Portland’s homelessness crisis has reached a breaking point, and it’s time to face the hard truth about why nothing ever gets fixed. The city has thrown over a billion dollars at this problem since 2021, yet more people are dying on the streets than ever before. Deaths among homeless people jumped from 113 in 2019 to over 450 in 2023, proving that throwing money at the problem makes it worse, not better.
The numbers tell a shocking story of government failure and waste. Portland now spends roughly $200,000 per homeless person each year, but the unsheltered population keeps growing. The city quadrupled its spending from $16.3 million to $72.5 million in just four years, yet Portland now has the highest number of people living on the streets in its history. This is what happens when liberals run cities into the ground with their feel-good policies that help no one.
Instead of demanding accountability and results, Portland keeps feeding a broken system that enables people to stay stuck in addiction and despair. The homeless industrial complex has become a massive money-making machine for nonprofits and government bureaucrats who have zero incentive to actually solve the problem. If they fixed homelessness, they would lose their jobs and their funding, so they keep the crisis going year after year.
Real compassion means helping people get back on their feet, not letting them waste away in tent cities while social workers collect fat paychecks. Cities that have actually reduced homelessness use tough love approaches that require people to get clean, follow rules, and work toward independence. Portland’s approach of handing out free services with no strings attached just creates more dependency and attracts more homeless people from other states.
Meanwhile, hardworking Portland families are paying the price for this madness through higher taxes and dangerous neighborhoods. Police response times have gone from 6 minutes to 24 minutes because officers are tied up dealing with the chaos created by failed liberal policies. Small businesses are closing down and families are moving away from a city that has lost control of its streets.
The solution is not complicated, but it requires courage that Portland’s politicians don’t have. Stop the endless funding that feeds this cycle of failure and start demanding results instead of just good intentions. Make services conditional on people getting treatment, following rules, and working toward getting off the streets. Cities across America have proven this approach works when leaders have the backbone to implement it.
Portland has declared a homelessness emergency for eight straight years, but the only emergency here is the failure of leadership to admit their policies don’t work. Every dollar spent on the current system is a dollar that could go to schools, roads, and public safety for the law-abiding citizens who actually pay the bills. The homeless industrial complex doesn’t want to hear this truth because it threatens their gravy train.
It’s time for Portland voters to demand leaders who will stop enabling this crisis and start solving it with proven methods that work. The first step is cutting off the money spigot that keeps this broken system alive and forces real accountability for results. Only then will Portland see real change instead of more expensive failure disguised as compassion.
