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street roots
July 6, 2012
EDITORIAL
Summertime offers so many opportunities
I
Whitten keeps stirring the
pot on housing justice
ore than a month into his hunger strike, Cameron
Whitten has maintained his campaign against
housing injustice for longer than many people
probably expected.
But then Whitten has never been one to bend to
conventional expectations.
The former mayoral candidate is using his Occupy-backed
celebrity to draw attention to homelessness and call for
housing justice. And attention is what he’s getting. He has
been camping outside City Hall since early June, and has
attracted followers to his
cause, usingw the stage to
Whitten's response is to
talk about the issues.
rebel against the shoulder-
He has three requests of
shrugging resignation of
the city. The first is to
another summer with
withdraw the fines against
homelessness.
the owners of the lot
leased by Right 2 Dream
Too, a homeless overnight
rest area. The city is fining the owners more than $1,200 a
month for code infractions. The second request is the put a
housing levy measure on the November ballot, something
the city has abandoned in the wake of other failed levy
attempts. The third request by Whitten is for the
Multnomah County Sheriff to issue a one-year moratorium
on home foreclosures in the county. In varying form, all of
these concerns have validity. Right 2 Dream Too needs
support, not sanctions. The foreclosure crisis has
devastated families, and the city has to find another,
sustainable funding stream for low-income housing.
While several city commissioners, including the mayor,
have talked with Whitten at his 24-hour sidewalk camp, they
have shown no signs of moving forward to accommodate his
requests.
But something else is happening here.
You can fault him for not having the answers to the
problem, or using tactics that you might not agree with. But
who among us has the solution we all want to hear? Neither
passersby nor the occupants of the corner offices in City
Hall have put forward definitive answers to the constant
stream of people hitting the streets. Despite Portland’s
progress in getting people into housing, getting people
sober, employed and off the streets, our ultimate success is
undermined by economic stagnation, joblessness, housing
costs and regressive attitudes toward people who are down
and out. Our response as a city is measured more by how
we react to this landscape than our ability to change the
landscape altogether.
Whitten’s response is to rebel against the shoulder-
shrugging resignation of another summer with
homelessness. It’s not about the list of unmet demands, or
the sideshow atmosphere that flares up around these kinds
of campaigns. It’s about presence - and sacrifice. This
effort, and the many before it, remind us that behind the
rhetoric on homelessness and interm ittent coverage in the
media, there beats a real passion to call out the injustice in
housing, and work to improve the lives of people who lack
shelter, safety, health care and hope. It takes community to
bring it all together, and that’s what Whitten is building -
through social media and in the press. People are talking,
and even that helps move the ball forward.
t’s summertime, and for many people on
the streets, including Street Roots
vendors sleeping outside, it makes for a
challenging time of year. We all know winter
can be a tough for people on the streets, but
summer brings its own
set of issues. For many
people, it means
bedding down hours
later than they
normally would, and
staying hydrated
By Israel Bayer
becomes essential.
■■■ m b h h h h m h
For Street Roots
vendors, being able to
maintain a stable
income means everything. Your support of
the vendor program and newspaper allows
vendors to be able to be independent day-in
and day-out, giving people on the streets
much needed resources to be able to end
their homelessness. Having money can mean
having a healthy meal and getting a hotel for
the night. It may mean being able to sustain
oneself indoors, or the ability to put down
-J
n/A-rr,
M
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him a t israel@
streetroots.org
Street Roots serves people with all kinds
of backgrounds and circumstances. Some
people sell the newspaper for daily survival,
while others are using the sales of the
newspaper to maintain a small flat or cover
basic health care costs. Your support of the
vendors allows people to have a hand up, and .
gives hope to individuals and families who
have found themselves on the fringes.
We know how much vendors appreciate
their regular customers and developing new
relationships with Portlanders. If you are
hosting friends or family this summer,
introduce them to your local vendor. If you
have a break room or lobby at your place of
work, share a copy of the paper for others to
read. The biggest barrier Street Roots faces
in the community is people believing that the
newspaper is a paper for the homeless and
not the entire community. You can help
change this, and in the process continue to
help people change the way we address
poverty in our community. The social change,
literally, is in your pocket. From all of us at
Street Roots, thanks for the love.
Editorial on free rail zone loss strikes chord
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Send letters to the
editor to the Street
Roots office, 211 NW
Davis St., Portland,
OR 97209, or by
e-mail to joanne®
streetroots.org.
accountability to citizens, yet has a power of
taxation, policing, and legislation.
It is time for the citizens to fight back
and eliminate TriMet. The state law already
riMet decided to double contingency
provides for a takeover of TriMet by Metro,
funds from $10 million to $20 million
and we all need to pressure Metro to
this year, citing concerns about the ongoing assume control over the regional transit
labor dispute. TriMet expects, nevertheless,
system, which would not only bring
that not all of that $20 million would be
accountability to our public transit, but also
spent on employee health insurance and
would save taxpayer money by reducing the
pensions. Indeed, some of the $20 million
overlapping layers of regional bureaucracy.
would, ostensibly, be used to administer a
-S A R A H MORRIGAN
grant program that allows qualified social
service agencies to distribute free tickets to
hen a certain mental health company
their clients.
gave me a job and I moved to Portland
Had TriMet lowered the contingency fund
then yanked it away in less than three
to $15 million, it could have easily saved
months, I depended on Fareless Square. I
both the free rail zone and student passes,
got my groceries, etc. Every time I went on
each of which costs under $2.5 million a
a job interview it was $5 for a day pass.
year, while still reasonably covering the
Thank you, TriMet for making Portland a
possible liabilities for funding employee
city out of reach for us now.
benefits when TriMet loses the arbitration.
-C O N N IE SEYMOUR
This has never been about TriMet’s fiscal
crisis. TriMet and the City of Portland’s war
’ve always found it sadly ironic that
on free rail zone/Fareless Square has been
Portland has invested a lot of time and
continuing for years. In 2008 it attempted
money to provide a safety net for green
to eliminate the Fareless Square, only to
spaces, but the safety net for people is
encounter a popular opposition from
practically gone.
citizens. In 2009 it once again attempted to
-M A R IL Y N JOHNSON
eliminate Fareless Square, this time using
the opening of the Green/Yellow lines as an
areless Square going away was worse, in
excuse for ending free bus services. At the
my view. Portland was famous for it.
same time, TriMet also tried to end free
But, what the (Portland Business Alliance)
service in the evening (failed) and also to
change the free zone boundaries from Lloyd wants, the PBA gets, no m atter how
harmful it is to the health of Portland’s
Center to Convention Center (failed)....
(TriMet General Mananger) Neil
cultural or civil society as a whole. I’ve
McFarlane presided over the worst service
never forgiven them for killing off Artquake,
cuts and worst fare increases in TriMet’s
which was the most awesome thing
history. The TriMet board, appointed by the
Portland ever spawned during my life here.
governor at his pleasure, has no
- KATIE BRETSCH
Many o f you wrote in on our editorial on
the loss o f the free rail zone (Street Roots, June
22). Here are a few o f the responses:
T
W
I
F
Mary Pacios, Leo Rhodes, Jan Bayer, Eliese Baker,
Sue Zalokar, Michael Moore, Robert Britt, Cynthia
Kiehl, Hannah Schultz, Robyn Wirkes, Shannon
la ttin
Street Roots Rose City Resource
Street Roots
211 NW Davis St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax: 503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.streetroots.wordpress.com
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 for distribution, please write to
pdxrosecityresource@gmail.com. Resources are also
available online at www.rosecityresource.org.
goes directly to the vendor
who sold you the paper
Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office