Life And Living Part 23.

Portraying Life And Existing.

Life and Living

Part Twenty-Three

Today, I drove on Marine Drive from 148 Avenue west toward Kelly Point Park, the junction of the Willamette River and the Columbia River.

At the west end of Marine Drive, I turned left on Lombard Avenue. I then drove south on Lombard Ave. to my destination.

The drive along the river was a pleasant, one with little traffic. There were, however, some disturbing sights, just as I have seen some similar views elsewhere.

Abandoned vehicles, RV's, tents, and any other erected shelter show that the number of homeless people is even more significant than the city had projected.

I know that the city has worked with prominent (say wealthy) designers and builders of "low-cost housing units for low-income families, but what about the "no-income families."

This is who I was looking at - "the little or no-income families."

Some will say, "I didn't see many women in the camps. You are right.

Those with little children have had to move in with relatives or friends, leaving their husbands to fend for themselves. So now we have many of these men without a helpmate to help and to help make decisions.

The neighbors around these “tent cities” are the ones who do the complaining. They are the ones who brought pressure on the "city officials" to "do something."

Instead of something constructive, it has always been to have the police move them from where they were to "anywhere else" they could camp for a short time.

Then, before long, they were to move again. In this moving from place to place, many of them lost much of what little they had.

How can a houseless and possibly a person without a car look for another location and protect his belongings simultaneously before the police come in and throw everything into the garbage trucks?

Their possessions!

The city leaders tried to take a "shortcut" to solving the problem – move people experiencing homelessness around so it would now be someone else's problem to complain about.

And in a short time, the "moving of people" begins again.

What was needed at each homeless village was a portable toilet and a garbage bin that had regular weekly service. The service companies could have been paid with tax-paying vouchers for this work for the city.

What were the causes of this homeless problem?

We could say illegal drugs that were habit forming, low wages that did not produce productive workers, nearby state-sanctioned gambling areas giving the needy a chance for get-rich-quick money, and you can add more as you think about them.

I will only give one primary reason for these people to be homeless: they could not afford their house or mortgage payments.

But, of course, they couldn't pay their house payment for many reasons, but that is not being discussed here because it involves too many individuals, and each one might have a different story.

Life and Living is easier when there is more money to go around. Have you and I helped steal it from their hands? (Legally?)

7/15/2020 Larry E. Whittington

Today is 12/19/2023 and the moving is still going on. It just takes longer as there are more people to move.

One ray of hope: Some private organizations are starting to construct “tiny houses” for those free of drugs can move to after they have work to pay for the very low monthly payments.

God bless these individuals and groups and their workers.

Larry E. Whittington