A homeless woman in Portland recently claimed being a vagrant is a “piece of cake.”
Kevin Dahlgren, philanthropist and outreach worker, posted a video to Twitter on Saturday in which he interviewed a woman named Wendy, living on the streets of Portland.
Wendy said, “That’s probably why you’ve got so many out here — because they feed you three meals a day.”
“[You] don’t have to do sh*t but stay in your tent or party,” she continued. “If you smoke a lot of dope, you can do that.”
“You wake up, you go eat at Blanchet, you get high. You go eat at Blanchet for lunch, you get high. Go eat dinner, get high,” she continued. “That’s all you do all day long every day. I’m being honest.”
Blanchet House is a nonprofit in Portland that offers “free food and meals for everyone.” Wendy agreed this enablement helps no one.
“That’s why you see all the tents,” she said. “People are up all night, [and] sleep all day.”
In a follow-up tweet, Dahlgren revealed that Wendy is a trained hairdresser who wants to get back to work but recently had her dentures stolen from her tent.
“I went and got my teeth about six months ago, and then someone stole them,” she said. “I was living outside, and somebody took them. They do that here, I don’t know why.”
“I can’t go get new ones because I just got the first ones paid for, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” she continued. “I have no teeth. I can’t go to work without teeth.”
Dahlgren said Wendy agreed that “the lawlessness and the enablement is [sic] not working.” He said she “misses the police” because the streets were safer when they enforced the law.
Portland is one of the worst in the nation when it comes to homelessness and vagrancy. As Dallas continues to struggle with the plagues of homelessness and vagrancy, the crisis could escalate to the levels seen by cities like Portland and Los Angeles if not properly addressed.
Michael Hanes, director of meal services at The Stewpot, told The Dallas Express that the organization offers food to the homeless in an effort to supply them with some of what they need to get off the streets and back to a normal life.
“Street feeding — people who feed on the streets — that does keep people homeless,” he said. “So what we do over at the shelter and here at The Stewpot is — we feed three meals a day 365 [days a year]. So, that’s bringing people in to get services, and getting the services will help get them off the street and into housing.”
The Stewpot partners with The Bridge to provide these services to those willing to accept help.
“By coming in [and] getting the services, you can get on the list to get housing,” he continued. “So by feeding people on the street, you’re keeping people from going into the shelters to get those services.”
He told The Dallas Express that those services include not only housing but also ID services and that many organizations in Dallas even offer job training.
The City of Dallas also discourages residents from giving money and food directly to panhandlers as it enables them to remain on the streets. Alternatively, the City suggests those who want to help direct their donations to city services.
Giving to people directly on the street — much like pursuing “Housing First” solutions — does not help solve homelessness; rather, these approaches ignore untreated mental illnesses and enable addicts to continue using drugs.
The Dallas Express has previously reported that “Housing First” solutions to homelessness are “doomed to failure” because they “begin with an inadequate diagnosis of the causes,” according to data published last year by the Center on Wealth and Poverty at the Discovery Institute.
Polling shows that Dallas residents are seriously concerned about homelessness and vagrancy, and the need for the City to respond effectively is made more urgent as some businesses in developing areas must use private security to protect themselves from violent vagrants while other businesses have been pushed out of those areas entirely.