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Street roots
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Nov. 11 2011
Keeping a healthy voice in the comunity
EDIT
treet Roots is proud partners with the
Willamette Week GivelGuide and 100
Portland nonprofits working to make
the world we live in a better place. From
now until the end of the year, a donation at
■ the GivelGuide means
getting some great
incentives and helping
B
support Street Roots.
S
lim e to revisit innovative
camp options for the streets
amping is a necessary evil for people experiencing
homelessness and poverty throughout the city. It’s not
a substitute for adequate housing.
The City of Portland is faced with a series of unusual
circumstances related to people sleeping outdoors. Occupy
Portland has taken over two city blocks using its First
Amendment rights to protest a myriad of issues facing our
city and nation — including some of the very issues the group
itself is facing — mental health, homelessness and poverty.
At the same time, a group of 70 people experiencing
homelessness have taken root on NW Fourth Avenue and
Burnside. Concerning camping and orderly conduct, the
group on Burnside is more seasoned on how to run a camp
and has created strict
No amount of camping guidelines determining
whether or not individuals
guidelines or pilot
are allowed to stay on the
programs will replace
property.
having a safe and
All of this happens while
stable home. Housing
a backdrop of more than
Is about opportunity.
1,700 individuals sleep
It's about being able to outdoors in the Portland
create healthy living
area without adequate
shelter or housing. Once
environments for all
again, the issue of
Portlanders.
camping, or having a safe
night’s sleep, has arrived
on the doorstep of Portland’s City Hall.
For nearly 20 years, homeless advocates, business interests
and City Hall have all worked together and battled it out on
how best to deal with people on the streets concerning public
and private space. It’s not altogether the city’s fault for the
circumstances it finds itself in. Billions of dollars in federal
cuts to housing and homeless services have battered local
governments from being able to solve the issue of
homelessness. It’s also not lost on us that many of the very
0
DESK
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him at israel@
streetroots.org
O d e to t h e T r a v e le r
By Jon C ornelison
Somewhere in the depths of the city,
Another dead bird lies across a traveler’s path.
People wandering listlessly.
People loving each other,
People killing each other.
All varieties of life trying to coexist somewhat,
All varieties of illicit drugs being taken,
The A.I. keeps writing laws that the people keep breaking.
F lo a tin g vide<*> c a m e r a s t h e s iz e o f flie s.
same reasons Occupy Portland is protesting — foreclosures,
bank bailouts, corporate welfare and other issues — are also
tied to broken federal policies that are crippling the American
people.
It’s time for a change, if even a minor change in the way we
deal with people sleeping outdoors. Long after the Occupy
Portland group packs up, be it next week or next year,
thousands of people will remain on our streets, needing a
place to sleep and simply be.
Street Roots recommends revisiting the idea of letting
churches and private property owners allow people to camp
on church property in small groups. We also support the idea
of an organized group of people on the streets, like Right 2
Dream Too, to be able to practice their civil rights alongside
others.
It’s time that the city created camping guidelines that gave
the Portland Police Bureau and other law enforcement
agencies — along with people on the streets — clear directives
about what is allowed and what isn’t concerning sleeping
outdoors without a home.
Clearly, no amount of camping guidelines or pilot programs
will replace having a safe and stable home. Housing is about
opportunity. It’s about being able to create healthy living
environments for all Portlanders. It’s about doing the right
thing and being fiscally responsible. Creating change around
how we work with people on the streets is the first step in
making a safer city for all.
(See the back page
for more details.)
B y Israel B ayer
We can’t do it
alone. We are living in
both inspiring and
difficult times. Local unemployment
continues to hover at 10 percent and
homelessness is on the rise. Three hundred
and 65 days a year Street Roots works to
take proactive measures to meet this reality
head on.
Like many, we are doing more with less.
Still, we’re not backing down from the
challenges that face our community. On the
contrary, we are working through the
vendor program, the newspaper and the
Rose City Resource to bring solution-based
methods to hundreds of people working to
survive and maintain their quality of life.
With your help, we’re going to push even
harder. In the coming year, we will continue
to maintain professional investigative
journalism. We will bring issues of poverty
to the forefront of our community. We will
share the stories of organizations and
individuals working to make the region a
better place. We will continue to highlight
the voices from people who have been
battered by the recession. We will work to
create solutions on a larger scale in our
community, while giving low-income
individuals and families a hand up.
Street Roots has built something special.
Your support will ensure that Street Roots
remains a healthy voice in our community —
changing the lives of both individuals and
families experiencing poverty and
connecting people who want to do
something about i t Together, we are
making real difference by creating systemic
change in our community.
Thank you for your support!
...
..... .......
The beast is watching with a million eyes.
Turn your head to the side,
Put your ear to the ground.
You’ll hear the hum of the earth,
Sometimes quiet, sometimes loud.
Like a djembe drum, the beat is slowly building,
The more you wander, the more it calls your name,
The wanderlust keeps growing,
You will never be the same.
Learning to shake off the rust,
Words like: love, heartbreak, tru st
You can still conjure up the smells of the fresh night air.
The stars you grew up under, the trees who told your secrets, the creeks you followed.
“Never forget,” you tell yourself.
Sometimes finding yourself longing for a hermit’s life;
A bit sooner than you expected.
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Send letters to the editor to the Street Roots office, 211 NW Davis
Portland, OR 97209, or e-mail to joanne@streetroots.org.
Our mission
Staff
Board of Directors
Vendors
Street Roots creates income opportunities for
people experiencing homelessness and poverty by
producing a newspaper and other media that are
catalysts for individual and social change.
Executive Director Israel Bayer
Bruce Anderson (Chairman), Michael Anderson (Vice-
chairman), Heather Stadick (Treasurer), Eddy Barbosa
(Secretary), Rich Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes,
Ken Hawkins
Street Roots vendors buy the newspapers for 25 cents
each and sell them for $1, keeping the 75 cents in
profit for themselves, in order to keep the cost low to
our vendors, we receive additional support from
donations and in-ki nd contributions.
Street Roots publishes every tw o weeks, launching
on Fridays, arid is available exclusively through our
street vendors or by subscription. W e are proud
members of the North American Street
Newspaper Association and the International
Network of Street Papers.
Street Roots
211 NW Davis St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax:503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.streetroots.wordpress.com
israel@streetroots.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuh I
joanne@streetroots.org
Vendor Coordinator Becky M ullins
. becky@streetroots.org
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Program Assistant Cole Merkel
cole@streetroots.org
Grant Writer Sarah Cloud
Accountant Heather Stadick
Reporters Am anda W aldroupe, Stacy Brownhill,
Jake Thomas
Photographers Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, Jennifer
jansons, John Ryan Brubaker
Intern Liz Fosteer
Volunteers
Christine Gadeholt, Mary Pacios, Leo Rhodes, Jan
Bayer, Eiiese Baker, Sue Zalokar, Tave Drake,
Michael M oore
Street Roots Rose City Resource
Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a
comprehensive booklet o f services for people
experiencing homelessness and poverty.
To inquire about getting an order of the Rose City
Resource fo r distribution; please write to
pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also
available online at wwW.rosecityresource.org.
75c
goes di reedy to the vendor
who sold you the paper
25c
goes toward
printing costs
Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday,
W ednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.