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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (May 27, 2011)
Street roots 15 May 27, 2011 Media rhetoric undermines public health debate ast month I tagged a story in my to people on the streets. Director’s Desk titled, “Old Town It also calls into question the Housing Chinatown relations misguided.” The First policy, and the philosophy of housing article argued that bad press and a major people who are at risk of dying on the push to create political change by the streets because of their addiction and neighborhood could * because they’re sleeping outdoors with very have a negative little support impact on business in Korn’s article offers no public health the area. perspective or examples of facts from other The Portland cities,including Seattle, that have been Tribune published a successful in using “wet” housing to By Israel Bayer series of articles that support addicts while they get help. Or how in my opinion are progressive harm reduction intiatives, such sensationalized as those in Vancouver, B.C., have : journalism for a demonstrably stemmed the tide of addiction political means. One article (above the fold) and death from overdoses. appeared with a photo of what appears to The article doesn’t include context for be an individual on. the streets smoking tiie Housing First policy. In fact, it doesn’t crack cocaine with the headline “Crack even quote one government official, or give Alley.” readers perspective by offering up how I called the Tribune editors and the many people have been housed in the past writer, Peter Korn, to ask them if they five years. A quick records request revealed actually had proof that the person was that between 2005 and 2010, the City of smoking cocaine after people on the streets Portland and Multnomah County had brought it to SR attention that there’s no successfully housed more than 5,000 way it could be cocaine due to the manner individuals, and 2,000 homeless families. in which the drug is smoked. SR talked to The article doesn’t touch on the real more than a dozen addicts and former . subject matter at hand, resources and addicts, and they all believed it was priorities. The real issue here is the federal marijuana, a very big difference. government’s lack of support for housing on SR did not have proof one way or the a national level. other. The story died. Instead of concentrating on the facts, SR had been privy to conversations that Korn provides coffee shop talk from the strategy by the neighborhood was to advocates and social-service providers about raise a big stink, and create so much their opinions on the new “wet” housing political theater (through the press) that program and the Housing First policy. the mayor would have to publically react to Why does this matter? In a time when social-service programs are being cut across the drug dealing in the neighborhood. the board, and a growing anti-tax and Korn’s “Crack Alley” became the mantra, government agenda is taking hold of the and it didn’t take long before Mayor Adams population, articles like these create an responded with a plan that resembles a avenue for those voices to gain stream and drug-free zone; a plan that targets poor people and African-Americans in an attempt to alter the public view of the government’s role for supporting the downtrodden. to sweep America’s drug problem off the The-real'issues1 ■outlined above;‘su d r äs open market in Old Town. •r®*® drug dealing, addiction and how it relates to Last week the Tribune and Korn housing and neighborhood livability, are produced yet another sensationalized piece public health issues, and. it's the ., about homelessness in Old Town with the government’s responsibility to maintain subtitle, “Housing First policy opens the harm reduction services to maintain a doors to alcoholics and drug users.” healthy society, It’s the media’s - | | The article lays o u t‘c ritics’ concerns responsibility to deliver the general public about the new Bud Clark Coittmons, a as many different perspectives on g specific building that will house people dealing with issue as possible, followed by facts that an addiction. The article also calls into question the Housing First policy supported support these views. In the cases outlined above, the media, by the federal government through the namely The Portland Tribune has failed to 10-year plan to end homelessness. look at these issues in-depth,; and, instead The article quotés advocates and service providers questioning the validity of offering has chosen to go with a minority of voices and rhetoric instead of looking at all of the “wet" housing for individuals on the streets. facts and presenting the story at hand. The article alludes that the city, or local Portland deserves better. government, has failed in its responsibility B Traumatic brain injuries and homelessness hen Street Roots vendor George Dennison learned that we were running a story on traumatic brain DESK injuries and homelessness, he responded, “Oh, thank God. Because it’s totally rampant out there!” In ’ preparing this story, we spoke to five individuals who had all suffered their own versions of brain injury, from auto Israel Bayer is the accidents to sports injuries to domestic violence. We also executive director o f heard stories of homeless individuals being kicked in the Street