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Portland’s homeless inhabitants lives on straightforward road.
A homeless girl who recognized herself as Wendy mentioned final week Homeless activist Kevin Dahlgren says dwelling on the streets is simple due to Oregon’s strict drug coverage and lack of police.
“It is actually a bit of cake. I imply, that is in all probability why you are out right here a lot, as a result of they feed you thrice a day,” Wendy Dahlgren mentioned in a road interview. “They love us to loss of life. You do not have to do shit, however keep in your tent or get together, or when you smoke plenty of dope, you are able to do that.”
Dahlgren, who runs the nonprofit We Coronary heart Seattle, which needs to finish homelessness by “empowering others by not letting others down,” thanked Wendy for her honesty earlier than including that Portland’s strategy would not appear to be “actually serving to anybody.”
“It isn’t,” Wendy agreed. “That is why you see all of the tents.”
In September, the state’s Well being Authority revealed that its new regulation The decriminalization of small quantities of all road medication “failed”. Beneath the Oregon regulation, which went into impact final February, these present in possession of medicine for private use, equivalent to heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and ecstasy, will face fines as an alternative of felony costs.
Deadly overdoses rose sharply within the first six months of the regulation, with unintentional opioid overdose deaths from 472 to 739 in 2021. Lower than 1% of drug customers accessing drug remedy providers selected rehabilitation packages, knowledge present.
As a substitute, homeless drug customers had been left to get together all night time and sleep all day, Wendy mentioned.
There are accomplished 6,600 homeless folks in Portland in additional than 700 camps. Regardless of the town Mayor Ted Wheeler introduced the plans in October to ban tenting, tent cities have remained largely unsettled by metropolis officers, together with the police.
A number of weeks in the past, Wendy’s dentures had been stolen from her tent.
Wendy mentioned being homeless in Portland is “a bit of cake.”
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Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has introduced plans to take away the town’s homeless encampments.
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“You do not have police right here. There is not any police round,” Wendy mentioned. “You get damage, you get cheated as a result of they do not assist anybody. You do not see them wherever.”
Wendy insisted that she “was like everyone else” earlier than falling on exhausting occasions. She used to run her personal hair salon in Washington, D.C., personal a home and drive a Lexus, however Dahlgren mentioned she misplaced every little thing after shedding her husband.
Wendy mentioned she needs to return to reducing hair and get one other job, however she will’t till she will get new dentures; his final pair had been stolen proper out of his tent, he mentioned.
“They do it right here,” he mentioned.
Dahlgren revealed on Monday that he had organized a fundraiser for Wendy to get new dentures, and {that a} sequence of movies helped Wendy’s brother lastly discover the place his homeless sister lived.
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