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This story is a component of a sequence inspecting the drug and homeless crises plaguing Oregon. Read half one, half two and half three.
SALEM, Ore. — Matt Maceira remembers individuals throwing trash out their automobile home windows at him as they drove by. But the insults they hurled harm extra. Worthless. Hopeless. Lost trigger.
“Hey low-life,” he recalled one man shouting. “Nobody loves you. Why don’t you kill yourself?”
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“I heard that all the time,” Maceira instructed Fox News, strolling via the woods he used to name dwelling. “Because I [was] homeless, which means I have less value, right?”
“Said God never,” he added sarcastically.
After 27 years in the drug world, Maceira is approaching a decade of sobriety. He travels round the world and his dwelling state, sharing the gospel in hopes of inspiring others to rejoin society. Maceira can be a robust critic of Oregon’s insurance policies round medicine, dependancy and homelessness.
Family custom
Maceira was born into a world of medicine, violence and crime. He began consuming at 8 years outdated and, and when he was 11, his father launched him to crank. He was stabbed for the first time that very same 12 months.
“I used to call that fun,” he mentioned of his bloody upbringing.
Left, Matt Maceira and his twin brother Rei are pictured throughout highschool. Right, Maceira pictured with his father and uncle lower than a 12 months after Maceira acquired sober. (Photos courtesy Matt Maceira)
His twin brother Rei developed chemical psychosis from extended meth use and took his personal life shortly earlier than their twenty fourth birthday, Maceira mentioned, sending him deeper into despair and dependancy.
But a pastor befriended Maceira, by no means giving up on him. And, after a number of extra years, Maceira lastly turned his again on the solely method of dwelling he’d ever identified.
“I have a totally new life today,” he mentioned. “God changed my heart.”
Oregon’s homeless inhabitants has grown 37.4% from 2020 to 2023, in line with information from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The state has the second-highest proportion of homeless residents who’re unsheltered (64.6%), behind solely California (68%).
State and native authorities spending on housing and different homeless providers has additionally skyrocketed.
Ahead of a forecasted ice storm, Maceira and volunteers from different nonprofits loaded up wagons with sleeping luggage, wool socks, water and different gear, and headed into the woods behind Wallace Marine Park, situated simply throughout the Willamette River from the Oregon State Capitol. The park holds one of the largest homeless encampments in the whole state.
“I see it solely as a blessing” to return to Wallace Marine Park, Maceira mentioned softly. His vivid blue sweatshirt, emblazoned with the phrases “Hope dealer,” stood out in opposition to the grey sky and naked timber.
Some who dwell there “knew me when I was not necessarily the most friendly or approachable person.” Maceira smiled. “So I get to come back and genuinely love all these folks out here.”
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Many of the individuals Maceira works with are additionally previously homeless, like Aidan, who ran away from dwelling at the age of 11. He spent most of the subsequent 12 years dwelling on the streets or in the woods behind Wallace Marine Park.
“I just got addicted to the streets,” Aidan mentioned. “Drugs, crime, pretty much doing whatever I wanted to do.”
But in October 2019, a month earlier than the delivery of his daughter, he had an epiphany.
“I grew up without a dad,” he mentioned. “I didn’t wanna put my daughter through that.”
Now occurring 5 years clear and sober, Aidan works for a medication-assisted dependancy therapy facility and sometimes returns to his outdated dwelling, spreading the gospel and inspiring others to search out their method out of the forest.
As Maceira and different volunteers chatted with residents of the encampment, Aidan let 28-year-old Tyler borrow his telephone. After a decade of methamphetamine dependancy, Tyler referred to as a therapy facility.
“I’m just trying to get out of here and to do what I can to become a citizen of the outside world,” Tyler mentioned after he completed giving the heart his data. “To not live out here.”
Tyler, 28, mentioned he has been homeless and hooked on meth for about a decade. On Jan. 12, 2024, an outreach employee helped him name a therapy facility so he can work towards sobriety. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
For others, dwelling in the woods is extra snug than the claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by 4 partitions.
“I don’t know if I want to be indoors,” mentioned Seven, who has been homeless since 2006, shortly after his mom died. “I’m not used to it.”
Ressa, who was off the streets and in transitional housing for a time, agreed.
“I couldn’t handle the four walls, the limitations and the lack of nature,” she mentioned. “I don’t want to be stuck.”
Ressa, 50, has been homeless for about 10 years. She briefly lived in transitional housing, however mentioned on Jan. 12, 2024, she “couldn’t handle the four walls” after dwelling outdoor for therefore lengthy. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
Asked how society can tackle homelessness when some people favor dwelling outdoors, Maceira paused.
“If somebody tells you they like it, they like not bathing, they like not eating … or they are cool with eating food that’s no longer fit for human consumption, drinking creek water,” he mentioned, trailing off. “If somebody tells you that they like any of that, they’re not doing well.”
A 2018 HUD report estimated that about 27% of unsheltered homeless individuals had been “severely mentally ill,” and about 21% suffered from continual substance abuse. In the Portland space, drug overdoses accounted for practically 40% of all homeless deaths in 2022. Fentanyl contributed to about 74% of these, in line with a current report from the Multnomah County Health Department.
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Addiction and homelessness went “hand in hand” for Maceira. And, whereas he acknowledged that is “not everybody’s story,” Maceira is deeply crucial of Oregon’s method to the homeless disaster, which he mentioned typically neglects to handle underlying causes.
The “housing first” mannequin is common with those that insist that a lack of reasonably priced housing is at the root of homelessness. It prioritizes giving homeless people housing with out preconditions like sobriety or dependancy therapy.
“[That] doesn’t stop drug addiction” or tackle psychological well being wants, Maceira mentioned. “Giving somebody a house doesn’t resolve that.”
Maceira opposes low-barrier shelters “in their entirety” and mentioned a lot of cash is being “wasted” on packages that put the homeless out of sight and out of thoughts.
“Drugs are being sold and used in those places,” he mentioned. “People are dying in those places. I’ve done celebrations of life services for people that have overdosed at low-barrier shelters.”
Maceira has additionally spoken out in favor of re-criminalizing possession of laborious medicine in Oregon, saying lawmakers have a possibility to “course correct” throughout their present legislative session.
“Letting people use methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin or any other deadly substance is not compassionate,” he mentioned.
A younger man tries to maintain a hearth burning in the rain at Wallace Marine Park in Salem, Oregon. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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As the group splashed via puddles, the wheels of their carts slicing deep tracks in the mud, one volunteer regarded round in any respect the rubbish.
“No matter what we give, this is what happens to it,” he mentioned. But clear socks and water do function “ice breakers.”
“And then we’re always offering the hope that there’s a better way,” he mentioned.
Sometimes — like with Tyler — persons are prepared. Be Bold Street Ministries participated in an occasion at the park in December with dozens of different nonprofits and church buildings.
“We had people, same day, off the streets,” Maceira mentioned. “We had a bunch of people say yes to salvation, get plugged into medical services, navigation services and housing services.”
And although Oregon’s homeless downside exhibits no indicators of subsiding but, Maceira is optimistic about the future.
“It’s amazing what we get to do because we get to see miracles all week long,” he mentioned.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.
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