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k CELEBRATING A DECADE
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street roots
r Education ♦ Dialogue ♦ Independence
Media
Roundup
A look at homelessness
in Portland’s news
■ A Willamette Week intern asked Street
Roots this week if money provided by the city
of Portland for the Rose City Resource Guide
is in fact be ing channeled to the mostly
volunteer editorial board as a payoff. Questions
a rose after Street Roots cl a i med it co u Id help
facilitate communication among more than 350
social-service agencies and people
experiencing poverty. The paper reported that
Street Roots had in fact, “Sit. Lied. Rolled over.
And fetched" for the payoff from City Hall.
Feds question Street Roots' coverage
BY M.T. PROMISES
UNEMPLOYED WRITER
Z I ’’Vie journalistic integrity of Street
I Roots is being questioned by
JL government agencies after it did not
publish several press releases on
homelessness as news stories during the
past year.
One insider said the newspaper had lost
its way and could no longer be trusted on
the issue. “Our research shows that reports
mandated and developed by the federal
government for funding .are accurate. Why
question the facts?”
Spokespeople for local city governments,
the Interagency Council on Homelessness
and the National Alliance to End
Homelessness have questioned Street Roots
for not getting in line and reporting on the
real issues of chronic homelessness.
“Look, we know that people who have
lived on the streets for more than one year
are chronically at fault for their
circumstances,” says a burned-out
administrator from the National Alliance to
End Homelessness. “Our goal is to get
these people off the streets as soon as
possible. We’re not necessarily concerned
with their civil rights, but we do think their
presence on street corners is bad for
business. Our research shows that we can
without a doubt clear these folks off the
streets in 10 years."
“Will people we house have jobs or be
contributing to society in a year? That’s not
the issue,” says the National Alliance
spokesperson. “Our goal is to have as many
people in housing as possible before*
another million people hit the streets."
Interagency Council on Homelessness
representatives agree, saying the root
causes of homelessness are really not the
issue. “The issue is people who are
homeless, and, frankly, we’re tired of Street
Roots and other street papers around the
country questioning this. We wish they
would stop their whining.”
One local official working with the
Housing Bureau says, “Our strategy at this
point is to just ignore Street Roots.”
“If they (Street Roots) think that writing
about the systematic causes of
homelessness and poverty are something
that’s going to help the city’s political will to
end the crisis of homelessness, then they
are sadly mistaken," say's one insider.
“Just because there’s an economic crisis
developing and we live in a society without
health care or affordable housing doesn’t
mean that homelessness can’t be solved,”
says one nonprofit head and 10-year plan
advocate. “The bigger corporations and
private developers already know that there’s
no profit in building housing for poor
people. Our strategy with private developers
and landlords is to be nice to them and not
require any kind of regulations - like taking
Section 8 vouchers or forcing companies to
develop affordable housing. We think after
all the money is made - they’ll be receptive
to our ideas. We will get affordable housing
built in this city. Mark my words."
Asked if Street Roots coverage on the
subject even mattered, the 10-year
proponent said, “The newspaper is cute. I
read the poems and I love my local
neighborhood vendor, but concerning news
- there’s really no reason to believe
anything they report. It’s foolishness. I
think our numbers show this."
■ The Portia nd Mercury has decided to cover
issues of poverty and homelessness without
doing research on the subject for one-year.
Mercury reporters told inquiring minds on their
company that they are working circles around
the Street Roots staff. One reporter blames
Street Roots for not “manning up" and covering
the issues he thinks the paper should be
covering. “Why aren’t they just printing our
stories on the. front page?" he asked reporters.
■ The Oregonian called to verify that homeless
people are still, in fact, homeless.
■ The Portland Monthly has decided to profile
the Top Ten Reasons Why no one really gives
a crap what the Portland Monthly says about
the economy. Coming in at No. 1 was, “No one
really does give a crap about what we say
about the economy."
■ Several neighborhood newspapers have
reported a homeless invasion of
neighborhoods. One neighborhood leader told
the Portland Sentinel that if any public housing
was built in the area, they would post videos on
YouTube of neighborhood activists ripping the
hearts out of poor people at a public event.
Editorials from various neighborhood
newspapers agreed, after brokering a deal for
sponsoring the event in exchange for three
months of advertising. Various musicians
around Portland agreed to play the YouTube
event, saying, “We owe this to ourselves; we’re
poor too.” Microbrews from local breweries and
restaurants will be available at the event.
Nutria-itious? Not to everyone’s taste
by staff reports
fTAhe Northeast Nutria Processors,
I which distributes hundreds of nutria
X meals to Portland restaurants each
week, has been shut down amid animal
rights protests.
The meals served about 300 people a
’ week and also helped keep in check the
nutria population that never seemed
significantly affected by hunting efforts.
Still, animal-rights activists, third-shift
workers and strolling lovers have launched
a campaign against the nutria distributers,
saying the invasive, semi-aquatic rodents,
which some have likened to giant rats, are
Children and pets are welcome.
■ KGW decided to air a special about how
homeless peopie living out on the streets
actually get wet during the rainy season. In an
early morning investigative report, KGW found
irador .
rii I M
COMMUNITY
that .14 out of the 14 individuals they
interviewed who had slept outside during
Rainstorm 2009 actually woke up wet and
miserable.
Back to you.
Natural Kitchen
& Home
2106 SE Division
503*231*5175
Canning jars &
equipment,
cookware, kitchen
tools & appliances
Organic cotton
sheets, towels,
& blankets
Food dryers
Juicers
Books on meat-free
cooking, gardening
& sustainability
a cultural icon in the Willamette Valley,
and are a welcome sight in the late night
and early morning hours. Nutria are
known to live along the Eastbank
Esplanade and sleep in the dark recesses
under the overpass.
Weighing in at about 12 pounds each, a
single fricasseed nutria easily can feed
seven people. The nutria meal service,
launched four years ago, was seen as the
perfect solution to address the growing
numbers of the animal, and supplying an
affordable, meat-packed meals to
Portlanders. Activists have organized
against the nutria harvest in the past, but
this week successfully pursuaded City Hall
to pull the plug on the operation.
Pierce Wellington, who owns Northwest
Nutria Processors, said he has 400 nutria
in the company freezers that they will
have to dispose of. One consideration is a
marketing strategy to reach higher-end
diners in a kabob format, using nutria’s
more exotic European name, coypu.
“I’m looking into our options right
now,” Wellington said. “We’re appealing to
get a permit for the Rose Festival, but
that’s a long way off.”