Opinion

Oregon Lawmakers Want To Pay The Homeless $1,000 Per Month. What Could Go Wrong?

   DailyWire.com
(CaptureLight via Getty Images)
(CaptureLight via Getty Images)

It pays to be poor.

Democratic lawmakers in Oregon have introduced a bill that would shell out $1,000 each month to homeless individuals and other people making below a certain amount of income.

The bill would create the “People’s Housing Assistance Fund Demonstration Program, administered by the Department of Human Services” and would “provide 12 monthly payments of $1,000 to individuals who are experiencing homelessness, are at risk of homelessness, are severely rent burdened or earn at or below 60 percent of area median income.”

There are no other stipulations, and the money could be spent as the payee sees fit. In turn, Portland State University Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative would conduct a study to monitor how the basic income program affected poverty in Oregon. The bill would sunset in January 2026, and the Human Services department would be tasked with submitting a  “legislative concept for long-term cash assistance program to interim committees of Legislative Assembly no later than December 1, 2024.”

Of course, you don’t have to graduate from Portland State University to understand that this will attract more homeless. Up and down the West Coast, and in other liberal areas of the country, it is easy to realize that free handouts only add to the problem.

Don’t take my word for it, take the word of one Portland homeless lady named Wendy.

Wendy recently told an activist named Kevin Dahlgren that being a vagrant in The City of Roses is a “piece of cake, really.”

“I mean, that’s why you probably got so many out here because they feed you three meals a day,” she added. “They’re loving us to death. You don’t have to do sh** but stay in your tent or party or if you smoke of a lot of dope, you can do that.”

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When Dahlgren observed that Portland’s plan to help the homeless does not seem to be working, she concurred, “It’s not … That’s why you see all the tents.”

Indeed, the data show that Multnomah County shelters — where Portland is located — housed 20% of people who were considered chronically homeless in 2015. In 2022, that figure was 65% as the homeless population swelled to 5,000.

Soon, those homeless people could “earn” a thousand smackeroos a month to spend on whatever they want.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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