Lars Larson: “Housing Multnomah Now” is another costly farce

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

The average Northwest family works hard for 75-thousand bucks a year.

After taxes, that’s about 50-grand.

And the whole family lives on that…housing, food, medical.

Now, can you imagine spending that same 50-grand to get housing for a single homeless person .

That’s right…the same Multnomah county that has been in charge of the homeless for roughly the last half a century…and has allowed the problem to grow to its current size…has a new plan called “Housing Multnomah Now”.

Now, about 5-thousand people live on the streets of Portland…many of them in the nearly 100-thousand tents and tarps the county spent millions of dollars to buy and give away…and later to collect as garbage after the drug addicted concrete campers wrecked them…because you can always get another one.

So now, the County plans to spend 14-million of our tax dollars…to get housing for just 300. They call the approach “housing first”…which means those folks come with the full range of problems that put them on the streets to begin with…drug addiction, anti-social criminal behavior, joblessness.

So, as you and your sweetie head off to your jobs today…to work hard for that average family income…with the government taking about one quarter of it in taxes…think about how Multnomah county plans to spend it…almost 50-grand per person.