Spending on the homeless in the Portland, Oregon area has skyrocketed. Local governments and non-profits spent over a half a billion dollars in 2023 alone and yet the problem persists.

One has to wonder if the city would have been better off to just give the cash directly to the homeless people rather than using it to fund various programs that obviously aren’t working.

Of course, if that happened then all of the people who are making a living by ‘solving’ the problem would have to find new jobs.

FOX News reports:

Spending on homelessness spikes to a ‘shocking’ amount in Portland metro area

Local governments and nonprofits in the Portland area spent more than half a billion dollars fighting homelessness last year, a 70% increase from the year before, according to a new report.

“The number itself was shocking,” John Tapogna, a senior policy advisor at ECOnorthwest, which crunched the numbers, told KOIN 6 News.

Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, which make up Oregon’s Portland metro area, spent $531 million on homelessness interventions in fiscal year 2023, according to ECOnorthwest’s analysis.

The huge increase was driven in part by nearly $90 million in federal pandemic relief funds, as well as a regional homeless tax approved by voters in 2020, the report shows…

About 7,500 people in the tri-county area are living in emergency shelters or on the streets. But the report also includes more than 13,000 individuals who have recently exited homelessness and now receive rental support, as well as more than 81,000 people considered to be at risk of homelessness due to low incomes and high housing costs.

IS anyone going to ask city leaders to account for this?

Half a billion dollars in one year spent in @oregonmetro on homelessness.

That’s a 50% increase.

Where does it go? Full audit needed.

It certainly isn’t helping the homeless.https://t.co/2RbBJabEPP

— PDX_Hopeful! (@PdxHopeful) June 19, 2024

A SHOCKING result nobody could have foreseen!Oregon decriminalized drug possession and then Portland increased spending on the homeless by a massive amount! Amazingly, it didn’t solve the problem, it just attracted even MORE homeless to the area! https://t.co/GwpT9n8BlK

— LocutusOfBorg (@BattleofWolf359) June 20, 2024

Why do taxpayers in the city put up with this?