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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2013)
2 street roots Sept. 27, 2013 P B W f t B R2DToo could be good neighbor in the Pearl f l l . . Funding package fo r women essential fo r success he number can stop you in your tracks. 122. It’s six hours before darkness and you’re number 122 on the list to get into the Salvation Army’s emergency women’s shelter. You’re homeless, and you’ve just made a break from your abuser. With the kindness of strangers, a phone, and a safe room you find hope. And then you find out you’re number 122, and that was the one place that actually put you on a list. The other calls to shelters yielded only apologies. That happened just recently at Street Roots. We gave the woman a bus pass to the Gateway Center out at 103rd Avenue. Once on the train, her abuser tried to come at her, but he was kept off long enough until the doors closed. Once at Gateway, a plan forward For too long the city and could begin, but she still county have parsed out had to find her own populations and services, shelter for the night, when a more concerted approach, with streamlined and she eventually stayed at a friend’s processes, would better apartment. It was only serve our community. for the night. We haven’t seen her since, and that was over a week ago. While we hope that she’s moved on, maybe escaped her abuser with distance, we know that she is far from alone. There are nearly 1,000 women sleeping on local streets or in shelters every night, up 22 percent over the last time such a count was conducted in 2011. The city has two women’s shelters with a combined capacity of 154 beds: One has a wait list of 129 women, the other, 209. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman has long-championed women and children in need, with strong advocacy for the Gateway Center and the Children’s Levy. Now with the city’s housing and homeless programs under his watch, Saltzman has brought forth a proposal that takes advantage of the common bonds. Saltzman is implementing a $1.7 million plan that focuses on getting women and families out of homelessness, bypassing the shelter system and reinforcing stable housing. Shelters have their place, but they are overflowing, bottlenecked by a lack of stable housing and funding for people working to get off the streets. It is a sound investment that pays dividends in the lives and families it restores, and the children who grow up in a safe and thriving environment. Fortunately, the first tranche of the money, $300,000, has been approved and directed to the Housing Bureau to get 92 women off the streets and into housing as soon as possible. County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury has also pledged to step up financial support, and together, we trust the city and county can work more closely on the big-picture work ahead. For too long the city and county have parsed out populations and services, when a more concerted approach, with streamlined processes, would better serve our community. The urgency for ramping up consolidated efforts is ever present. This past week, Portland police investigated a case of a 19-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted by a stranger while sleeping in her friend’s car. It was after 3 a.m., on the inner Eastside. The suspect fled and remains at large. No women should be so vulnerable. We have programs that work, and work well given the resources. We hope to see the city and county work together for everyone’s future success. T understood. I don’t care if your income is or many, the Pearl District represents zero. You live in the Pearl, you must be a neighborhood on the rise — a rich. It doesn’t matter. You’re never going shining example of how to plan urban to win the argument. Everybody starts from growth, public transportation, sustainability, nothing. We all started from nothing. We parks and the have great empathy. environment. The list “We’ve been really clear that we want goes on. Add a bustling long-term solutions for housing,” Gardner food and art scene, a says passionately. “The city is going to growing tech spend money to put this camp here. The community, and a By Israel Bayer money could go to build something else, neighborhood that something real that actually solves the prides itself on walking problem. We want to solve the problem and and cycling, the light Israel Bayer is the executive director o f to not just have Band-Aids. It rains in hp>crinc tn s h in p PVPn Street Roots. You can Oregon, so lets live in a tent — like, bad brighter. reach him at idea.” Where else in Portland does the luxury israel@streetroots. org I don’t even know where to start. of life blossom more than in the Pearl or follow him on Let’s start with politics. For the record, Twitter @israelbayer. District? The Pearl District is a there are thousands of people violating land neighborhood where ideas and innovations use rules and laws in our city every single can be developed, crafted and supported. night who are homeless. Essentially, nearly The neighborhood is home to both the rich two