Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Why doesn't Salem have a goal to house all homeless vets like Portland?

Senator Courtney,
Rep. Clem:

Portland is aiming to house all their homeless vets by Veterans Day. 

Why not Salem?

Salem should and easily could do the same. We could work with the state, community housing, and ODVA to take over the North State Hospital campus and provide immediate housing for scores and scores of vets and families, and build it into a full service center to help homeless veterans get reconnected and reoriented.

When I moved to Salem I contacted Veterans for Peace and asked them to give me a list of all the local members so I could see about forming a chapter. When I got the list, the vast majority all had the same address, which I thought strange . . . . until Google showed me that it was the state prison. A disproportionate number of vets cycle between homelessness and incarceration.  We have a great facility available to us for helping break that cycle.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-seeks-more-landlords-who-will-rent-to-veterans-with-vouchers/ 

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

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