Street roots
July 6, 2012
Beyond the controversy, the promise of R2DToo lives on
Portland State
University a n d Street
Roots partner each
semester to produce a
Capstone class fo r
P S U students. This
year, one o f the
projects was a visit to
the R ig h t 2 Dream
Too rest area fo r the
homeless in
Downtown Portland.
Here is the students’
reflection on the
people they met there.
BY TRA CY APPLE, AM AN D A SMITH
AND LIN D SA Y STROMQUIST
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R S
n the background at Right 2 Dream Too,
the sound of busy West Burnside traffic
is hard not to notice. But so are the
sounds of laughter, people talking, a
resident’s dog barking at a skateboarder
passing by. Here, on the corner lot of
Northwest Fourth Avenue and Burnside,
lives a mother, a chef, and a jack-of-all-
trades.
Known as a rest area for people
experiencing homelessness, R2DToo serves
as an overnight shelter for between 40 to 60
people on any given night. It also serves as
a temporary home to an additional 30
residents, each with their own backgrounds,
outlooks, and aspirations. It began in
October to become a safe place for people
to rest and to dream at no cost to taxpayers;
a place where people are not judged by their
past or their problems, rather by what they
do now to better themselves and those
around them. As co-founder Ibrahim
Mubarak puts it, “failure is not a sin. But
low aim is.”
Because of code violations, the city has
been fining the property owners, who lease
the site to R2DToo, more than $1,200 a
month. And while that’s attracted the local
news, the real story isn’t in the codes. It’s
in the people.
I
The support of R2D2 helps keep her sober,
she says, and she is working her way to
permanent housing. A home in which her
children might someday come to visit is no
longer out of reach.
Good Taste next door. With a scavenged
television set, an extension cord, and a few
rows of folding chairs, the residents settle in
at the end of their day to watch movies
checked out from the Multnomah County
Library.
The Chef
Small in both stature and ferocity, a
young black and white pit bull by the name
of Paige can often be found lounging in one
of the plastic chairs at the entrance to the
R2DToo rest area, leash dangling from her
collar. Although her owner, Marty Monahan,
has shaved in the last two days, flecks of salt
and pepper stubble are starting to show.
The Jack-of-all-Trades
Every night, Mark Hubbell reads in his
tent by the light of a dim Dollar Store
flashlight. “It’s all I have,” says Hubbell, 51,
who sports a keenly shaved head. A hint of
red in his bushy grey mustache reveals the
hair color of his youth. Before coming to
The Mother
*
Estranged from her family at an early age,
Mama Chewy has been living on the streets
off and on for the better part of the past
decade.
With a sleeveless button up blouse and
chipped purple nail polish on her
fingernails, Mama is a large and jovial
woman. She recalls the first time she heard
about Right 2 Dream Too. It was on the
local news she saw while at a shelter. It was
a godsend. After sleeping in a doorway near
the Skidmore Fountain Building at
Southwest First Avenue and Ankeny, Mama
and her fiancé made a beeline for the area.
There, they found somewhere not only to
sleep safely, but in the comfort of one
another’s arms.
“None of this was here back then. We
started out with nothing.” Mama Chewy sits
contemplatively for a
moment, eyes gazing
out over the neatly
arranged tents divided
y O ll « O H I
I® w o r r y
into groups by well-
about where to lay yoar head groomed gravel
walkways. Though the
at mighty It stakes a ll the
rest area is now a
difference In the world/"'
neatly organized
community, Mama
recalls her first night
at R2DToo as vividly
as if it were yesterday,
sitting atop her suitcase waiting impatiently
for her fiancé to show up with their tent,
drenched in the rain falling upon the empty
gravel lot.
Since coming here in the midst of its
inception, Mama Chewy says she now has
some hope for her future. She is proud to
proud to claim nine months of sobriety. And
although her health problems prevent her
from working, she is now on a waiting list
for four different housing prospects. Now,
having R2DToo as a home base, she has no
trouble eeting regularly with her
caseworker to sort out her post traumatic
stress disorder. Thinking about her future,
Mama Chewy says, “While I appreciate
Right 2 Dream Too, I want more. I want my
own kitchen, my own bedroom, my own
bathroom. My own rules.”
