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street roots
April 11, 2014
Keep the presses ro llin g — every week, with your support!
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Safety Net a lesson on the
w ork to be done
coking at the numbers of homeless people
struggling these days, the people unable to get
adequate health care, or the job services to get
them back on their feet, it would be easy to say that our
social-service systems don’t work.
But it would be wrong.
The systems are working. People are getting help,
getting back into housing, back to health arid stability, but
they are beyond capacity and underfunded at both state
and national levels.
The case of Safety Net of Oregon and the human fallout
from its closure sheds light on the fragility of one such
system. As the largest representative payee in Oregon,
Safety Net provided a valuable service to people by
managing Social
Security payments on
In the public dialogue
their behalf, ensuring
about homelessness and
that rent was paid, the
poverty, talk runs between
utilities stayed up to
emotions and statistics,
date arid their daily
often with little room for
financial fieeds were
productive discussion
about the real mechanics
met. For most of our
that push people to the
readers, the payee
edge.
system may seem an
unusual and unfamiliar
necessity, but for thousands of Oregonians it is an
essential service of financial management that, for
mental, physical or circumstantial conditions, is beyond
their capacity.
When Safety Net closed, under the weight of a federal
investigation of financial mismanagement, its 1,000
clients were left with only a few weeks to regroup and
find a replacement. As of April 1, they would be on their
I
own.
It is unfortunate that it took a lawsuit by Disability
Rights Oregonand the Oregon Law Center, and a judge’s
'agafflSTTHb' Sbc'i^r'SSfcili!1 i i ^ * w-******i'
Admitiistration, to prompt the proper outreach and
corrective measures. With that, the agency has stepped
up its efforts to connect with form erclients, those who
could not be reached by rnere bureaucratic notices in the
mail, or who are unable to process the information upon
re ce ip t We have hope, with local social service agencies
at work, that they will all be paired with new payees as
soon as possible.
In the public dialogue about homelessness arid poverty,
talk runs between emotions and statistics, often with
little room for productive discussion about the real
mechariics that push people to the edge. The story of-
Safety Net lays that bare.
Nan Roman; the president and CEO of the National
Alliance to End Homelessness, writes in this edition ,
about a time when we didn’t have the massive .numbers of
people experiencing hom elessness that we have today.
When it comes to homelessness, We know what to do, but
we don’t do enough of it and we don’t do it long enough,
she says. And unless we get unlimited resources, she
adds, we don’t do it efficiently enough.
She also noted that, with the right systems in place,
nearly 80 percent of people who experience
hom elessness get back ori their feet. Programs do work,
but we have to be vigilant when they fad. Safety Net’s
collapse was an incident, but this kind of failure can
impact people for the rest of their lives.
and stability have everything to do with
id you know Street Roots is working
Street Roots. They are my family. They are
towards going weekly? It’s a big deal.
my loye.”
Going weekly will mean stabilizing
your neighborhood vendor’s income. It will Street Roots is love. Street Roots takes on
and covers some of the most complex and
mean fostering more relationships between
intense issues fating opr community, yet still,
people experiencing poverty and the general
it’s about love. It’s about connection and self-
public. It will mean more quality journalism
worth. It’s about overcoming obstacles and
and voices from thé
working together. It’s about being a team /
community. It will
player and searching for solutions. It’s about
mean supporting
making individual and social change in bur
Street
Roots
to
be
D IR E C T O R 'S
community.
strategic and bold in
DESK
This spring offers readers a chance to
the work we do on the
double your impact with a gift to Street
poverty front. A
By Israel Bayer
Roots. We encourage you to give a one-time
stronger Street Roots
or ongoing donation online at www.
means a stronger
streetroots.org. You dan also send a check to
social justice
211 NW Davis, Portland, OR. 97209.
community in Portland. k
“Thank god for this paper,” says Louis, a
A new and generous donor believes so
Street Roots vendor. “If I didn’t have this
much in Street Roots going weekly she has
paper I’d probably perish. This paper’s a big
offered to match your donation in April up to
help, let me tell you. A big help.”
