Tent Camping in Public Spaces Should Be Legal | Portland
Reid Nicewonder hosts this epistemological inquiry in Portland, where the population of people living in tents in public spaces has surged over the last few years. Reid is the president of Street Epistemology International and a videographer on many of our projects—you can sometimes catch a glimpse of him in our videos.
In this discussion, the claim, “Tent camping in public spaces should be legal” is explored. The participants choose three different lines: Agree, Slightly Agree, and Slightly Disagree. They consider the topic in light of whether public camping hurts anyone and if the government provides adequate homeless services to justify removing people from tents.
About midway through the discussion, Reid asks a compelling question to participants: What would Portland have to look like in 10 years that would cause you to move your position on this claim?
This conversation was filmed in Portland on May 11, 2022.
Every high school and college should start doing games like this. So smart, thought provoking and edifying for students. You aren’t trying to change their minds but rather you just encourage them to articulate coherent thoughts and logical conclusions. I wonder if this could be turned into a board game somehow…
I find it interesting that no one brought up the section of the homeless population that have severe mental illness and can’t/won’t handle being housed even if free. We defunded and closed a large amount ( possibly a majority ) of mental health services in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan so now they often end up in jails or prisons which are not equipped to handle the extremely mentally ill ( schizophrenia etc. ). There are the economically disadvantaged homeless ( e.g. medical debt ), the heavy drug/alcohol use homeless, and the mentally ill homeless and of course they often overlap and they each come with their own issues/solutions. There are no easy simple fixes. It’s a much more complicated issue to understand than people often think.
What are the answers? Obviously improved mental heath infrastructure and support for one. However just making legal or having what will basically be refugee camps can’t be the answer. Honestly if the voting populace/government keep kicking the can down the road as they have been it will only get worse. Again it’s a very nuanced situation with no easy answers.