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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2009)
» c e l e b b a t in g a decade Street roots Education ♦ Dialogue * Independence EDITORU » » • « Sit-tie a cliche of obstructionism he new ruling that the sit-lie law is unconstitutional caught Street Roots off guard. According to sources at City Hall, it also caught the city on its heels. Rumor has it that staffers there are scrambling to try to figure out what exactly the ruling means. Street Roots thinks it’s clear to the broader public what the ruling means and.what City Hall should do. For years, seven to be exact; the sit-lie ordinance has become a wedge issue in our community. Not to mention that the law infringes on the rights of Portlanders, specifically homeless folks. , / The sit-lie ordinance is being evaluated in We can develop a community-wide relationship In the discussions, led by City spirit of collaboration Commissioners Nick Fish Instead of and Amanda Fritz, to confrontation, and determine the long-term share the concept that viability of the law. We the people on the have a hunch that the streets are a part of the process will not shed any solutions we a ll seek. new light on the subject. This law is more or less a - waste of everyone’s time. ' i t ’s time to cut bait. Stop beating a dead horse. The police bureau, private security groups and the business community need to learn to live without the sit-lie ordinance. | I j |H H | I The simple fact of the matter is, we have individuals . experiencing homelessness and poverty that live and contribute in our community. We may not always like the way a few bad apples create tension on the streets, but it’s time to turn over a new leaf and look at more | progressive and innovative ideas when thinking about these issues. The Street Access For Everyone (SAFE) workgroup, made up of members from the business community, homeless advocates and concerned; citizens, has created a framework on which" to work together. We don’t think this should be lost. Street Roots recently joined the Portland Business; Alliance (PBA) in the same vein. We believe .that while we don’t always agree on specific issues, the PBA and the larger business community do care about people experiencing homelessness. And we have to find a way T to breakthrough the tired rhetoric. Here’s our chance. In the past two years, the city and the PBA have supported the SAFE committee to help build more park benches and to open public restrooms downtown - things that benefit both the housed and homeless communities. They have worked to create day'access space for people on the streets to have a welcoming place to go and have created the capacity fora homeless women’s shelter to increase its hours to.24/7. The shame of the sit-lie law only tarnished these worthy efforts. What if the discussion could move on to what homeless folks can do alongside the business community? How can we be involved in cleaning blighted areas or helping police drug dealers and predators that prey on people on the streets? We can develop a relationship in the spirit of collaboration instead of confrontation, and share the concept that the people on the streets are a part of the solutions we all seek. A None of this is possible with an ordinance that tells people not be a part of the community at-large. It’s time to move along. ■ STREET ROOTS' EDITORIAL BOARD The views expressed in the editorials in Street Roots are the consensusof members of the editorial board and contributing volunteers. Addiction letter draws vendor, reader response brightened our day when we are newly exposed to the dark angles and hard realities of real life. If we do so, we are basically saying by example that it’s OK for ’m a 30-year-old Street Roots vendor someone , to do the same to uâ when we a re , who has been.clean and sober for more than six and a half years. I also have past in our darkest hour. I don’t think this Js experiences with homelessness. The issue what we want. It is in thèse times when the depths of pain and suffering is revealed about vendors being “ alcoholic/drug — that we must seek and share the deeper addicts” is class discrimination. love and compassion that only a greater All people from various social classes süpportive community can accomplish experience alcohol/drug addiction, even i together. doctors who practice medicine. Should the , STOOP doctor’s not work? They have access to , Portland/San Francisco pretty expensive alcohol/drugs yet the U.S. society doesn’t tend ió focus on the higher I am indoors now, working a full time job classes alcohol/drug addictions that often. - in the technical field. But, when I was People who are homeless or poverty outside, getting a bit of alcohol or maybe ; stricken áre stereotyped and marginalized even doing a ligna was one very effective (National Coalition for the Homeless; solution to enduring the cold, can this “Report accuses US cities of criminalizing the homeless” (June 21, 2009). I completed • country, ever warm up to the idea o f the empowerment model? my Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary ANONYMOUS. Studies aLMarylhurst University with grants, scholarships, and student loans in 2008. City to fix any Section 8 I grew up in a single-parent family and have been a Street Roots vendor since" problems in Portland January IB, 2009. Please do n o t' discriminate towards any social class, F I thanks for shining a light on the especially the homeless and poverty I Section 8 problem. (“The Letter,” stricken; Street Roots does a good thing by A June 12, 2009) We are working to fix employing the marginalized. the problems with the Section 8 program, JANELLE JEFFRIES including: Portland 1. County Commissioner Kafoury and I are chairing a task force to address barriers Please don’t let people believe that most facing voucher-holders. homeless are addicts, and even many of the 2 . 1 am working with HAP and the. VÁ substance abusers only became that way Hospital to get to full utilization of all VASH after they gave up on getting out — pr vouchers within 60 days. should I say “in.” I 3. HAP and the City of Portlandhave I am female, multi-disabiled and not a offered technical assistance to Northwest substance abuser (unless you count coffee Oregon. cigs and carnitas). I was homeless almost We are committed to 100 percent nine years. We need help, not judging, utilization of existing vouchers, and to please. D.C. MATTHEWS removing barriers faced by too* many voucher-holders. NICK FISH Thanks for this article. We must not turn Portland CityCommissioner our backs to those whohave at oné time Editors Note: Israel Bayer’s Director Desk, (Page 14, this Í edition) was posted on our blog, www.streetroots.wordpress.com, prior to this publication., Here are some o f the responses: ' I WHAT DO YOU THINK? Street Roots encourages readers to submit letters and columns for publication. Letters to the editor may; be submitted to the Street Roots office, 211 NW Davis St., / Portland, OR 97209, faxed to 503-227- 3117 or e-mailed to streetroots ©email.com. Please address your submissions as letters to the editor.
