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street roots
Education * Dialogue * Independence
NW Section 8
casualities get
some relief
B Y STAFF REPORTS
early 300 families in Northwest
Oregon got some breathing room
this month - a one-month extension
on assistance to keep them in housing.
In late May, the Northwest Oregon
Housing Authority, NOHA, notified 285
recipients of Section 8 housing assistance
vouchers that they would be dropped from
the program as of July 1. The cuts from the
program were caused by a shortfall in
funding for the housing authority from the
federal Bureau of Housing and Urban
Development, or HUD, which funds the
Section 8 program. In some cases, NOHA
was paying 90 percent of the rent for
recipients.
In late June, NOHA’s board of directors
voted to tap $145,000 in its reserves to pay
for the month of July för the effected
families. One of those families belongs to
Jennifer Cherry, who had nearly all of her
family’s rent paid for by NOHA. She and
her partner, who are recovering from
disabilities, have three children.
“HUD gave us July, so we’ll see what
happens for next month,” said Cherry, who
said her landlord has also been very helpful
during the ordeal.
Shortly after the announcement from
NOHA, the Oregon Housing and
Community Services issued' $50,000 to •
help the families, to be administered by the
Community Action Team, Cherry says she
might be getting some assistance from that
funding to help with August.
HUD has said it has no funding to assist
the families with rent, despite the families’
. gwalif iiiratiftB.J6ac.4>ousiBS.asi8istaaca..
-
Patricia Roberts, a member of NOHA’s
board of directors, said it Will do all it can
to keep people in housing, but if people do
have to move, she says they should notify
NOHA of their new address. NOHA hopes
to restore funding to-the affected families
at the end of this year.
The United Way in-Rainier, Ore., has set
up a fund to help the families that lost;
their housing assistance. To donate, call
503-556-3614, or write to Executive
Director Kathye Beck at uwcc@hotmail.
com.
■
»RRECTIC
Street Roots strives for accuracy, but
we're human. So we also strive to correct
errors in our paper whenever possible.
Please report any errors to our managing
editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-5657, or
write in to joanne@streetroots.org.
P H O T O B Y E L IZ A B E T H S C H W A R T Z
Customer’s kindness saves a vendor’s life
BY ELIZABETH SCHWARTZ
and early on July 1, hoping to earn enough
to «see a doctor. He had some newspapers
and $4 in his pocket when Matt arrived at
Starbucks and asked John how he was. John
said he showed Matt his swollen left hand
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
endors experience generosity from
Street Roots customers on a daily
basis. It is usually done out of
compassion for another human being
■
VENDOR PR O FILE
John Alden
wiffioutany th o u g h to fg etu r^so rn eth in g in
, I t ’s a long way from his days as a young
i m ui ir.1 ji yff r i1 wngrrym y w rg w g T W
ffg
it forward.” This vendor profile is a thank
you letter to everyone who “pays it
forward,” but especially to a man named
“Matt,” who helped John on July 1 by giving
him $10 for a doctor co-pay.
John had spent three months in Salem
this spring helping a disabled friend prepare
her house for sale and doing some
landscaping. The house sold in mid-June,
allowing his friend to move to a handicap
accessible apartment After the house sold,
John returned to Portland and began selling
•Street Roots outside Starbucks on NW 12th
and Glisan.
Even though his corner doesn’t have
much traffic, John likes his chosen spot. He
gets there around 7:30 a.m. and sells papers
for about three hours. Then he goes to the
park, a coffee shop, or library and writes his
autobiography while resting his legs. He
returns to Starbucks about noon and sells
his newspapers, picking up just enough
money to .survive on.
in New York City. Alden says he went on to
thef at Trader Vic’s in Beverly Hills and was
the executive chef at the Marriott in Dallas,
Texas. Standing all day, day after day, took
its toll on his legs, however; Severe varicose
veins how prevent him from keeping up the
high pace of work in a kitchen. He now
devotes his time to earning money to
support himself while writing his story.
John has developed a few regular
newspaper customers, and one man, Matt,
buys him a cup of coffee most mornings.
On June 29, a Douglas fir splinter that John
had gotten while landscaping in Salem
began hurting badly. He had neither health
insurance nor a doctor, so he turned to the
Rose City Resource Guide and discovered
that his low income would probably allow
him to be seen for $10 by a doctor in the
Gladys McCoy Building downtown. He did
not have $10..
John continued to sell papers on June 30
and an ugly red line that ran from his thumb
up the inside of his arm, nearly to his elbow.
Matt gave John $10 forthe co-pay.
He had blood poisoning. John used his
$14 for a taxi from the doctor’s office to the
Good Samaritan’s emergency room, where
he was immediately admitted into the
hospital.
He was in the hospital for two days
waiting to see if the IV would kill the
bacteria before it reached his heart and
killed him. The pain was severe enough that
he had niorphine in the IV the first day, but
the physical pain was minor compared to
the pain of lying there with a telephone
within arm’s reach.
Even though I have noticed that
loneliness seems to be a common
denominator among the vendors I have
interviewed, I did not Understand why
having a telephone was so painful until he
explained it to me.
It never rang. And he had no one to call.
NEW SEASONS
M A R K E T
■Home
G row i
L s h o p fr e s h
( b s h o p lo c a l
Multnomah County Health Department
syringe exchange & disposal * condoms&supplies •
r
referrals • health info • someone to talk to
Tfo friendttosi store, in toton.
E A S Y & F U N TO S H O P • L O C A L L Y O W N E D & O P E R A T E D
w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a rk e t.c o m
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