As an Oregon resident, I'm deeply concerned about the homelessness crisis in Salem and its impact on our community. I believe it's just as severe, if not worse, than in Portland. While my perspective might not align with everyone's, I feel it's important we address this pressing issue head-on.

I recently had an eye-opening visit to Sisters, a smaller city with no visible homelessness, which contrasts starkly with Salem and Portland. This experience led me to compare the policies between Sisters, Salem, and Portland. I've come to realize that we can identify successful social policies by studying areas similar to ours, but where homelessness is less prevalent.

I can't help but criticize the current policies in cities like Portland, which once enjoyed lower levels of homelessness. These failed policies have aggravated the crisis, driving young people away and causing a worrying decline in our state's tax base.

Addressing homelessness, I believe, demands a multi-faceted approach. We must provide necessary support to individuals with mental health issues and implement interventions for those battling drug and alcohol addiction. Also, we need to distinguish between those who genuinely need help and those who exploit the system.

I strongly argue against fostering a culture of dependence through endless handouts and programs. Such measures could attract more individuals to the area, further perpetuating the problem. Instead, we should prioritize policies that assist those genuinely in need, while making a life of perpetual homelessness less attractive.

Reflecting on historical solutions, I recall the concept of "the farm", where providing jobs and temporary support helped individuals transition out of homelessness. I am convinced that combining this approach with evidence-based policies could bring about positive change.

In conclusion, I feel we must thoroughly examine successful policies implemented in cities like Sisters. We should prioritize effective solutions over empty promises and consider the well-being of both the homeless population and the wider community. I am confident that by implementing targeted policies, we can create a livable environment for all Oregonians.

Please go to my website - https://theearnestmannshow.com - to listen to this, or any of my many other episodes. You can engage by leaving a comment, or you can reach out to me personally, via my contact page. You will find other interesting things on my website as well, but the main thing, is you will be supporting the show, not some mega corporation. Perhaps most importantly, by leaving a comment, your opinion or advice may help another person in this world more than you know!

© 2023 The Earnest Mann Show

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hello folks and thanks for listening or for listening again hope life is treating you well this is episode 220. Oregon matters Salem's homeless issue what needs to be done is what is never talked about I'm sure as many of you know that uh Salem definitely has a homeless problem and what many people may not realize is that proportional to the population it is at least as bad if not worse than that which is in the People's Republic of Portland so I decided that I wanted to try to face this issue

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head on and I wanted to say that um I realized that what I'm going to talk about here may not win me any brownie points with certain people because what I have to say is not comfortable but this is an issue that needs to be addressed and I wanted to look at this from a different angle then what is commonly heard and the thing is is that what is commonly heard is apparently getting this issue nowhere now before I go into this I wanted to say that um for many people that don't recognize this one fact of a

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issue of what you might call societal regulation the thing that need to be done is you need to look at similar sized areas and you look at parallels of demographics and when you do that when that happens there are some striking relevations that can occur and it's a it's a revelation to me because there were just certain things that I I didn't even think were possible but they are so that's what we're going to discuss now I was uh going traveling and this was a couple of weeks ago

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and I decided to get out of the the City of Salem and just to have a fun day you know I decided to go to sisters Oregon and for those of you who may not be aware at all sisters sisters is a uh what you call a much smaller city um it's about roughly two hours from Salem and um you know you're you're heading in a Westerly Direction more like southwesterly-ish Direction but um I wanted to go there I just wanted some r r and also when I say r r it was everything from just

04:26

all of the elements here in Salem that aren't exactly Pleasant and as far as the homeless situation is concerned we got a lot of it we have a whole lot of it and everyone from the government and the city council we keep going around and around with the same failed ideas and policies that clearly don't work and if you wanted to know how badly they don't work especially in a uh the big city as uh as it is here in Portland or what I finally fondly refer to as the People's Republic of Portland

