT A ROOF UP OUTSIDE THE BUILDING TO STAND UNDER PLEASE. Inflation is making it hard for half the people in America to make ends meet trying to survive on what they used to only 4 years ago. We could have avoided it but some people don't care. If you notice or know a family that is having a hard time even buying groceries send them a pizza and a smile. I myself live on rubles but could do okay but I choose to help others and I am always short cash before the month is over.