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