Temporary Homes and Lasting Solutions: What We Can Learn about Homelessness from Tent Cities

The city of Portland, Oregon, recently banned camping along school routes in hopes of dismantling large “tent cities,” or homeless encampments present in local communities. The city of Chula Vista, California is taking similar action and closing a tent city in a local park, displacing about 100 individuals experiencing homelessness. As tent cities continue to come into our attention through news and local policy its important to develop and understanding of what they are and the purposes they serve. 

A tent city is a large gathering of tents or other temporary shelters that house people experiencing homelessness. Tent cities are especially common in highly populated urban areas where the price of living and poverty levels are high, such as Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. 

In order to best understand and make progress on homelessness and tent cities, there are multiple perspectives that must be taken into consideration. One extremely important factor is the viewpoint of the people living in these tent cities. 

For some people experiencing homelessness, tent cities provide an accessible (though temporary) solution to their housing problem. With rates of homelessness rising, shelters often do not have enough space for everyone, or restrict individuals with romantic partners, pets, or other specific conditions from staying within them, causing many to have to sleep on the street. 

Tent cities offer an alternative preferred by many. For one thing, tent cities are often safer for most individuals simply due to having more people around. As opposed to living alone on the street, tent cities allow people experiencing homelessness to have a stable, consistent place to stay and store their stuff. Tent cities also create a sense of community for those living in them, many of whom would otherwise be facing the loneliness and isolation that many experiencing homelessness do. This space of community is especially valuable to those facing further isolation from society because they belong to a minority group due to factors such as race or sexualtiy, as well as those facing stigmatized extenuating circumstances such as mental health issues or addiction. 

Race and Experiencing Homelessness

A large racial disparity exists in the population of those experiencing homelessness. While Black Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 39 percent of the homeless population. The National Alliance to End Homelessness also reports other marginalized racial and ethnic groups such as Indigenous and Hispanic people are overrepresented in the homeless population compared to the overall U.S. population. These disparities are largely due to systemic factors which will be further discussed in the second part of this series.

The Lens of Sexuality

People belonging to the LGBT community are another population that is overrepresented in the homeless population, with research showing that LGBT individuals are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness. One particularly vulnerable population within this community is LGBT youth. Forty percent of youth experiencing homelessness identify as LGBT. With 4.2 million youth experiencing homelessness, this means that 1.68 million LGBT minors experience homelessness. Since most of the social services provided for people experiencing homelessness are designed for adults, it can be especially hard for LGBT youth to find support, employment, and housing. LGBT individuals experiencing homelessness are also more likely to face discrimination from shelters as well as potential employers.

Homelessness among the Formerly Incarcerated

Formerly incarcerated people are close to 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public. Homelessness can present a problem at any stage of incarceration for an individual who faces it. First, homelessness, and the ways that people cope with it, are often criminalized in many areas. People are often arrested for sleeping on public property even though they have nowhere else to go. Incarceration will obviously not help with the problem of homelessness, so it is important to decriminalize homelessness if progress is going to be made. 

Second, formerly incarcerated people often face homelessness immediately after being released, making it harder to reenter society. This is especially a problem for those caught in the prison cycle. People who are incarcerated multiple times have a more difficult time re-establishing their lives in society and are at risk of further incarceration due to homelessness-related arrests. Without sufficient opportunities and support for rehabilitation and reentry, formerly incarcerated individuals face great and continuous barriers to both employment and housing.

The Experience of Veterans

Thirteen percent of the population of people experiencing homelessness consists of veterans. With only 7 percent of the total U.S. population being veterans, this is clearly an overrepresented group in the homeless population. Many veterans struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or substance abuse issues which make it more difficult to find and maintain both employment and housing. Veterans also may struggle to reenter society after leaving the armed forces because they have received military training and therefore may not have experience or training in the civilian workforce. Veterans often have access to support services through the Department of Veterans Affairs, but only 65 percent of veterans access this resource. Many may struggle to get to a Veterans Affairs office due to physical disabilities, with 51 percent of the population of veterans experiencing homelessness having disabilities, while others may face mental barriers in seeking care, with 50 percent of veterans experiencing homelessness having serious mental illnesses. Implementation of local, more accessible support services, particularly those in which veterans can be helped by other veterans, will help to improve the occurrence of homelessness among veterans.

Mental Health and Addiction in the Homeless Population

Individuals with serious, untreated mental illnesses make up an estimated one-third of the U.S. homeless population. It is obviously difficult to seek out mental health and psychiatric care when an individual’s basic needs of shelter and food are not being met. Homelessness and its compounding difficulties also add to the stress that someone is under, therefore likely worsening mental illness. 

One of the most common forms of mental illness found among members of the homeless population is that of substance abuse. Despite being typically criminalized rather than treated as a medical issue, substance abuse falls under the purview of addiction and mental illness. Many of these problems are not independent but intersectional. Many people experiencing homelessness belong to more than one of these groups and therefore face confounding barriers and discrimination.

Short term Solutions

In order to reduce the criminalization of homelessness and ensure people experiencing homelessness have access to a stable housing location, measures should be taken to create government-sanctioned tent cities in the cities where they occur. Legally sanctioned tent cities have several benefits. Rather than arresting people experiencing homelessness and pushing tent city residents outside of the city, sanctioning specific locations would offer the city opportunities to provide resources and determine the best interventions to develop longer term solutions to homelessness.. It also makes for safer environments where the city can provide extra facilities such as bathrooms and storage to those living there. City sanctioning also removes the concern that the tent city will be cleared at a moment’s notice, causing the residents to lose their valuable and important belongings. 

An obvious change to reduce the impact that homelessness has on cities is to increase the amount of space, resources, and beds available in local shelters. Having a place to stay provides a source of stability in the lives of those experiencing homelessness and allows them to invest more energy into finding employment and long-term housing. 

In order to accomplish long- term change and permanently reduce levels of homelessness, systemic and long- term changes need to be made.