Street roots
14
Nov. 25, 2011
Lessons of Occupy camp call for preserving the safety, net
A special editorial from Street Roots:
n spirit, the Occupy Wall Street and
Occupy Portland protests oyer the past
six weeks are about creating social
change, locally and nationally, on a range of
policy matters from poverty to foreign wars.
For better or worse, many of the organic
protests staging camps throughout the
country have gotten a hard dose of reality
about what life is like for hundreds of
thousands of people experiencing
homelessness in the United States.
Prior to the camp sweeps, Occupy
Portland, the media, City Hall, police and
others around town have, more times than
not, keyed in on the mishaps and barriers to
people experiencing mental health and
homelessness at the downtown camps. What
none of the parties have effectively done is
put things into perspective and call on
specific policy changes and resource
development for people experiencing
poverty.
In one of his many communiqués, Mayor
Sam Adams said, “The Occupy Portland
movement has highlighted the challenges
our community, like many across the
country, are facing with homelessness. Too
many in our community are without a safe
place to call home. Despite fiscal challenges,
the city has continued to invest in long-term
solutions to end homelessness.
Commissioner (Nick) Fish and I will be
working closely with our dedicated network
of service providers to make sure everyone
at the camp is aware of the resources that
are available. Experienced outreach workers
will be reaching out to the homeless people
at the camp to help them access existing
resources in our community, like health
care, emergency shelter, permanent housing
I
a s a is ta n œ . an d s h o r t te r m
needs.”
The problem is that adequate resources
do not exist for permanent housing or
PHO TO B Y ISRAEL BAYER
mental health services in our community.
The City of Portland is anticipating
significant federal and local cuts that will
challenge its ability to keep the safety net
intact and provide housing for those most in
need. No doubt, we live in challenging
times. During a period of increased need for
our services, and the people of Portland,
budgets ate declining — seriously declining
for the Portland Housing Bureau.
In fact, if projections are correct, the
city’s essential housing agency is on pace to
lose tens of millions of dollars next year due
to the decline in tax increment financing,
cutset the federal level, and sweeping city
wide cuts of between 4 and 8 percent to all
city b u re a u s. In addition. -Qnertiyie g e n e ra l.
fund dollars allocated for homelessness and
housing services are always one crisis away
from disappearing. The other side of this
coin is unsustairiably high unemployment .
and dwindling support systems to staunch
the flow of tomorrow’s homeless.
The system is teetering. Hence, Occupy
Portland and the call for Social change.
What’s the answer? Nationally, the
Occtipy Wall Street Movement has been met
with mixed results and a growing movement
of people calling the group disorganized,
fractured, and lacking in plans and
objectives. Yet even in the face of apathy
and a conservative backlash, the movement
has inspired close to a million Americans
over six weeks to move their accounts from
larger banking institutions to local credit
unions and coinniunity-owned banks. The
jmoveme^t^ls^mfTu^enced>oA^r^banIdn^>>>>(<i<_
institutions to drop debit card fees, showing
that regardless of all of the white noise,
consumer power still has muscle, even if on
a smaller scale.
Locally, the signs of sùccesS are harder to
pinpoint
City Hall and others have said Occupy
Portland needs à goal, and contrary to the
big picture message, that goal doesn’t have
to be a nationwide sea change to be a
success. There are real solutions within our
reach, within sight of City Hall, and
responsive to the issues Occupy Portland as
amplified.
Here’s what Street Roots thinks the city
and Occupy Portland should work toward:
■ Secure $1 million dollars for rent
assistance this winter, protecting vulnerable
renters from losing their housing. It is
always less costly, and more humane, to
preserve housing than to restore it.
■ Waive thé budget cuts to the Portland
Housing Bureau in the 2012-13 budget due
to the financial, employment and housing
crisis.
■ Guarantee one-time allocations towards
homeless, housing and mental health
services in the 2012-13 budget. There are
thousands of people who are one service •
away from the streets, and countless
services struggling to manage that demand.
■ Loosen the stringent laws around
camping to allow churches and private
businesses to host orderly places for people
to sleep.
■ Work with the-county and state to
develop a strategy to backfill millions of
dollars lost for mental health services.
■ Aggressively pursue a regional strategy
- working with, willing partners at the
federal, state and local levels — to develop
sustainable, long-term resources.
If Occupy Portland and City Hall are both
serious about creating social change and
effecting policyin à healthy environment for
above are what help get us there. Everyone
deserves a safe and decent home. Everyone
deserves opportunity.
Eyes on the Street:
Three years of Street Roots photography
Five Voices
Albina Community Bank
by Aaron Randazzo
430 NW 10th Avenue
Reflecting upon rivers with respect for radical rarities
Lady Violin chants her magical melodies
Delicately dancing and deranging in our dream
She reminds us: not everything is as it seems
Tantalizing the tongue with tales of time
Mistress Mandolin murmurs her mystical rhyme
Enchanted with elderly elegance, eagerly
Salivating for salvation, singing to infinity
Subtly subduing sections of similar symphonies
Lord Piano regulates these emotional epiphanies
Fervently fertilizing these five frivolous voices
His energy gently guides their melodic choices
Foolishly fiddling with flashes of fulfillment
Radiant Flute fills the space, what an instrument
Effortlessly conjuring an echoing stillness
He fills the land, water, mind with bliss
The exhibit highlights the best
original Street Roots
photography over the past
three years, along with portraits
of Street Roots vendors. The
show runs through Nov. 28.
Vibrating in vanity to mock man’s insanity
Humble hymns hint at healing this ill humanity
Their splendor sending our soles with speed
Approaching nowhere, we have arrived indeed
Photographers showcased
include Ken Hawkins, Leah
Nash, Jennifer Janson, Kristina
Keep up with all the news about our vendors,
r articles and the organiz
eet Roots on Facebook!
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■ H U
Wright, Israel Bayer and more.
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