Link: homeless deaths in Portland, heartbreaking

[sonia]

Four homeless people die of exposure in Portland in first 10 days of 2017 by Lauren Dake.

Four homeless people have died of exposure on the streets of Portland, Oregon, in the first 10 days of 2017, a toll that has horrified the city and focused attention on its housing crisis.

“Any loss of life is unacceptable,” the newly inaugurated Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler, said. “This is a wealthy nation and we’re a prosperous and progressive community.”

Read recently (on Twitter I think) that before Reagan, homelessness was rare. Yeah, there are a lot more people in the world, and a lot of economic chaos under the bridge. But think about that. Within my memory. Rare.

We Americans are failing our people so hard. And it's an intentional pillaging and subjugating. For money, for power, treating people as less-than, closing any route to meet basic needs, no matter how hard they/we work.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Don't know about that--in the late '70s, I began to see (in New York, so small sample) more people living on streets, but that was said to be the result of SRO (single room occupancy) hotels and "flophouses" dwindling or going out of business and "inflation." Women homeless were called "bag ladies," and that may be the term used to research pre-Reagan street life.

There were boardinghouses as late as the '70s.

That four people froze to death in this country is still shameful, though.

[sonia]

Thanks for the additional info!

4 people (publicly noted) in one small city in 10 days. I'm sure the number is much higher for the whole country. :-(