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well there you have it because it is it is massive it is terrible and it's troubling but what this is a crisis of failed policy so to address this I decided to break down a bit of this demographic and to put that in perspective because that's one of the first steps needed to well stop this now roughly and these are just very rough numbers they are not official you can easily find them yourself if we took the homeless population as a whole and I'm going to use Portland as an example but just bear in mind

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um these demographics hold pretty much equally true for the problem as it is here in Salem so you can compare them so roughly speaking half of the homeless population are addicted to drugs or alcohol roughly and the other large percentage of people are people with mental health issues okay and if we further break that down then if you want an even far worse uh combination than we have people who have mental health issues and decided in their life

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uh as a coping mechanism to deal with those problems against with drugs and alcohol is not a good combination so I guess you could say we break this down into thirds you know three large thirds okay so everyone for many years has been talking and clamoring for a resolution to this problem and of course that makes sense in every way because who the hell constantly wants to go out and try to engage try to do something in their city or town and places you know like the downtown area for example

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you can't do that and it's certainly not what I would call family friendly by any means because there are so many damn homeless and and on so many levels it causes so many problems and now they're finally becoming aware of the fact that um you know people young people they are leaving Portland they're leaving Portland in droves and the homeless element is one very large part of that because the governator she and those before her and the current crop of criminals um you know they talk a lot but they don't really do anything

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and nothing really happens to you know change or curtail this whole situation because it is on many different levels um it's not popular and some of these things that are taking place they they require actions that are unpleasant they're not taking into account of course the unpleasantness of having this element in the lives of just you know normal working every day oregonians because those people who are the governors of that City and Salem and where these policies these failed policies I might add from from which they originate

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still by and large they don't have to deal with the day-to-day realities of this tragedy if you want to call it that I think that's a fair word and this is because that they have decided to be comfortable within a certain mindset of what is politically a expedient and that's it despite what they say they're not going to budge but in the meantime that doesn't change the fact that we're overrun with homeless people and all that and it's only getting worse and worse and the state is losing its tax base

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because the people who are you know thinking of starting a business or you know the uh manager the shop owners in downtown they're getting the hell out just pure and simple they're they're leaving and they're not coming back I'm going to other states or going to places such as Utah exactly to do well I am not going to sit here and say exactly Point by Point what to do because frankly there's already enough evidence of that already it's already there in this case it's just a case of people

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who absolutely refuse to examine that evidence or to most importantly to implement it they're afraid of offending someone um so getting back to my trip to Sisters Oregon um I spent quite a few hours there and saw the sites and was you know basically pretty thoroughly checking the town out but it was also uh I guess what you might call uh a research mission and this is just even on the most most uh you know cursory examination there was one huge difference in that city of uh sisters

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that struck me and that was there were no homeless there were no um people in camps there were no Street side tents anywhere at all there were none I looked and I looked I looked on the outskirts of town I want all around that place and I was I was pretty thorough and uh there was none they're not there and I was thinking Hmm that's that's just uh I mean it's certainly a good thing especially if you're a resident but I was thinking why why is there such a striking you know difference in this and that very simply

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is in the policies of the local government in spite of and and this is this is the you know the amusing part of this I say in spite of the governmental from the governator um despite those policies that they have in place so then that moves me on to the next X aspect of this which is if you're going to try to tackle a problem of this nature in my opinion um what needs to be done is you need a a very simple study and you need an investigation of the policies of let's say Sisters Oregon versus the policies that are coming from uh the

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state's capital of Salem and of course what is going on in Portland and that's it that's it in other words if you have I don't care if it's anything from a city big or small um and I'm taking into account certain difference Democratic difference I'm taking that into account but overall what I'm trying to say is is that as far as social policy and what works and what doesn't you get a pretty good barometer of what needs to be done and I'm pretty sure that especially after all these years

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that they already have such a barometer that is to say the people who are in control the government of this state who are you know based here in Salem they already know this this is not surprising or shocking I mean hell I am not any kind I'm not affiliated with the government at all I'm not an official I'm just a citizen but the idea in my opinion is that you look at a situation as far as policies are concerned and you find out based on the evidence of what works and what doesn't and the thing here

