Homelessness

Medicaid provides health care for tens of millions of low-income Americans. Now, for the first time, it's being used for housing and rent for people who are homeless or in danger of becoming so.

Solutions to the state’s homelessness crisis aren’t uniform, as they need to be tailored to each person’s specific needs. And any fixes will take collective action, public investment and considerable time to achieve, making the work anything by simple.

The path out of Oregon's homelessness crisis isn’t simple, nor is it direct. But solutions do exist. To uncover them, it’s important to first understand the origins of this crisis.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek visited Lake, Klamath and Jackson counties the first week of October as part of her pledge to visit all 36 counties during her term.

Fed up with homeless encampments, California local officials are seeking guidance from the nation’s most powerful judges.

California collects a special tax on high incomes to fund mental health services. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to change how the money is spent so a share of it can be used to fund housing for homeless people with mental illnesses.

Around a hundred Ashland residents brought concerns to a neighborhood meeting Thursday night about a new homeless shelter the city plans to open in November.

California voters likely will see a mental health ballot measure on the March 2024 election. One would issue a $6 billion bond to create housing for people with mental illnesses.

Police can’t force homeless people from encampments unless the city in question has “adequate shelter” to offer the people getting forced off the street, according to courts. Now everyone involved wants to know what “adequate shelter” is.

Shasta County left the role of lead agency for the Northern California Continuum of Care last week. The program provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding to address homelessness in the region.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s big new experiment to push people with mental illness off the streets and into treatment starts this fall. Counties responsible for the rollout say it may end up being more modest than advertised.

On Tuesday night, Ashland City Council approved the acquisition. Located east of downtown, the property at 2200 Ashland Street will be converted into a shelter.