Will Homeless In Clark County Continue To Become Like Portland? 3/1 Tues will decide our fate

Feb 28, 2022 6:51 pm

CLARK COUNTY COUNCIL ALERT: The Fate Of Homelessness Is On The Docket Tuesday 3/1image

On Tues 3/1 the Clark County Council will decide Clark County’s fate regarding homelessness & whether or not we’ll continue to follow Portland over the cliff. If the ECHO MOA (memorandum of agreement to create Ending Community Homelessness Organization) passes and the “housing first” model continues, the devastating outcomes of homelessness will continue to escalate and will boil over further and becoming increasingly difficult to resolve because we will not only be managing the worsening conditions & human tragedies related to homelessness but we’ll also have to fight back ANOTHER bureaucracy that will be un/intentionally exacerbating the crisis (some are exploiting homeless for profit & politics, sad, but true).


Contact the CCC on Tues and tell them to vote NO!


Reject the Resolution to Create Ending Community Homelessness Organization (ECHO)


Summary: The ECHO agreement is fatally flawed by doubling down on a “housing first” policy with more government bureaucracy and coordination. There are some positive aspects of the ECHO approach and the desire to work together, but it is doomed to fail because it only brings the Portland model into Clark County. More money and more bureaucracy on a flawed and failing premise will only bring more disastrous results in Clark County.


For the last ten years, homelessness has intensified in Clark County not because of a lack of coordination and effort but because the “housing first” model, that is at the center of the Portland model and many other cities with rampant homelessness, has woefully failed and has amplified homelessness, and the outcomes that Clark County has experienced is undeniable.


In a report entitled “The “Housing First” Approach Has Failed: Time to Reform Federal Policy and Make it Work for Homeless Americans,” the Heritage Foundation put out a comprehensive report that stated:


“Homelessness has gained national attention with the growth of public encampments and street disorder, particularly in West Coast cities. Over the past decade, the federal government has spent billions on “Housing First” programs, which provide permanent housing for the homeless without requiring sobriety or participation in treatment. Although Housing First programs demonstrate strong rates of short-term housing retention, they do not improve symptoms related to drug addiction, mental illness, and general well-being—and have not reduced overall rates of homelessness. Moving forward, policymakers must re-orient federal homelessness policy toward better outcomes, prioritizing programs that require treatment, accountability, and a path to self-sufficiency for the homeless.”


Further in the report it is stated:


“As homelessness threatens to become an entrenched problem in American cities, it is more important than ever for policymakers to have a clear understanding of the failures of current policy, as well as the potential for reform. In re-orienting the public response toward better outcomes, policymakers must begin with a simple premise: Any effort to reduce homelessness must address addiction, mental illness, and social pathologies—not just physical housing, lack of which is frequently a reflection of deeper problems.”


In 2016, Multnomah County did something similar and created the Joint Office of Homeless Services which intended to be a shared commitment between Multnomah County and the City of Portland to make services easier to access for people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County. They recently changed their name to "A Home For Everyone" and when you read their website would think they are a raving success but we all know that's not the case. ECHO is just following in Portland's shadow and we can only expect similar results.


If the ECHO MOA passes and the “housing first” model continues and will be new government layer and the devastating outcomes of homelessness will continue to escalate and will boil over further into Clark County while becoming increasingly difficult to resolve because you will not only be managing the worsening conditions related to homelessness but will also have to fight back the bureaucracy that will be unintentionally exacerbating the crisis. Better coordination around a failing strategy will not be bring out outcomes that citizens of Clark County desire but will only bring about more of Portland's failures into Clark County.


Read the Resolution HERE


Major Problems with the ECHO approach:

  • It's failed to reduce let alone "end" homelessness in Portland, why repeat their failures?
  • Centered still around "housing first" model which fails to address the central issue. Think of it this way, pretend there's a cliff in our community and more and more people are falling off that cliff and hurting themselves. The "housing first" mentality would be "we need more beds to put those that are falling off the cliff" instead of saying "maybe we should help people not fall off a cliff."
  • More government control and another agency is not the answer.
  • No faith leaders or business leaders and those that are in the front lines are sitting at the table of decision.
  • This new government organization would be formed in perpetuity, with no end in site.
  • This approach avoids the central issue of "homelessness" which is human suffering and drug addiction. We do have a housing crisis but they are separate issues that sometimes overlap. But the majority of those that are homeless, living in tents or camps in Clark County, are dealing with drug addiction and have and continue to experience immense human suffering. The "homelessness" issue is a complex and multidimensional human condition and the Portland model has and continues to fail to bring relief and solutions.


Meeting details… Tuesday 3/1 at 10am

https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/clark-county-council-meetings

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