We can fix this failure to serve the least of us
We have a big problem across this country. We have failed to serve the bottom of the housing market for over 50 years. Grants Pass now has people camping in our parks, protected under court order, because we have no place for the vast majority of them to go. There are well over 1000 people in this county who have no secure place to live. Grants Pass has a little project run by a non-profit with people sleeping separately in a dozen sheds and walking through the cold to a bathroom. There are plans for an urban campground that can’t find 5 acres where the neighbors will tolerate them. There is a shelter that sleeps 27, mostly couples. And there is the Gospel Rescue Mission, an 80-bed residential rehab that calls itself a shelter but takes only people who ask help for their addictions. All of these have a high barrier in that they are small, and only take people vetted and referred by police. They can be parts of a solution but cannot be the entire solution. They