Exposé cites lack of housing as main cause for Oregon’s rural homelessness
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Ahead of the Supreme Court decision on whether local governments can enforce anti-homeless camping ordinances, a healthcare organization in the city that sparked the case has launched an exposé on what homelessness is like for rural Oregonians.
On Monday, Grants-Pass-based organization AllCare Health uncovered “Finding Home: A True Story of Life Outside.” The 116-page report builds on state and national data on homelessness, but mostly features interviews with houseless people in Josephine, Curry and Jackson counties.
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In December, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report revealed that Oregon had the country’s second-highest rate of unsheltered homelessness.
During the Point in Time count conducted in January 2023, researchers said 20,142 Oregonians were experiencing homelessness. Of that number, 13,004 people — about 64.6% of the homeless population — were unsheltered.
According to Julie Akins, former journalist and AllCare’s senior housing director who authored the report, organizations and advocates in the world of homeless services have regarded the federal data “as an undercount, especially in rural areas that lack shelters where the homeless are counted.”
To account for this, the exposé highlights interview subjects who sleep in areas that aren’t featured during the PIT count: abandoned buildings, rest stops, crawl spaces beneath vacant homes, etc.
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The report found that rural homelessness is more common for people over the age of 40, assaults are a common occurrence for the unhoused, and illnesses are worsened by chronic homelessness.
AllCare Health cited Oregon’s lack of affordable housing as the source for these issues. The organization reported that homeless residents with housing required fewer trips to emergency rooms, fewer in-patient admissions and cheaper healthcare costs, compared to chronically homeless residents.
Grants Pass’ chronic homeless population is at the center of a looming Supreme Court case. This spring, the federal court will determine whether the city’s ban on sleeping and camping in public spaces violates the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause in the Constitution.
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“Oregon should be caring for, not criminalizing, the homeless,” Kelley Burnett, AllCare Health’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “The Grants Pass case is a symptom of a social ill decades in the making. Taxpayers are footing the bill no matter what, and our data clearly shows that the most cost-effective way to rein in medical costs connected with caring for homeless Oregonians is to build more affordable housing now.”
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