Homelessness in Portland, the Coronavirus Pandemic, and The Globalization Project

Many of us have an unconscious bias towards homeless people and do our best to ignore them whenever we pass them on the street. When the Coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm, Americans experienced higher rates of poverty, a socio-economic problem perpetuated by capitalism on both a national and global scale. Homelessness affects minorities at high rates, particularly Black and Hispanic people. With the pandemic raging on into its second year, we are witnessing problems of unemployment and homelessness reaching all-time highs in our country. Early on into the pandemic, the city of Portland temporarily shut down the homeless shelters in order to avoid what they described as hotspots” for the pandemic. This forced a large number of the homeless people into the streets and ultimately into Deering Oaks Park. This research project discusses the negative effects of the Globalization Project of the 1980s through the present whereby nation-states move away from protecting the civil rights of citizens and become servants to a market economy based on the maximization of profits leading to a poverty epidemic such as low wages, unemployment, and homelessness. This research project uses sources on the pandemic, globalization, economic liberalism, economic and racial inequality to understand increased poverty and homelessness in Portland, Maine. Data is also used based on observations I made of homelessness in the fall of 2020 while commuting around town. The findings reveal that homelessness rates are increasing in Portland and are projected to continue rising as the pandemic continues. The Globalization Project began an era of structural poverty that continues to create and reinforce a boom of problematic consequences made worse by the pandemic. We must develop better public policies and garner more resources to resolve the problems of poverty and homelessness in our country and in Portland, Maine