On the first snowstorm of the year, Photo journalist Tara Faul and I decided to spend the entire night on the streets of Portland Oregon with the homeless. We did this to experience what it was like to be outside in those conditions, learn how the homeless cope in those conditions, help as many as we could that were ready to be helped and document any trained professionals also out there.
We were well prepared with clothing, supplies, and heating sources. Our friends Elena and Reid were also going to be out there as volunteers spending the entire night transporting the homeless to warming centers.
By 10:00 am on the first day, almost everybody was hunkered down inside their tents. You could see the glow of burning hand sanitizer in every other tent which is the most common way for the homeless to make a fire. It is 70% alcohol and a small bottle will burn for about 2-3 hours inside a metal can.
Tara and I had gone shopping the previous day and spent the daylight hours dropping off supplies to some of the homeless mayors in the area we trust who would then distribute further. Trust is very important to the homeless and after spending time with many of them 3-4 days a week for years that trust was given to us and we trusted them. The existence of homeless mayors is a fascinating sociological phenomenon. I have documented the homeless in dozens of major cities and they have existed in every one.
Generally speaking, a homeless mayor is the one who is respected the most for either having seniority on the streets, how they help, or how they protect others. Protection is big and when there is an issue they are not calling 911. ‘Street justice’ is how most things are handled and people disappear.
We spent several more hours bringing them hot coffee and talking to them through their tents. By early evening the winds had slowed down and the snow had stopped for a few hours. By 4:00 pm we had only seen mutual aid volunteers handing out supplies in the center of Old Town Portland. While we appreciated seeing others out there, many of them were antifa and had not been so nice to Tara so we avoided them. When they left we noticed a few had written their messaging into the snow. Anarchy ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards), and others. Our homeless friend who received a tarp from them is a veteran and was not happy seeing that. You would think they could at least take a day off from the hate.
By early evening multiple homeless started to approach us we had never met and asked us about the warning shelters. These were all the new homeless to Porltand that according to them were sent here on a one-way bus ticket from other cities. They had no tents or tarps and were terrified of freezing to death. Portland is known as a sanctuary city and other cities in the last decade have been more than happy to dump their problems on other local governments. We called our friends who managed to pick up a few of them. Others we walked to the warming shelters. There was one within walking distance and two others about two miles away.
By 9:00 pm things were already chaotic. The snow started again and there were multiple severely mentally ill people lying on the sidewalk with almost nothing. We got a text message from our friend asking us to help a man they found without socks under a wet blanket refusing all help. We ran over
and told him he would freeze to death. He ignored our polite requests to go to a shelter so we stopped asking. We told him a van was coming and he would get in it and we would take him somewhere warm. He agreed and when they arrived he stood up and walked barefoot into the van. We gave him a pair of socks which he temporarily put on. Less than a block away we saw an Echelon officer also trying to get a homeless man to accept help. Once he learned a van was coming he too agreed to go. We all got in the van and on the way over our friends told us so far they had not seen anybody in social services out there walking around trying to help. We had also not seen anybody and had already extensively covered the entirety of Old Town Portland a dozen times on foot.
When we arrived at the shelter the man we gave socks to, took them off and walked through the snow and into the shelter.
Over the next several hours our friends transported over fifty homeless into warming shelters. I have no doubt they saved the lives of at least a few of them.
As it got later we started to see more and more fires. Many of the homeless also appeared out of their tents. The streets felt more festive than tragic. What we quickly learned was that on days like this where it is extra cold, most homeless will stay up the entire night so as not to freeze to death.
Getting warm by the fires was extremely welcome as by midnight we were feeling numb. It’s important to note too that by midnight we had yet to see one worker employed in social services on the streets. Why should this matter? On the coldest and worst day of the year to sleep outdoors you want to see some of the hundreds of millions of dollars we give to the Homeless Industrial Complex to be put to good use. We also made a point to ask every single homeless person if they too had seen anybody. Zero. You ask them and they will give reasons such as it’s a liability issue being outside in the middle of the night or more commonly they need more funding to do so. The general rule in social services is if a provider asks for more money they either don’t know how to spend it or ask because they know they will get it.
