In late January, Portland claimed to be having issues of homeless disturbing neighborhoods and ultimately being too visible to the public eye. The homeless would sleep under the multitude of bridges, on park benches, and under any shelter they could find. Police eventually began shooing them to other areas and that is when a few of these homeless became exhausted. They were tired of moving and wanted to have some sort of stability. They created an encampment originally close to a neighborhood, and got removed by police, the city continued to chase them from spots around Portland, until finally giving these homeless people a city-owned deserted parking lot. These homeless people came together and created a community with security, rent, and the start of some infrastructure. The city was in awe. Believing this encampment would be a disaster, with people with mental illness, drug abuse, and other sorts of experiences, the city was hesitant. But in fact, the homeless of Portland created a better and close-knit community than many communities we see in general.
This is what Wasserman and Clair were experiencing in the encampments of Alabama in their ethnographic research on “At Home on the Street.” These encampments are often better ran than some of our social service projects. This could be a sign that we need to shift social service techniques and come up with better more progressive movements in helping shelter the homeless. Clearly they can do it on their own, when allowed the space to do so. What is interesting about the encampment in Portland, is that it cost the city absolutely nothing to give them that empty lot. The encampment is fully functional and disrupts no one in the city. I think one aspect of this article that I found interesting is the belief that these homeless function differently than other humans in society. The discourse in the article shows a dehumanization of these homeless, I suggest taking a look.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-oe-0124-totten-portland-homeless-dignity-village-20160124-story.html
This goes to show that what all these people need is a chance, it’ll be interesting to watch the growth of the encampment. Hopefully this will be a message to the public that homeless people are equals and are capable of doing great things like any other member of society.