thousand people in our city are “illegal” and the poor. Twenty-two percent of the because they have no home or shelter. No neighborhood’s rental units are dedicated law can or will change the fact that we have to low-income housing. It supports nearly a a massive shortage of affordable housing dozen Street Roots vendors day in and day and that we have human beings who are out and has a strong philanthropic spirit. enduring unimaginable living conditions It’s home to Powell’s Books. Need I say because of their homelessness. more? Gardner is spot on in thinking that we That’s why I was extremely disappointed have to work towards long-term solutions when I heard that the people representing for housing. The question then becomes one of the most successful and affluent who is responsible for taking care of those neighborhoods in Portland would be so who will sleep outside tonight? The politics quick to shoot down the idea of welcoming surrounding that question are many, but Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo), a tent city one thing is for certain, people do live and created by people experiencing die on our streets. There’s no getting homelessness. around it. Within a week of the news breaking that The idea that somehow that landowners, the city and R2DToo had reached an developers and residents in the Pearl have agreement on a piece of property in the somehow been wronged and are actually Pearl owned by the Portland Development the victims of the lack of public process Commission, the neighborhood association doesn’t hold much water. Few earmarked $10,000 from its rainy-day fund to pay for legal services to fight the city and neighborhoods in Portland have benefited - so much from public input and support. R2DToo’s effort to move into the According to the Portland Development neighborhood. Commission, from 2000-13 there has been An audio recording of the Pearl District’s $260.3 million in public investment that’s Neighborhood Association’s meeting on WHAT DO gone to support the River District or the Sept. 12 was given to Street Roots. YOU THINK? Pearl. With that kind of public support, it’s Patricia Gardner, the Pearl District’s ridiculous that the Pearl Neighborhood neighborhood chair, led spirited testimony Send letters to the Association and other larger players are on why the camp doesn’t belong in the editor to Street screaming foul. Please. Pearl District. Roots, 211 N W Davis Let’s talk about R2DToo for a moment. After the passage of the resolutions to Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. allocate money to fight the camp, Gardner St., Portland, OR Pete Simpson told me recently, “Central went on to say, “What we want to do is 97209, or e-mail to Precinct officers report that R2DToo has focus in on the politics. That’s the quickest joanne@streetroots.org. not been a problem for police as it seems and easiest way to get rid of this.” Gardner told the crowd. “My opinion is self-managed.” that their lawyer at the city is telling them Self-managed. Isn’t that at the heart of to avoid process so they don’t open up. the American community? A group of That’s our challenge moving forward.” individuals working to better their lives, “What we’ve been telling people to do is regardless of their circumstances. write to their commissioners,” says Like them or not, R2DToo is an example Gardner. “Let’s talk about the lack of of a group of people experiencing public process, the lack of following their homelessness that are pulling themselves own laws. That’s really the root of the issue up by the bootstraps. They may not be here.” providing the living conditions that most Gardner goes on to talk about the Portlanders might consider healthy, or that neighborhood being the victim in this Gardner or some politicians speak of, but process, “Because of the misunderstanding believe me, the conditions at R2DToo are of this neighborhood, we will never be F See R2DToo, page 3 Executive Director Israel Bayer Street Roots 211 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax: 503-227-3117 streetroots.org news.streetroots.org israei@streetroots.org Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel coie@streetroots.org Operations Director Sarah Beecroft Program Assistant Grace Badik, Jesuit Volunteer, grace@streetroots.org Development Director Sarah Cloud Office Assistant Amber Bielman Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Nathan Gilles, Sue Zalokar Photographers Kristina Wright, Christopher Onstott Volunteers Mary Pados, Jan Bayer, Ann Ereline, Vinnie Kinsella, Ann-Derrick Caillot, Joe Thick, Stacey Heath, Taurin Skinner-Macginnis, Bethany Hague, Michelle Holbert, John Lisifka, Raven Canoles, Michelle Breslau, Paula Cracas, Sharron Thompson, John Barker, Mary Locke Street Roots Rose City Resource Street Roots publishes the Rose City Resource, a comprehensive booklet of services for people experiencing homelessness and poverty. To inquire about getting guides, call 503-228-5657. Resources are also available online at www.rosecityresource.org. goes directly to the vendor Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.