Tara and I continued to extensively walk for hours around the most concentrated homeless population in Multnomah County, documenting, visiting, and helping.
We know or have met about 80% of the homeless population in our community and they were more than happy to see us out there reporting. We poured about fifty cups of coffee because we were donated office space and were able to bring people hot coffee all night long.
By 2:00 am the streets were extremely active. There were at least a hundred homeless all huddled around dozens of fires. We heard a lot of laughter and saw a lot of drug use. we also heard screams and cries mostly from inside the tents.
At about 3:30 am we had our most tragic encounter. A man approached us and was deeply concerned about a person under a soaking wet blanket. We found a man who was freezing yet had refused all help.
His name is Andy. He is one of the friendliest homeless people on the streets. He went through severe childhood trauma and after years of abuse ended up on the streets. We tried everything but he refused help. All we could do was over him in more blankets. We have not seen him and do not know if he survived the night.
By early morning Tara and I had walked over fifteen miles. We talked with over a hundred homeless people. Throughout our twenty-hour adventure, we did not see ONE trained professional on the streets. Why this matters is we spend billions funding the Homeless Industrial Complex and the public is demanding results. Results though are not in their game plan. What once was a cause has become a billion-dollar industry. Within this industry, if you truly cared you would at least divert some funds to helping this vulnerable population on the worst day of the year.
They don’t think this way though. They believe housing will end homelessness and therefore spend all money on that. The reality though is about 40-50% of the homeless population choose to live on the streets and consider living outdoors a lifestyle choice. Any homeless person or outreach worker out there will verify this.
This homeless man is a Cuban refugee and is terrified of living inside. Will he change his mind? Maybe but he will never go to them. They must go to him. The problem is that rarely happens. Yes, there are a few outreach teams that we see in the daytime but they need a lot more training. Most are formerly homeless and ironically act as if they had never spoken to a homeless person before. This is due to their training at the agencies that employ them. There are many rules that they must follow and these rules more often than not are what prevent a good worker from getting the job done.
Overall it was a great experience spending the night out of the streets. We learned a lot. We were disappointed not to see one trained professional. In fact, every single person was a volunteer but one who was an Echelon security guard who did great work.
This is a humanitarian crisis and we need to start treating it like one. As for the Homeless Industrial Complex, I believe their days are numbered. We have seen billions wasted with limited results. The big reason isn’t due to incompetence but rather that radicalized leaders have made homelessness part of their social justice movement.
Approach any radical non-profit and you will see what they believe in posted on their windows. They do this because they have been able to get away with it for so long.
Many of them blame capitalism for almost everything. Homelessness, addiction, and even crime.
I have spoken to activists who said they don’t want homelessness to end until capitalism is abolished. They said that is why they pivoted from the permanent solution to keeping people on the streets. This is why we have seen a significant increase in tents getting handed out in the last few years. The only way this is going to end is for new social service leaders who believe they can work themselves out of a job. If they don’t believe that they should not be in the field. It’s time we hold them accountable and demand results.
We also must then demand that our elected officials who continue to fund these programs also be held accountable. I don’t need to list them. We all know who they are. We need good oversight committees and measurable results written into their grants. If they can’t get the job done we will find someone who can. It is also important to note that the experts who have working models and know the solution are rarely included in the decision-making process. They are considered controversial by the system and are often blacklisted.
Despite all the effort myself and others make by testifying, writing, posting, and treating it like a full-time job we are still in the minority. The Homeless Industrial Complex is a beast and we need more help/support. PDX Real are truth tellers like Tara and I.
Until we do this people will continue to suffer and die and the Homeless Industrial Complex will continue to get bigger and more profitable.
Photos by my close friend and photojournalist Tara Faul. A majority of her work we do she posts on here Tara Faul
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This article originally appeared on the Truth on the Streets substack.