Oregon lawmakers ‘loving homeless to death’ by throwing millions in funding at crisis, local official says

PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon is poised to spend an unprecedented $200 million to move people off the streets and into homes, build more housing and pay some residents’ rent. But critics say throwing money at housing won’t fix the state’s homeless crisis.

“If money were the solution, we would have already solved it,” Kevin Dahlgren, who has nearly three decades of experience in social work, told Fox News. “The solution is the approach. The approach is all wrong.”

OREGON BILL WOULD PAY HOMELESS PEOPLE $1,000 A MONTH

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek declared a homeless state of emergency and asked for $130 million to address the problem on her first day in office. State lawmakers decided that figure wasn’t enough and introduced two bills totaling $200 million in emergency spending for the next two years, according to The Oregonian.

“This is a generations-long problem that we find ourselves in,” Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat from Portland, said on the Oregon House floor. “Homelessness, indeed, cannot be addressed without providing access to safe and affordable housing.”

Both bills passed the state House overwhelmingly, with only Republicans opposed. They now head to the Senate.

But homelessness is not solely a housing problem, Clackamas County Commissioner and registered nurse Ben West told Fox News.

“It’s a human problem with root causes that we continue in Oregon and in the Portland area to divest from tackling,” West said. “Putting an addict behind four walls in an apartment and isolating them is not solving anything. Instead of OD’ing on the street, they’re OD’ing on a hardwood floor.”

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About 80% of the homeless in Portland have a history of addiction, Dahlgren said. He believes the focus should be on detox, rehab and recovery housing, in that order.

“We don’t have nearly enough detox programs,” he said. “My colleagues with a different ideology think this is an affordable housing issue, so let’s put 90% of money towards that.”

Dahlgren said instead, 90% of the resources need to go toward detox and outreach.

“Because that’s step one,” he said. “If you don’t get through step one, it doesn’t matter what step 10 is. They will never reach that goal.”

Oregon has the third-highest rate of homelessness in the nation, despite skyrocketing…