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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2014)
7 Street roots Jan. 3, 2014 For th e ¡IDWlKl I A compilation of facts, large and small. about our community Number of lights at ZooLights in 2013:1.5 million Number of acres the Oregon Department of Forestry owns: 16 million Largest donation given through the 2013 Willamette Week GivelGuide: $20,000 Number of organizations receiving donations through 2013 Willamette Week GivelGuide: 130 Number of donors Under 35 who gave at the Willamette Week GivelGuide: 2,065 Total amount raised at the Willamette Week GivelGuide: $2,424,058 Oregon unemployment rate in November: 7,3% National umemployment rate in November: 7% The number of tourists to the Portland Metro Area in 2012:: 8.1 million The money generated in direct spending from tourists in 2012: $4.1 billion. Number of jobs the travel industry supports in the Portland region: 29,200. The amount of money made from those jobs in 2012: $898 million Budget for Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1978: $83 billion Budget for Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2012: 37.4 billion Number of public housing units lost be tween 1995 and 2011:290,588 Number of jail and prison cells created dur ing that same time period: 830,000 Homeless mothers who will experience domestic violence at some point; 90% Number of people living in poverty in the United States: 46.2 million, 15.1 percent of the population. Estimated number of childen who experienced homelessness in 2012: 1,065,794 Homeless camp called Dignity Village unknowly featured in Grand Theft Auto Five BY STAFF REPORTS Dignity Village, Portland’s only sanctioned homeless tent city, unknowingly finds itself featured in the latest version of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game that came out earlier this year. The game has made billions of dollars from sales. There are several scenes depicting the homeless camp. Here are images from the GTA Wiki website. According to the GTA Wiki, a website dedicated to Grand Theft Auto, “Dignity Village is a homeless encampment near Procopio Beach, It is accessible south of Route 1, through a train overpass.” The website describes the characteristics of the camp in the video game as “á few small buildings, with rusty sheet metal fences and shelters, along with multiple tents where people live. Some anti capitalism and revolutionary signs can be found throughout the encampment, with messages like “Capitalism is crisis,” “The revolution will not be televised” or “We are: the poor, the unemployed, in debt, fed up,” among others. The inhabitants will not take kindly to any of the protagonists, and will become aggressive if provoked, or if stood next to for a period of time,” T The website says that there is one gang attack here in the game, describing the enemies as having shotguns, advanced rifles, pistols and SMGs, It says that one letter scrap can be found at the camp in the game.. The actual Dignity Village houses an ¿ estimated 60 individuals and has been held A snapshot o f the Dignity Village in Grand Theft Auto Five. up aCsTa national model le r tent cities in North America. Ironically, one of Dignity Village’s basic rules is “no violence toward yourself or others” along with no stealing. A spokeperson for Dignity Village said they are pursuing the situation with an attorney and will make a formal comment in thè days or weeks ahead. Homeless campers sue ODOT BY STAFF REPORTS The Oregon Law Center has taken up the case of a group of homeless people who say they have been wronged by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) when it cleared out their encampment in Southeast Portland. The suit maintains that the law requires ODOT to provide between 10 and 19 days : notice before removing a homeless encampment and to follow specific protocols for removing and storing personal property removed from the camps. Those protocols Were established in a 2011 settlement 1 involving another group of homeless people also represented by the Oregon Law Center. That case was resolved, according to the center, only because ODOT agreed to change its policies and practices. But according to attorney Monica Goracke, who is prosecuting the suit with the Oregon Law Center, ODOT has since changed its policies, as evidenced by a O ct 3 sweep of a camp at 92nd Avenue and Flavel Street near Johnson Creek. The suit says ODOT now acts under a policy of removing camps with little or no notice under trespass laws, and no longer retains or stores all non-garbage property. The suit names Multnomah County and Sheriff Daniel Staton as defendents, along with ODOT. “I hope the lawsuit will cause ODOT and Multnomah County to follow the law — to provide adequate notice to homeless people before removing their things and take care of the belongings they remove,” Goracke said. The class action suit was brought in behalf of Tammi Carr, Brian Shipley, Ryan Warfield,'Douglas Lohr and Melody Perdew, all homeless individuals who were at the camp when it was swept The suit was filed, yesterday in U.S, District Court ODOT has said it posted warning signs that it planned to d ear personal property from the site three days in advance of the O ct 3 sweep. But the lawsuit says signs were not readable from the camping site. On Oct. 2, an outreach worker toured the camp and told people a sweep was going to happen, but still not everyone knew, the suit claims. As a result, people who were not personally fold of .the sweep did not know it was going to happen and lost their belongings. The property along Johnson Creek has been a regular campsite for people experiencing homelessness for years. It has been cleared out by ODOT on numerous occasions. ODOT has said the sweep was done according to their policies worked out in advance with the Ofegon’s Department of Justice. ODOT maintains the camp was in a trespass zone, cleared under police supervision, and that personal belongings were stored by ODOT for 30 days. The lawsuit claims ODOT’s actions violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. Source: Travel Portland; findthedata.org; 2013 Summary of Legislation Report, Oregon State Legislature; Western Regional Advocacy Project, Pointstreak; GivelGuide Willamette Week; Bureau of Labor Statistics Get the latest news at news.streetroots.org