It’s been over 30 years since she has
seen her own mother. At 45, has six
children of her own. Although she gave up
her parental rights years ago, she still
yearns to be reunited with them, hoping
they will find her when they come of age.
Dressed in an oversized flannel shirt and
worn black work boots, the many silver
rings on his fingers reflect the light of the
midday sun. A licensed appraiser, Monahan,
44, had worked in his mother’s antiques
shop. When the business went under, it was
only a matter of months until he blew
through his savings, landing himself on the
streets just one month before he came to
the rest area. He has been at R2DToo since
its inception on World Action Homeless Day.
Before experiencing homelessness first
hand, Monahan is quick to admit, “I used to
be one of those people, you know, driving
by and pointing at all those dirty people
with their dirty signs.”
These days, Monahan is using R2DToo as
a place where he can take some time to find
out who he is, and what he wants to do
next. But for now he is focusing on helping
others in his situation stay safe and well fed.
In addition to being one of several
organizers at Right 2 Dream Too, Monahan
also serves as R2DToo’s resident chef.
Although the makeshift kitchen is open to
anyone that can use a hotplate, many prefer
the artistry of Monahan’s cuisine. He draws
upon more than 15 years of professional
culinary experience to create dishes from
whatever miscellaneous foods may be in
stock. Whether making pasta, soup, or a
simple sandwich, ingredients are at the
whim of a donations stockpile built on the
kindness of others: friends, neighbors,
inspired passersby. Not only is Monahan
willing to cook for those within the rest
area, he often prepares food for those even
less fortunate than himself. Making rounds
throughout the neighborhood - past
doorways and under bridges - Monahan
aims to fill the bellies of anyone in need.
It is also up to Monahan to provide
refreshments every Tuesday night at 8
o’clock for family movie night. These nights
the smell of buttered popcorn competes
with the aroma of roast duck from Chen’s
R2DToo two and a half months ago, Hubbell
was living under the Burnside Bridge. While
the flashlight may be one of his few material
possessions, R2DToo has given Hubbell
something more valuable than worldly
goods: an interim refuge from which to
center himself.
Rising, between 8 and 9 a.m. every day,
Hubbell works hard to help maintain the
way of life the residents have made for
themselves. Drawing on an array of skills
picked up from previous jobs that include
everything from maintenance and
landscaping to firefighting and cooking,
Hubbell can be found doing anything from
repairing overnight tents to patrolling the
outlying area. While on patrol duty, it is up
to Hubbell to clear the surrounding
sidewalks of litter, paint over graffiti, and
notify anyone he might find sleeping out
that there is safe refuge nearby. After
fulfilling his obligations at the rest area,
Hubbell is free to do what he chooses. And
Hubbell is choosing to get off the streets.
“If you don’t have to worry about where
to lay your head at night, it makes all the
difference in the world.” Back when Hubbell
was spending nights under the bridge, he
was beaten and robbed by several men.
With the exhausting threat of violence on
the streets lifted, Hubbell is able to focus on
working with Central City Concern and
Transition Projects, to get his resume in
order while scouting the Internet for work
at the Multnomah County Library. For
Hubbell, finding work is the most important
thing at the moment. He is grateful for
R2DToo, that it gives him a solid foundation.
After he finds work, Hubbell hopes to stay
at the rest area just long enough to save
some money, ensuring his ability to
maintain housing when he finally reaches
that stage. With two daughters in their 20s,
Hubbell hopes to be with them in Arizona ’
within the year.
A scene from
R2D2: A m an
reaches out to help
a friend carry her
things to the train
station en route to
Santa Cruz, Calif,
while a sm all group
o f friends gather
outside the rest area
to say their
goodbyes.
P H O TO BY A M A N D A
S M IT H