$10,000. That’s amazing! We’re asking ‘
Your donations will go towards creating
readers to give a donation this spring to help
real change in our community. Your donation
us on our jourriey towards weekly.
will mean making Street Roots strong. Your
“I’m going to stay awake all night tonight
donation will mean allowing Street Roots to
and look orit the windows to make sure this
dream big. We can’t thank you enough.
is not a dream,” says Charles, a Street Roots
vendor who obtained housing. “My housing
Israel Bayer is the
executive director
.
Street Roots. You can
reach h im a t
israel@streetroots.org
or follow him on
Twitter @israelbayer.
LETTER
Kudos (and a correction) fo r work on Social Security benefit problems
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Send letters to the
editor to the Street
NW Davis St,
Portland, OR 97209,
or e-mail to joanne®
streetroots.org
lawyer can earn, it would not be possible to .
practice in this area of law and do that. What
I do js limit myself to 12 hearings a month,
so that I can consult with clients’ physicians,
prepare legal briefs on their behalf and above
all, spend time preparing my clients for
hearings.
..... min m t i -^Lbmz^-nhserv^H many
applaud Street Roots for the article
“Checks and imbalances” in the March 14
edition. As a social security disability
lawyer who sees firsthand the misery that
many folks endure while they wait two years
(and longer) to be approved for benefits, I ?
have been dismayed by the media emphasis
S
q u e s t io n a b le a p p r o v a l, I c a n s h o w y o u t e n
representatives from disability mills meeting
folks who should have been approved and
whose health and lives deteriorate while they
appeal wrongful denials of benefits to which
they are legally erititled.
I do want to correct one factual error: the
article reported that I take only 12 cases a
year in order to provide quality
representation. I wish that were possible but
because the law severely limits how much a
their clients for the first time at the hearings
office, and I feelsorry for those clients.
No attorney would be reluctant to
represent a disabledindividual, no matter
how challenging his case. It’s representing
those who are not truly disabled that .
attorneys like me refuse to do.
CHERYL COON
Swanson, Thomas, Coon & Newton
T h u m p in g H e a r t
by Alex LaFollette
Anything to keep alive
Stay breathing for morning's light
We are hot, we are still
The Devil’s one last kill
The gears they move
Moving is more to do
Anything to keep alive
In the pity we make our stride
Keep your hand in my hand
Grourid is rough, but it still is land
Forbidden apple from the tree
Guess my hunger got the best of me
Anything to keep alive
Anger knows how to dive
Moon with its eyes on me
I finally am learning to see
Night is brighter than days of death
Broken and cold and out of breath
Anything to keep alive
One thing we must do right
Our mission
Staff
Board of Directors
V a a tfiA n e
Street Roots creates income opportunities for
people experiencing homelessness and poverty by
producing a newspaper and other media that are
catalysts for individual and social change. • ■
Executive Director Israel Bayer
Bruce Anderson (Chairman), Michael Anderson (Vice-
Street Roots vendors buy the newspapers for 25 cents '
each and sell them for $1,keeping the 75 cents in ' '
profit for themselves, in order to keep the cost low to .
our vendors, we receive additional support from
donations and in-kind contributions.
- ’
'
Street Roots publishes every two weeks, launching
on Fridays, and is available exclusively through our
street vendors or by subscription. We are proud
members of the International Network of Street
Papers.
Street Roots
211 NW Davis St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax: 503-227-3117
streetroo1s.org
news.streetroots.org
»
UaRagtog Editor Joanne Zuhl
joanne@streetroots.org
,
Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel
cole@streetroots.org
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Program Assistant Grace Badik, Jesuit Volunte
grace@streetroots.org
Development Director Sarah Cloud
Office Assistant Amber Bielman
Reporters Jake Thomas, Alex Zielinski, Nathan
Gilles, Sue Zalokar, Ann-Derrick Galliot
Photographers Kristina Wright, Christopher
Onstott
Darren Alexander, Amber Bielman
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, Lisa Waldo, Elizabeth Tierney, Rob
Shryock, Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Stacey Heath, Vinnie
Kinselta, Michelle Breslau, Paula Cracas, John Barker,
Mary Locke, Lucas Manfield, Jessie Carver, Cherie
Vedal, Sam Bouman, John Yohe, Isaac Hastings
Hauss, Emily Green
Street Boots Bose City Besource
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.
J S -
goes directly to the vendor
who sold you the paper
3
goes toward
printing costs
Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.