NATION
Friday, November 10, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
In this Sept. 25 photo, a woman who was camping in downtown San Diego sorts
through her belongings on a sidewalk that was being sprayed with a bleach solu-
tion to fight a deadly hepatitis A outbreak. The increased number of hepatitis cases
in the homeless population and the geographic spread of the disease led California
to declare a state of emergency in October.
In this Oct. 30 photo, Stanley Timmings is seen through the door of the RV where
he lives with his girlfriend on the streets of Seattle. Timmings was parked just north
of Boeing Field, the King County International Airport, along with a group of fellow
RV-dwellers who are periodically told by the city to move their vehicles — even if
just across the street — or risk having them towed away.
Amid booming economy, homelessness soars
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
SEATTLE — In a park in
the middle of a leafy, bohe-
mian neighborhood where
homes list for close to $1
million, a tractor’s massive
claw scooped up the refuse of
the homeless — mattresses,
tents, wooden frames, a
wicker chair, an outdoor
propane heater. Workers in
masks and steel-shanked
boots plucked used needles
and mounds of waste from
the underbrush.
Just a day before, this
corner of Ravenna Park
was an illegal home for the
down and out, one of 400
such encampments that have
popped up in Seattle’s parks,
under bridges, on freeway
medians and along busy
sidewalks. Now, as police and
social workers approached,
some of the dispossessed
scurried away, vanishing into
a metropolis that is struggling
to cope with an enormous
wave of homelessness.
That struggle is not Seat-
tle’s alone. A homeless crisis
of unprecedented proportions
is rocking the West Coast,
and its victims are being left
behind by the very things that
mark the region’s success:
soaring housing costs, rock-
bottom vacancy rates and a
roaring economy that waits
for no one. All along the
coast, elected officials are
scrambling for solutions.
“I’ve got economically
zero unemployment in my
city, and I’ve got thousands of
homeless people that actually
are working and just can’t
afford housing,” said Seattle
City Councilman Mike
O’Brien. “There’s nowhere
for these folks to move to.
Every time we open up a new
place, it fills up.”
The
rising
numbers
of homeless people have
pushed abject poverty into
the open like never before
and have overwhelmed cities
and nonprofits. The surge in
people living on the streets
has put public health at risk,
led several cities to declare
states of emergency and
forced cities and counties to
spend millions — in some
cases billions — in a search
for solutions.
San Diego now scrubs
its sidewalks with bleach to
counter a deadly hepatitis
A outbreak that has spread
to other cities and forced
California to declare a state
of emergency last month. In
Anaheim, home to Disney-
land, 400 people sleep along
a bike path in the shadow of
Angel Stadium. Organizers in
Portland lit incense at a recent
outdoor food festival to cover
up the stench of urine in a
parking lot where vendors set
up shop.
Homelessness is not new
on the West Coast. But inter-
views with local officials and
those who serve the homeless
in California, Oregon and
Washington — coupled with
an Associated Press review
of preliminary homeless data
— confirm it’s getting worse.
People who were once able to
get by, even if they suffered
a setback, are now pushed to
the streets because housing
has become so expensive.
All it takes is a prolonged
illness, a lost job, a broken
limb, a family crisis. What
was once a blip in fortunes
now seems a life sentence.
“Most homeless people
I know aren’t homeless
because they’re addicts,” said
Tammy Stephen, 54, who
lives at a homeless encamp-
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
In this Sept. 18 photo, Taz Harrington, right, sleeps with his girlfriend, Melissa Ann Whitehead, on a street in
downtown Portland. Harrington, who is in his 20s, said he met Whitehead, who was already homeless, online
and came to Oregon to be with her even though he knew they would be sleeping outside. He said although he
was hoping to find work, his girlfriend becomes anxious when he’s away, so he stays with her most of the time.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
In this Oct. 12 photo, Paige Clem sits in the car she
lives in along with her husband and three dogs
outside a church where free food was being distribut-
ed in Everett, Wash.
ment in Seattle. “Most people
are homeless because they
can’t afford a place to live.”
Among the AP’s findings:
• Official counts taken
earlier this year in California,
Oregon and Washington show
168,000 homeless people in
the three states, according to
an AP tally of every jurisdic-
tion in those states that reports
homeless numbers to the
U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development.
That is 19,000 more than
were counted two years ago,
although the numbers may
not be directly comparable
because of factors ranging
from the weather to new
counting methods.
• During the same period,
the number of unsheltered
people in the three states —
defined as someone sleeping
outside, in a bus or train
station, abandoned building
or vehicle — has climbed 18
percent to 105,000.
• Rising rents are the
main culprit. The median
one-bedroom apartment in
the San Francisco Bay Area is
significantly more expensive
than it is in the New York City
metro area, and apartments in
San Francisco are listed at
a higher price than those in
Manhattan.
• Since 2015, at least 10
cities or municipal regions
in California, Oregon and
Washington — and Hono-
lulu, as well — have declared
states of emergency due to
the rise of homelessness, a
designation usually reserved
for natural disasters.
