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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2009)
w C £ L £ B B A T !N 6 < B B C « 15 Street roots Education * Dialogue * Independence b U l •JM Monsters and men, right here in River City! Giving a hand up, not a hand out treet Roots is. grateful to the many to each other’s stories.” - ^^ind iv id u als who have given to the Vance Schweigart sells the newspaper K-Z summer fund drive this year, With downtown and in the Irvington your support we’ve raised nearly $12,000. neighborhood. Schweigart says that selling Thank you! Street Roots allows him to-pay for a room The organization each night «Street Roots customers are still needs to raise an kind to me . They treat m e like a real person ^ l R E C T O B r S ' ad(kti?nal $3,000 this andnot like a bum.”. w w ow y summer to maintain Street Roots is a hand up, not a hand out. . > the vendor program Selling Street Roots allows for individuals and newspaper this , to gain access to a supplemental income. It By Israel Bayer fall. We’re hoping you also allows for individuals to rebuild their ■■■■■■■ h h i w can take the time to \ lives in dignity - without having to beg. give today. It also allows individuals experiencing ' Your donation goes to support people homelessness and poverty to give experiencing homelessness and poverty something back to the community. With who sell the newspaper and access each purchase of a newspaper, you are resources throughout the Portland region. helping people improve their quality of life George-Mayes, who sells at the . - whether that’s helping them access a roof Multnomah County Courthouse, says, over their heads or allowing them to eat “Street Roots gives me a chance to dialogue healthy foods not readily available to many with people and is a model of self- poor folk. The reader also gets something in sufficiency.” . g ’ ' , return with a quality community newspaper. “Street Roots gave us a spark of hope,” s When you"purchase Street Roots you are says Donna Bacon, who became housed helping rebuild a person’s life. while with the organization. “They are there Saying that, we can’t provide the ' for their vendors and homeless people who newspaper to individuals on the streets want to change their lives for something , without the broader community support. It I. better.” takes money to run the. vendor program and . Kevin Bynum became homeless nearly a to publish a quality newspaper. We are year ago, and Street Roots has helped him asking for your help. gain access to housing and stability. “I’m You can give online at www.streetroots. grateful to Street Roots because it keeps a org, or the old fashioned way to Street roof oyer my head. I alsoget to meet Roots, 211 New Davis St., Portland, OR, hundreds of new people each day. We listen 97209. t s' hard to tell fact from fiction in downtown Portland these days. The police and business co m m unity have outdone themselves with a public relations ploy that aims to make our city seem more like a zoo than a healthy downtown feeling the repercussions of an unforgiving recession all because of a sidewalk ordinance. Where to start? In late June, a Multnomah County judge Israel B a yer is the executive director o f Street R oots a n d ruled the sit-lie ordinance unconstitutional (the second the cha irm a n o f the N o rth V time in a seven-year period a judge has made such a A m e rica n Street N ew spaper A sso cia tio n . You ca n reach ruling). Two weeks later the police bring The Oregonian him a tstr e etr o o ts@ h o tm a il. on an all-day stakeout on homeless individuals round Pioneer Square. From a second story window, the police \ - S kept watch on targeted individuals, waiting for them The police don't get to to commit low-level crimes such as littering or drive policy decisions jaywalking. Arrests were and public relations made. about homelessness in One week later, another Portland, but they're stakeout operation. More j sending ont the alarm arrests. that without sit-lie, The police say th a t. downtown has become Gotham City. without the sit-lie ordinance, a violation coming with a possible fine and community service, they are forced to continue conducting surveillance on people downtpwn - making petty arrests that come with possible jail time and a record that could disqualify individuals, LETTERS from accessing housing. Housing Bureau chieft New strategic plan needed in these times Down the street, elected officials sit on the sidelines, forgetting that they actually supervise the police, and that egarding “We’relpsing ground; Time formerlyhomeless individuals each day. the police don’t get totirive policy -deGi^ions and. public to charge” (Editorial in Aug. 10 People who use a Section 8 voucher to relations about homelessness in Portland; inessence, x Street Roots):; pay their rent will have a much easier time sending out the alarm that without sit-lie, downtown has I have long admired Street Roots for .its finding a good apartment thanks to a unique become Gotham City. WHAT DO straightforward approach to covering the collaboration between the City, the Housing We’re all tired of wasting time with petty ordinances issues that most affect Portland’s homeless Authority of Portland, and area property YOU THINK? community. And as the new director of the about sidewalks when we could be using our collective owners. One hundred five