Portland: What's the Question?

Our class was broken up into three teams last class period. One team to read and discuss the statistics from the surveys we took earlier. Another to decide the major themes related to Poverty/Homelessness. Lastly, the team I was on, deciding the question to answer.

"What is the governing question that we want to know?" is what our professor asked us to get our brains moving.

Some different options the group came up with were:

• What were the major factors leading the homeless to where they are today and what keeps them there?
• Is the homeless lifestyle desirable to the individuals involved?
• Does the homeless population affect the citizens surrounding them?
• How much of the crime in Portland is associated to the homeless?
• How does the homeless population effect the economy?

After more discussion on what was we wanted to know and how to incorporate the above questions in our final result, we formed this question:

• How does  poverty/homeless affect Portland and the people of Portland?