Portland's Homeless: Let's not pretend that this has a simple solution.

There's been a lot written lately about solving the problem of Portland's homeless. Some might say that it's simple: Just rent an apartment for each homeless person. It’s a lot more complicated than that. A friend of mine explained that his wife had moved out of the house, propelled by mental illness, to live under a tarp. She couldn't take living with other people. He rented her an apartment, so that she could live by herself. She rejected it, and went back to a tent. She tried to come back home. It did not work well. I don't know what percentage of the homeless are facing mental illness. One study says 30% to 40% of homeless single adults are facing serious mental illness. We will never stop homelessness completely. Solving homelessness is not as simple as renting an apartment. How much is fair rent to pay to compensate landlord for a tenant with serious mental illness, or someone who is doing drugs? The company that I work for owns several apartment buildings, and a “bad tenant,” one who is battling drugs or alcohol or mental illness, can cost a landlord a fortune. Actual expenses due to a) loss of other tenants, b) out of pocket costs associated with responding to problems, and c) cleanup when a tenant leaves, can cost $20,000 a year. And I don’t think it’s fair for one private party to carry the expense that is more properly a public cause. Is that a lot of money? A landlord might net (after expenses) 5 % on his investment. That means one bad tenant can kill the profit on five units. We had one public assistance tenant who was facing eviction. She punched holes in the walls and tore down part of the ceiling to support a claim that we were bad landlords, to help her fight the eviction. Fortunately, we had photos. Another tenant brought a legal action against us because we wouldn’t let her friend move in with her, in a small studio. (325 s.f. That’s a bit small for two.) We had to pay to fight her lawsuit. Why would she want a friend to live with her? The government pays the rent to the landlord. To get cash, the tenant shares the unit, and pockets the rent that is received from the second party. Sometimes the tenant even moves out, and lives somewhere else, and subleases the unit to someone else, often for money that goes to drugs. In that case, the person living in the unit isn’t even on the lease. This is how public assistance for rent can turn into cash for drugs. Are these problems common? I'm not sure, but from my experience, they aren’t rare. I’m all for compassion, but this is not a simple problems, and let's not pretend that there are simple solutions. But treating everyone like human beings is a good start. And you don't lose your constitutional rights to due process just because you are homeless. Bill