Of course, Speaker Kotek is all-in for curing homelessness: it will give government (and, no doubt, the speaker) yet another $-multimillion slush fund--"distributed to local governments and nonprofits through competitive grants." Which means, in actual-speak, that the heavy hand of Ms. Kotek's agents and allies will play its role in disbursing the slush.

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries would be the legion of so-called non-profits, such as the shadowy "Here Together" outfit, the brain trust that came up with the Metro "soak the rich" tax surcharge--this from the good folks who run "the Oregon Zoo, solid waste disposal and the urban growth boundary." Think they'll know how to administer this grab-bag of your money? Nah; Home Together will help--and get the first tranche.

Meanwhile, as she no doubt gears up for her gubernatorial run, Kotek, in the time-honored ways of patronage politics, would extend her alliance into the state's one true growth industry--Homelessness Inc. And will anyone grasp the nettle that this is not, and never has been, an actual "housing" crisis? No: it's as old as humanity ("The poor are ever with us"); and beyond any cheery young advanced-degree in Urban Studies millenial to solve--a lethal combination of social breakdown, shattered families, drugs from our good friends in China and Mexico, rampant mental illness, and criminality as a way of life. Good luck, "service-providers"!

True Life Youth is making a HUGE mistake to delivery OREGON DEPOSIT VALUE bearing bottled water to vagrants! They should consider delivering larger, 1 gallon sized jugs NOT SUBJECT to deposit in order to deter dumping. If they were to leave a case of 32 water bottle, it's extremely likely that first or second transients to come upon it will dumpt hem all out in order to cash them out for $3.20 to get their drug money.

Reporters: go talk to a clerk at Fred Meyer or Safeway near the bottle return area at locations that are still required to take bottle returns. Most will tell you they have seen vagrant drug addicts dumping out water to cash out the containers.