Ben West Calls Out Oregon’s Failed Approach to Homelessness: “We Are Loving People to Death”
Published on FoxNews.com
In a Fox News report examining Oregon’s worsening homeless crisis, Clackamas County Commissioner and registered nurse Ben West delivers one of the most pointed critiques of the state’s current approach. As lawmakers move to spend an unprecedented $200 million on housing and rent assistance, West argues that the homelessness emergency cannot be solved by housing-first policies alone. The state, he says, continues to ignore the underlying drivers of homelessness — addiction, mental illness, and the lack of detox and recovery options. “Putting an addict behind four walls in an apartment and isolating them is not solving anything,” West warns. “Instead of OD’ing on the street, they’re OD’ing on a hardwood floor.”
West’s comments appear alongside firsthand accounts from Kevin Dahlgren, a longtime drug counselor, who stresses that roughly 80% of Portland’s homeless population struggles with addiction. While Oregon’s homeless services budget has ballooned dramatically in recent years, West highlights that the crisis has only grown at the same pace, driven by what he calls “Band-Aid” strategies that hand out tents and supplies without confronting root causes. His most sobering assessment underscores the moral urgency of reform: “We basically are allowing people to slowly kill themselves. We are loving them to death.”
The article positions West as a leading voice calling for a balanced, compassionate, and evidence-based system that prioritizes detox, treatment, and long-term recovery. He argues that real progress depends on helping people reclaim stability and self-sufficiency — not simply relocating them from sidewalks to apartments without the tools to overcome addiction or mental health challenges. West’s perspective is a clear call for lawmakers to rethink where Oregon invests its resources and what true compassion requires.
Content credit to FoxNews.com