homeless Portland Housing Bureau, Twas naturally veterans will soon have permanent homes, energy to push for poor folks to have access to health Street Roots very interested' in your recent editorial because housing and VA leaders here have care and housing. Let’s just state for the record that, encourages readers inviting the City to “make the charge,” by made it a priority to change the way they do despite the lip service from City Hall, it really doesn’t tackling our current housing crisis^ business. matter what Street Roots or any other homeless advocacy - To submit letters I could not agree more.The time for* And with the support of our partners, we and columns for organization or newspaper in town says or reports. And it bold, new approaches is upon us, and we are investing our share of stimulus funds publication. Send apparently doesn’t matter what the judicial system thinks must set about our work with creativity and into worthy and “shovel-ready” projects, letters to the editor an honest, strategic look at what is working either. And now the Portland Mercury is reporting that allowing us to stretch our local dollars even to the’Street Roots and what is not. I have a personal sense of the city is working oh crafting another sidewalk further. . urgency around trying to get ahead of the office, 211 NW ordinance: Fantastic. Real progress, City Hall. Can we do more? Absolutely. Do we need economic mess that is wreaking havoc on | Davis St.-, Portland, This, in the metropolitan hub of a state that’s now No. 1 a comprehensive new strategic plan that our old housing strategies. Whafs more, I OR 97209, or reflects today’s economic realities, yet in the nation for homelessness, No. 2 in unemployment am convinced that my colleagues in city leaves room for flexibility? Of course. And e-mailed to and No. 3 in hunger. Big businesses are laying off workers government — including ojir elected leaders can we do more to engage members of our streetroots and small businesses are simply failing. High school drop — absolutely share that sense of urgency. community who most need a voice on ©email.com. . Indeed, These factors are what led me to out rates are alarming and the resources designed to help issues of poverty? Certainly. accept Housing Commissioner Fish’s offer those in need are choking in this financial drought. And as I am counting on Street Roots to of the top job at the new bureau. all this pressure was building, the city was building high: continue to watch Portland’s housing While it’s true that we face greater income housing, while low-income housing decreased system closely and offer insightful and challenges than ever before, I have great nearly 23 percent in the past three years. challenging commentary as we move into a hope. I am hopeful becausein spite of the And still, homeless people are being blamed and new era. recession, tremendous progress is being punished for the economic woes downtown. It’s that In the meantime, let there be no doubt: made in helping those who need it the we have taken np the charge. most: Portland will soon break ground on instinctual scapegoat mentality that pits people against - MARGARET VAN VLIET the landmark Resource Access Center that each other rather than encourages common goals and Director, Portland Housing Bureau will help hundreds of homeless and solutions. But we go on chasing our tail, which is usually where people at the grassroots level alienate themselves by saying something out of turn, like who s crazy now? Addict’s Almanac’s unpleasant honesty prompts call for disclaimer But that’s where it’s at; punishing homeless people, right now, in the press and oh the ground, is crazy. Roots knows too well how bad and egarding Addicts Almanac (Street The police stings downtown and the PR spin making dangerous life on the street is, but we just Roots, Aug. 7) monsters out of men and women who are homeless, want our readers to know we don’t approve of theft, murder and other illegal activities.” . I guess addicts have a right to be blaming them for realities bigger than any one person can : NAT LASKER heard from, same as anyone else, but I just grasp, is an embarrassment. If the same fever was put Portland wanted to point out something ironic. into asking the public to be patient and to educate people Bdsed on the demographics of the city, E d itor’ s note: Thank you fo r the letter, Nat, on why people are homeless and how to get involved and and based on where I see a lot of Street g and yes, it’s true' we don’t condone theft, interact with people on the streets — we would be talking Roots vendors, the people whose bikes T m urder or sim ilar crim inal acts. TyeDoudy about truly becoming that extraordinary city on the hill. were stolen probably supported you. Maybe I H ■ STREET ROOTS’ EDITORIAL BOARD * The views expressed in the editorials in Street Roots are the consensus of members of the editorial board ana ' contributing volunteers. now that they have to. save up for two bikes they won’t be buying anymore Street Roots for a while. Maybe you should think about adding s some neutral disclaimer at the end of articles like this, you know, like “Street doesn’t m ince words about his past, certainly not the cold realities o f surviving addiction an d homelessness. A s he has written before, Tye hopes his experiences can be a lesson to ' others as m uch fo r what not to do as anything else.