Roots. You can head while they were sleeping and otherwise attacked for reach him at streetroots@hotmail.com. being homeless. After hearing all the stories, we have to agree with George. I f s rampant out there. It’s all together possible From a research, health that TBI may disproportionally affect care and human people experiencing perspective, we are homelessness. It may also possibly missing ont on irfean that as a public health a key component of WHAT DO system we are misdiagnosing homelessness Itself, YOU THINK? much less how It relates people for the wrong ailments. That’s a deadly to a more accurate Street Roots serious charge. diagnoses of people's encourages readers Studies in Toronto, health. to subm it tetters and Ontario, Milwaukie, columns f o r , Wisconsin and Boston, publication. Send Massachusetts have shown that a disproportionate amount letters to the editor of people on the streets experience brain injuries. What to the Street Roots does that mean? We don’t know, and thafs the problem. office, 211 NW Davis The National Football League and the United States S t, Portland, OR military are asking themselves the same questions? In 97209, or e-mailed increasing numbers, professional football players and to streetrootsnews® combat veterans are coming forward with a range of gmail.com. symptoms associated with brain injuries — including suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression-and-* - addiction. With these institutions still searching for answers, it is natural to believe, given the data, that we don’t have a clue how brain injuries relaté to " homelessness, and how that translates to both preventive care and post-injury recovery. The burden on the street is landing on a small number of already overwhelmed agencies. From a research, health care and human perspective, we are possibly missing out' on a key component of homelessness itself, much less how it relates to a more accurate diagnoses of people’s health. This and future editions, of SR will belooking at several aspects of brain injury and homelessness in Portland and around the country. We hope to be able to look at what we already know, how systems are communicating with one another, and a possible roadmap to understanding the problem. Through a series of news reports on death and people experiencing homelessness SR came to thé conclusion that our systems hadn’t a clue on how many people on the Fair housing audit Streets were dying, or why. We pushed. In 2012, the Multnomah County Health Department, m Re: Breaking News: Nick Fish partnership with the City of Portland and the Medical releases names of fair housing test Examiners Office, and supported by SR, will be releasmg a offenders (Street Roots blog) report on those numbers. Wé’re hoping the research I was privy to the results of this reveals trends that will better help our systems at both a audit a few months back and it literally made my stomach turn, regional and national level deal with the issue of mortality ■ and homelessness. There’s no reason to believe that research and reporting on brain injuries, or any number of issues related to health care, couldn’t do the same. We spend so much money asking non-profits and government locaUy to respond to . the crisis of homelessness, when by understanding the issue we may be able to curb or altogether major trends that lead to homelessness, and improve the lives oi countless of individuals and families. Homelessness, including mental health, too often narrowly addressed through the lens of public safety and law enforcem ent It’s only half of the game. essness understanding the public health aspects of homelessness, and doing something about it, we all lose. STREET ROOTS’ EDITORIAL BOARD The views that in this day and in Portland where we are so staunchly liberal, this kind of discrimination was rampant. We bend over backwards inpublic here to promote diversity yet, in private, tilings haven’t changed. My guess is that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that not only LETTERS results just the tip of the iceburg do we have to educate the corporate real estate folks we also will have to get out into the minority communities and make sure they understand that as they themselves become property owners and managers, they cannot discriminate against people who are not from “their country.” LYNNE Portland Thank you for your hard work My ex-husband has been homeless for years and he has received help from Street Roots for health assistance. He is diabetic and on the streets. His children are very worried for him and his family has little contact Through the help of Street Roots we have been able, to contact him and help assure the family of his general health and existence. Your work and that of people who know the situation are very important to our homeless. Thank you. M. KALAMA CONTACT YOUR CITY COUNCIL Sam Adams M ayor 1 2 2 1 SW 4th Ave, Room 340,97204 (503)823-4120 mayorsam® portlandoregon.gov Am anda Fritz 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 220,97204 (503)823-3008 am anda® portlandoregon.gov Dan Saltzman 1221 SW 4 th Ave, Room 230,97204 (503)823-4151 dan® portlandoregon.gov Nick Fish 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 240,97204 (503)823-3589 nick® portlandoregon.gov Randy Leonard 1221 SW 4th Ave, Room 210,97204 (503)823-4682 randy® portlandoregon.gov
