6
street roots
June 10,2011
Bud Clark Commons
grand opening
eo Rhodes, Street Roots poet, vendor
and board member, reads his poem
» -J** the opening of the Bud Clark
Commons on June 2. Below, Housing
Commissioner Nick Fish, former mayor
Bud Clark and Doreen Binder, executive
director of Transitions Projects Inc., which
will operate the 90-bed shelter and drop-in
center in the new building, cut the ribbon
on the new seven-story building.
Poet Barry Sanders also read at the
ceremony. His poem is below.
The event broke the seal on the $47
million project that provides 130 units of
low- or no-income permanent housing for
people who are experiencing
homelessness. It also has space for 90 .
shelter beds. The first residents are
expected to move in at the end of the.
month.
, The housing portion of the building will
be managed by Home Forward, formerly
the Housing Authority of Portland.
Transition Projects, which is relocating to
the building from it’s Glisan Street site,
will manage the 90-bed shelter and day -
center operations.
The building, at the corner of Hoyt and
Broadway, across from Union Station, is
unique in combining permaneht housing
with a shelter and drop-in shelter. With
Transition Projects Inc.
located in the building, it
is hoped that people will
be able to access more
services through a single
location.
The $47 millioh project
was first envisioned in
the 10-year plan to end
homelessness, drawn up
by the city and
Multnomah County in
2005. After some legal
challenges on the use of
urban renewal funds, the
project broke ground last
year and will begin
housing people later this
month.
T
|P * \ ' :
t
P H O T O S B Y (SR A EL B A Y E R
Untitled
By Barry Sanders
An African proverb says,
When an old man dies
A library bums to the ground.
And when an old woman dies,
I say,
»«»A-sehoof hum s to the ground. **
And when a child dies,
Well,?
A church, a synagogue, a mosque,
All burn down to the ground.
And when anyone utters the truth,
Speaks out for the poor, the powerless,
The forgotten,
For those too tired, too tattered, to care
(anymore)
It’s a symphony,
A great clap of thunder,
A thousand voices chanting their own favorite
word.
And when justice gets tipped into balance,
And the sky opens,
So that even the rain feels so cool and pure,
Then we all sigh
Like birds of paradise,
Our souls ablaze
Our tongues on fire
And no one dies.
No one ever tweets true love
No one cries in email time -
No one faces the facts on Facebook.
We sing,
We enchant
We touch each other.
Like waiters doing the best they know,
We say, justice is served -
But what?
A good meal?
A rich dessert?
She is blind, after all -
What can she taste?
School’s back in session
A new mission opens its doors
Justice can see again.
We mean:
Look - in the deep hollow of the dark
Night,
Through the fires.
Justice extends a hand
Singed and slightly'scarred,
But a hand.clearly extended;
Through the flames and the ashes
A hand,
And we can do nothing
At tubes,
Nothing
But grab,
Grab that oh so steady,
Oh so blinded hand.
We mean:
Look closely in the smallest cracks
In the meanest streets,
Grass roots grow.
We are alllost.
We are all homeless.
We all stand uncommon
In the chat of the commons.
We hold*outhands
To hold out hope.
Being Human?
By Leo Rhodes
I am the voice you never hear
If I spoke would you listen?
I am the ugly duckling
Visible in your pretty little world
I am the criminal when I try to sleep
I am the nuisance
Trying to keep dry out of the rain
I am the homeless person
Looking for dignity and a safe secure place
Sometimes,
Just sometimes
Help is not a four-letter word
But means what it means to say:
Give
Take
Soul
Gift
Play
Sing
Care
Feel
Love
Nick
Fish.
We mean:
Look - the books, they’re back in the library
Visitors mill about the dropin day center portion of the new Rud r i