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clearly as far as I'm concerned um yeah there seemed to be policies apparently that work and those that don't But Here We Go full circle because here's the thing if you have this place and it does not have you know those social ills are not occurring there all you have to do is study and get the details and find out why in other words very simply you find out what are they doing or what are their policies which apparently are working as opposed to other policies which are failing miserably I for instance

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I remember I guess this was you know 20 25 years ago and um you know it's of course in Oregon it's the big city but it was it was great it was beautiful and it was more or less clean and um wasn't crime ridden and um quite frankly I remember there weren't homeless camps on the sidewalks everywhere sadly that's not the case today I mean just to give you an example of how bad it is a number of years ago um they um they built a new Convention Center and it's a very nice Convention Center

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it's it's beautiful and then roughly I'm saying around eight nine years ago when I was visiting there and I was um I had a day that I had to be at the convention center and started creeping up at the convention center that there were you know homeless camps that was then and I had already I had already left long ago because certain other aspects I saw things I saw the writing on the wall basically and I said to hell with this and I got I got out well I thought the getting was good but thing is and this is

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this is what was then these campouts were less than a city block away from the convention center now at convention center of course is supposed to be one of your great jewels for so many um things that take place at a uh a place a convention center and you you want the place to shine you want it to represent you know it's a shining gem and uh I looked at this and this was less than a city block away and it wasn't it wasn't totally obvious that it was there you had to walk a little ways like I did because of the the hilly area that it

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was when I walked to my car and as soon as I walked to my car which was parked on the street a short distance away not in the actual Center itself then I looked around the bin and there they were and I thought okay and so you know we're just talking about a situation and they're going to tell you that their hands are tied but they're not they're not so in very general terms if you have people who are homeless and they have a you know a serious mental health condition we need to get those people off the

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street so this is one of the first things you do I'm just talking about the people primarily they have you know a mental health issue and that means yes um we're not going through all this long lengthy idiotic process of legalities and their rights and here we go with this and it's another you know another the idiotic nonsense you if you got a person and they're naked and or dressed say as Napoleon and they're brandishing a sword and they absolutely believe that they are Napoleon there you go we get you off

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the street we get you off the street long term if necessary and do all the things whether they be therapy meds combination of that something but you need to be taken off the street now drugs and alcohol addiction and all the ruin that comes with that that's a separate matter because one is well which should be I believe self-evident is not necessarily by any fault of their own but um yeah and you got drugs and alcohol going on well then we need a different place and once again that means being physically removed by force if necessary

24:26

to get them off the street and the investment what is necessary to do this far outweighs you know the the societal cost and the cost to the state and what's going to be the ruination and lost Revenue so we have the people yeah again primarily that have mental health issues and they definitely need the help and support then we have the uh druggies with drugs or alcohol and then perhaps the worst of all are those with a combination of those two very very devastating uh conditions let's say but the answer is the same the policy is

25:26

the same um they have to be taken off the street it is it is it is a public Hazard on so many different levels and ultimately if they want to for instance you know and moan and piss and moan about not having the money and they're saying well we can't afford we want to do this but we can't afford this well my argument is is that in real terms you can't afford not to because on so many different levels everything from a city's image to just simple downright plain day-to-day you know livability

26:25

it's not working you know you are going to have to commit to this big time it's only because otherwise you're only just pissing in the wind and it's just going to get worse and worse now I don't know about you folks and there are other cities like this and please let's not go into the political angle here and talk about well these places that you're talking about they're all rich folks and actually actually they're not some are but many of them are not but they have different policies and

27:23

apparently those policies are working and For Better or For Worse and in my opinion um it's actually for the better regardless of what needs to be done in that respect but that's what you have to do because if you don't you're quite simply ignoring realities this is not going to improve if we basically if we don't do this it's not it's not it's going to only get far worse there is also another additional element to this there is again I'm not going to I'm not going to sit here because again there's