THE GREAT AMERICAN
SMOKE OUT!
Learn about a variety of tips about stopping tobacco
use as well as connect with quit resources in our area.
FREE event. Stop by anytime during the day!
Thursday, Nov. 16th
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
In this Sept. 19 photo, a person sleeps next to a wheel-
chair on a park bench in downtown Portland, not far
from the city’s trendy Pearl District.
“What do we want as a city
to look like? That’s what the
citizens here need to decide,”
said Gordon Walker, head
of the regional task force for
the homeless in San Diego,
where the unsheltered home-
less population has spiked by
18 percent in the past year.
“What are we going to allow?
Are we willing to have people
die on the streets?”
———
With alarming frequency,
the West Coast’s newly
homeless are people who
were able to survive on
the margins — until those
margins moved.
For
years,
Stanley
Timmings, 62, and his
61-year-old girlfriend, Linda
Catlin, were able to rent a
room in a friend’s house on
their combined disability
payments.
Last spring, that friend
died of colon cancer and the
couple was thrust on Seattle’s
streets.
Timmings used their last
savings to buy a used RV for
$300 and spent another $300
to register it. They bought a
car from a junk yard for $275.
Now, the couple parks
the RV near a small regional
airport and uses the car to get
around.
They have no running
water and no propane for
the cook stove. They go to
the bathroom in a bucket
and dump it behind a nearby
business. They shower and
do laundry at a nonprofit and
buy water at a grocery depot.
After four months, the stench
of human waste inside the
RV is overwhelming. Every
inch of space is crammed
with their belongings: jugs
of laundry detergent, stacks
of clothes, pots and pans, and
tattered paperback novels.
They are exhausted, scared
and defeated, with no solution
in sight.
“Between the two of us
a month, we get $1,440 in
disability. We can’t find a
place for that,” he said. “Our
income is (about) $17,000 ...
a year. That puts us way out of
the ballpark, not even close. It
might have been enough but
anymore, no. It’s not.”
A new study funded by the
real estate information firm
Zillow and conducted by the
University of Washington
found a strong link between
rising housing prices and
rising homelessness numbers.
A 5 percent rent increase in
Los Angeles, for example,
would mean about 2,000
more homeless people there,
the authors said.
Nationally, homelessness
has been trending down,
partly because governments
and nonprofit groups have
gotten better at moving
people into housing. That’s
true in many West Coast
cities, too, but the flow the
other direction is even faster.
And on the West Coast,
shelter systems are smaller.
“If you have a disability
income, you make about
$9,000 a year and renting
a studio in Seattle is about
$1,800 a month and so that’s
twice your income,” said
Margaret King, director of
housing programs for DESC,
a nonprofit that works with
Seattle’s homeless.
“So everybody who was
just hanging on because they
had cheap rent, they’re losing
that ... and they wind up
outside. It’s just exploded.”
Nowhere is that more
evident than California’s
Silicon Valley, where high
salaries and a tight housing
market have pushed rent out
of reach for thousands. In
ever-shifting communities
of the homeless, RVs and
cars cluster by the dozens in
the city where Google built
its global headquarters and
just blocks from Stanford
University.
McKay Creek Estates
Caregiver SUPPORT
EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR SERIES
“Be The Best Caregiver & Feel Fantastic Doing It”
We understand the caregiver journey can be stressful and challenging. Our aim is to
provide some clarity and support to caregivers helping seniors.
Stop by anytime between
9:00am & 4:30pm
call 541-667-3509
LIVING WELL WITH DIABETES
Whether this is a new diagnosis or not, this class will
assist you with learning more about diabetes and its
effect on your mind and body. Six FREE weekly
classes. Attend alone or with support person.
Tuesdays, Nov. 14 through Dec 19
3pm-5pm
GSMC Conference Center 7
Must pre-register, call 541-667-3509
Information or to register
call (541) 667-3509
or email
healthinfo@gshealth.org
www.gshealth.org
RSVP Today — FREE Caregivers Support Series
Thursday, September 21st at 2:00pm
Thursday, October 19th at 2:00pm
Congestive Heart Failure
(CHF) Facts
Living Without Depression
is Possible
Caregivers can benefit from
specialized training about CHF.
You can help your loved one
living with depression.
Thursday, November 16th at 2:00pm
Thursday, December 21st at 2:00pm
Skip the Holiday Blues
Eating Is Essential to
Promote Health
Enhance your loved one’s spirit
during the holidays.
Learn to identify factors that may
affect loss of appetite.
Location: St. Anthony Hospital, conference room #1: 2801 St. Anthony Way, Pendleton, OR 97801
Call us at (541) 276-1987 for more information or to reserve your seat(s).
Hurry space is limited. Refreshments provided.
McKay Creek Estates
1601 Southgate Place • Pendleton, OR 97801
www.PrestigeCare.com