Nadene Goldfoot
It's a world-wide problem. We've got to deal with it, not put our head in the sand like an ostrich.
Here we have a country with thousands of homeless that has resulted in their living along streets, avenues and parks on one hand, while on the other hand, we have been taking in thousands at our border with Mexico of foreign homeless people. At least our vice president has gone south to tell potential immigrants not to come to the United States. I hope she gave them the good reason that we are not able to handle any other homeless people right now.
As a former elementary school teacher, I find it appalling to think that some of my students may have grown up to become one of the homeless. What happened to all of them? Have we not educated all so that they could all leave our system armed with skills to find adequate jobs for their abilities? We have not met the need if all these homeless are without skills for anything that would allow them to have enough money for food AND SHELTER.
IF they have skills enough, what else is keeping them from shelter? It might be mental problems, and where we used to have shelter for that, we have let people out without the capabilities to make decisions and tend for themselves in a shelter. They are using the streets, and that is not fair for the rest of the population.
Veterans of our country have a Domiciliary in Southern Oregon that they can call home if they are homeless. It's the White City VA Rehabilitation Center & Clinics. The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,293 health care facilities, including 171 medical centers and 1,112 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics), serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.
I was involved in a Stand Down for them while living in Central Point. The Domiciliary is a huge huge building with rooms for them and rooms for staff to hold meetings. Evidently it's a part of the Veteran's program, funded by them. It had a staff of councilors, a psychologist that I knew of. I started an educational program for them to be able to pass their GED for those that needed that sort of help. The college took over when I left. They worked to get certificates in certain areas of work, like landscaping. I had a man with PTSD in my class who I was told to not walk behind him while on my help with each student. Some vets had even been living in trees, I was told, before the stand down when they were physically sought out, found and brought to the center. They had medical centers set up in tents where they received a check-up.
Say, that's an idea for getting people their vaccine. Have a Stand Down. At least the army knows how to organize. Our city governments are not doing the job, or is it the state's fault that we have the homeless? Well, let's not forgot the counties. Maybe we should have a competition going on as to who has the least homeless, but then each county has such different types of populations to deal with.
That's what we need; a government-sponsored building somewhere that is like the domiciliary, a little city within itself, to house these people.
Has any social work been done on taking the names of all the homeless and inserting them in a computer program to see who they are? Why they are homeless? Are any of them receiving social security for problems?
Has anyone wondered about what they are eating? What is going without kitchen facilities doing for these people? How soon will they be sickened on an inadequate diet? What will that do to hospitals with a population aside from COVID 19 and all its mutations such as the one from England right now that is even worse?
These road camping homeless people are not all nice campers. They are leaving garbage, littering their camping areas which will draw rats which will draw disease. Has anyone ever read FOREVER AMBER, about the 1600s in England and the disease that comes from littering? I think I read that one when I was 13.
Which brings me to my last question. Have ALL the homeless had their COVID 19 vaccines? Were they cognizant enough to get to the designated places to receive these free shots? The president of the United State, Biden, hopes to have 70% of the population vaccinated by the 4th of July. Have the towns and cities checked on the homeless and their % so far?
Edgefield was built in 1911 as the county poor farm, and that sounds like it should be reinstated for today's homeless. We need another Edgefield, a county poor farm. Now days the old one has been turned into a fabulous restaurant, McMenamins. Seems like communities have always had to care for their poor people.
Historic Edgefield, built in 1911 as the county poor farm, is a destination resort in the Pacific Northwest that blends Oregon's natural beauty with McMenamins' signature whimsy: original buildings carefully restored with cozy interiors, gardens grown using organic methods, great food and drink, live entertainment and more.
Encompassing a 74-acre parcel of farmland at the mouth of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area, Edgefield is a 20-minute drive to or from the center of downtown Portland and about 15 minutes from Portland International Airport.
The stately main building, with over 100 guestrooms and hostel accommodations, is furnished in turn-of-the-century decor. There are no televisions or telephones in the rooms, encouraging tranquility as surely as do the rocking chairs on our verandas. Guests may choose from rooms with private bathrooms or with conveniently located common bathrooms down the hallway. We do offer complimentary WiFi around the Black Rabbit Restaurant, the Library and in many of our event spaces.
The poor of England are written about in the book The Poor in England, 1700-1850: An Economy of Makeshifts. This study investigates the experience of English poverty between 1700 and 1900 and the ways in which the poor made ends meet. The phrase economy of makeshifts has often been used to summarize the patchy, desperate and sometimes failing strategies of the poor for material survival. I wonder if they used the highways and byways to put their tents up on?
I can't believe that the buildings housing the mentally disabled just suddenly decided that their living apart from society was not giving them their rights as citizens and they were pushed out to live on the streets. That was the most ridiculous thinking there could possibly be. It had to be a matter of financing. We as a society are now up against having people in our streets among garbage or financing hospitals for the mentally disabled. You know what will happen if you don't. Some of our money needed for other projects will have to be shared with such a project as this.
People will have to think this out completely. It starts from producing children in the first place and making sure they grow up to be productive citizens and all these complications to dealing with those who cannot remain as such and need supervision and other kinds of helps such as a poor house or domiciliary. It looks like you don't have to be a veteran to become needy.
Research
https://www.va.gov/health/
https://www.mcmenamins.com/edgefield
https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/34997