28:24

you know there's a million stats on this when I talked about people with genuine mental health conditions and they're certainly out there and they certainly absolutely need to be helped folks a certain percentage maybe it's I don't know 20 percent of this group maybe it's 30 percent I'm not going to split hairs debating this but I'm saying some people have just decided in their lives that they want to be professional bums and as long as you continue what I've noticed whether it be Portland or

29:18

Seattle or Eugene or any any places of that ilk you know you can go into places in California it doesn't matter it doesn't because as long as you basically are enabling the behavior and if you're offering you know um you know I I bums life for being a bum and you're enabling them with programs and freebie this and Free Housing and on and on and on and on and on [Music] like they said for that old movie Field of Dreams from all those years ago if you build it they will come well yep they definitely will come because

30:14

you got to remember these folks um despite they're not absolutely as destitute I mean they communicate they are their own community community and they communicate and they yes they have cell phones and they communicate and if there's some fantastic deal somewhere very quickly it gets through the grapevine and like like hordes of zombies they they come there's never ending or they come from all different parts of the country here primarily of course it's easiest it's the west coast and yep like a

31:02

never-ending March they they will just keep coming so in other words you can't have a policy of appeasement you can't on the one hand just try to endlessly improve and to um just make it for instance again this is to the people specifically I'm talking about who are career and they they do exist they actually do exist I'm not going to tell you it's precisely 21.

31:41

2 that that's just silly it's just nonsense I'm just saying there are a hell of a lot of these people that are just absolute lifelong bums and grifters and bums and grifters they go to where the handouts are it has always been that way and probably always will be as long as the source is there and so while you know simultaneously trying to help those who are really needing and deserving of help you have to make this very unpleasant and untasty an untasty meal an untasty place to be for bums and grifters because the bums and grifters uh despite therapy despite this and that

32:38

and the other the truth of the matter is they don't want to change their bums that is their occupation they want to be bombs and stay bombs for the rest of their life and basically draw down the resources wherever they go and that includes of course drawing down the necessary and much needed resources for those who really do need it and deserve it so that is something that has to be done of course that determination has to be done on an individual basis but where there's a will there's a way and um I would just at the end of this I

33:31

would say that one of the ways this is just one that no one talks about anymore because it used to exist now thanks to the wokeness that saturates Society I mean many years ago here um they had something that was called the farm had it in Oregon had it in throughout the country and uh I'm just kicking across what is historically accurate and they said okay and of course we're not talking an era of where people normal people I mean because to a a greater or lesser extent there's always been bums there's always been bums and

34:22

for all I know there always will be but most folks in previous generations you know they didn't want a handout they wanted a job that was a you know that could afford them a decent sustainable living they they were raised as I was raised not to want this to feel ashamed by doing that but there have been those who abuse the system that basically destroys everything for well everyone else and um you know they said well okay you're physically you're able-bodied assuming you're not you know absolutely

35:10

mentally impaired in one way or the other and the person claims yeah I just need a job I want to I want to work and you could go and live on the farm did something on the farm whatever that was according to your abilities and you were housed and clothed and fed and even paid until you saved up your money and you basically you know licked your wounds and after doing that and maybe you found a regular job and you know you became stable and you left the farm and the farm wasn't perfect not by any means nothing is

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but the point is we didn't have thousands upon thousands of people living in tents on the sidewalks so anyway just uh food for thought and that's the reason why in my opinion that as far as real governance is concerned you just need to look at policies and Implement policies that actually work and not give speeches constantly to the unhappy citizens and telling them how much you truly care but there's just nothing you can do and there is never enough money when the fact is they those people they live very

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comfortably and they as far as the real issue and as far as the average citizen who has to deal with this on a day-to-day basis well they don't really give a biscuit take care [Music] so what did you think of this episode you can go on over to the earnest manshow.com find this particular episode number and leave a comment for me and the rest of the world just below the player in the comments section and additionally unlike platforms such as this I do not treat you or want to treat you as a child I don't want to tell you what language

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you can use I don't want to prescribe what are good words or what are um bad words I want you to have a Freedom Express yourself and exactly the way you wish until next time this is Ernest Mann reminding you that there are no bad words only bad actions [Music]