A data-visualized analysis of red tape in Title V, meant to help homeless people and migrants, using vacant federal buildings. Continue reading The US has empty buildings it could use to tackle homelessness. Why is it selling them off?
Three years ago this week, a couple named Nate and Cassy were brutally stabbed to death, and I soon began reporting their story. I now realize it will never leave me—for reasons you might not expect. THACHER SCHMID “The ‘Insane Pirate’ Drifter and the Double Killing at the Fourplex” — my third piece for Narratively — began to torment me after I took on the assignment. Whether I’m writing about housing, the lack of housing, or a bloody double homicide in a basement, a sense of place is crucial. And this place I spent so much time investigating just has an ominous feeling to … Continue reading Confessions of a Journalist Haunted by a Double Killing
Talking live on the air with Dave Miller, host of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud” program to talk about the recent data-driven story in The Nation about homeless homicides. Continue reading Discussing homelessness and homicides on OPB
Homelessness is a moral and societal failure. Here’s how I’d fix it. Continue reading Homelessless is a moral and societal failure. Here’s how I’d fix it.
Even as the numbers keep growing, Portland and Multnomah County officials have repeatedly failed to create a program or location where people living in vehicles can legally park overnight. Continue reading Hundreds of Portlanders Are Living in Their Cars. Here’s How They Do It.
Rendered statistically invisible and targeted by restrictive laws, those living in cars are the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused US population. Their voices shatter when Sara Kuust and Jake Blackburn talk about Kuust’s miscarriage while residing in a Chevy Blazer. … Continue reading Vehicle Residency: Homelessness We Struggle to Talk About
Graham Pruss On Why More People Are Living In Cars And RVs BY THACHER SCHMID • OCTOBER 2021 By some accounts individuals who reside in vehicles make up the fastest-growing subpopulation of homeless people in the U.S. They occupy an ambiguous public space, … Continue reading Displaced
By Thacher Schmid In recent years, American homelessness has been on the rise again. In 2015, West Coast cities declared homeless “emergencies.” Since 2017, “Point in Time” counts have risen; some measures see unhoused populations at all-time highs. Now, due to Covid-19, the numbers could … Continue reading The Village Alternative: Andrew Heben and Tim McCormick Have a Democratic Solution to Houselessness
On the dark streets of a college town, two teenagers hoisted a rock and ended a man’s life. His loved ones want to know when we’ll finally value the lives of homeless people. Continue reading An American Tragedy: The Colorful Life and Shocking Death of Ovid Neal III
The centres were converted into shelters to help stem COVID-19’s spread, but experts worry they may pose more of a risk. by Thacher Schmid Portland, Oregon – Outside the Oregon Convention Center (OCC) in downtown Portland, Oregon, sits a mobile shower … Continue reading Inside the US’s coronavirus convention-centre homeless shelters
The Montavilla neighborhood is a place just about anybody might want to live in. It has an “almost suburban” feel, a city website notes, but it’s near downtown Portland, with a population that’s more diverse than the city as a … Continue reading In Portland, a neighborhood watch group stirs debate over how to respond to the homeless
Guardian study of two US cities finds crime is likelier to go down than up in neighborhoods that host city-sanctioned encampments They stood in a rainy parking lot under fir trees, 60 homeless men and women, young and old, patient … Continue reading No link between homeless villages and crime rates, Guardian review suggests
It’s a Costly Side Effect of Portland’s Housing Crisis THE HAND SANITIZER-FUELED Bunsen burner was a form of streetwise ingenuity to make MacGyver proud—but it may have cost a life. When the body of Rachael Edwards was found in Oregon … Continue reading As Winter Approaches, the Homeless Are Using Dangerous Methods to Keep Warm
The Strip is gone… The “Strip,” a stretch of North Lombard Street in St. Johns where approximately 20 homeless people lived in a dozen RVs, is gone. In July, WW explored the location, a favorite dumping ground for abandoning RVs … Continue reading As City Officials Tow RVs Off the Portland Streets, People Priced Out of Apartments Wonder Where to Go Now
A lack of data has led to funding cuts for some programs that otherwise might support these individuals, while others — such as OHSU — seek to boost their offerings In her 31 years, Willow Paloma has had many identities: … Continue reading Homelessness Compounds Health Challenges for Transgender Portlanders
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