street roots
2
S e p t 26, 2014
ED ITO RIA L
Plans come and go, but progress needs sustainability
S tate should support innovative
program s to house students
< | ^ihere were nearly 3,200 unaccompanied minor .
students in Oregon schools in the 2012-13 school'
J L year, according to the Department of Education.
But those numbers only represent the children
reported to the department by their school district’s
homeless liaison. And like most figures associated with
a population encouraged to hide, the actual number is
expected to be much higher.
That’s an appalling figure in the land of milk and
honey, where resources run rich for some, and wither
for others.
One example is the Host Home Project, featured in
this edition. Host Home is a partnership between the
North Clackamas School District and the nonprofit
homeless program called The Inn. Together, they have
networked to secure
housing for
For want of $ 1 5 ,0 0 0 a
unaccompanied
year, these homeless
homeless students in
youths, living without a
the district. It’s a very
guardian, w ill be left
small operation on a
out in the cold.
shoestring budget,
able to serve only a
small fraction of the nearly 70 known unaccompanied
youths in the district
Just at a time when The Inn was ready to serve m ore,.
to help more young students get into a home, the state
rescinded its pledge of a five-year grant of $75,00.0.
citing an error in the scoring process. The state will
continue funding The Inn through October, but the’
nonprofit missed the window for reapplying for the
nominal county grant that had previously supported the
project.
For want of $15,000 a yearr these^homeless-^outhsy—
living without a guardian} will be left out in the cold.
The odds wilTremain stacked against them in
completing their education to graduation and escaping
the trauma of the streets and social isolatiori. But
apparently the state is willing to take that gamble with
its money.
What it should be doing is tapping resources to
support innovative, low-cost programs that have a direct
impact on the survival and success of young students.
And the Host Home Project is only one example.
The Beaverton School District has the most reported
unaccompanied students in the state, nearly twice as
many as the runner-up, Eugene. The district’s homeless
liaison, the city arid the faith-based community there
formed a partnership to house an average of 10 to 12
students each year — all for only $20,000 a year and
none of it from the school district’s coffers. It’s a model
program that places students in the homes of host
families. It means not only housing, but also a secure
family environment. It means help with homework and
dealing with pee'r pressure. It means learning how to be
a good student, and aspiring to be much more.
That’s where Oregon in all its bureaucratic forms —
housing education and human services — should put its
money to see real returns.
Israel Bayer is the
executive, director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him at
israel@streetroots.org
or follow him on
Twitter @israelbayer.
e story of ending people’s
homelessness in otir community and
the country over the past 30
JL around
ar
years is so dysfunctional it’s hard to explain
to the general public what’s worked and what
hasn’t worked.
A little history
might help. Between
the years of 1979 and
1983 more $54 billion
were cut from federal
affordable housing
projects. We never got
that money back. In
fa<^t, the cuts just kept
coming, forcing local communities to carry
the burden of ending homelessness for 30
plus years now.
Mayors and elected officials who campaign
on ending their city’s homelessness come
and go. Bureaucrats and advocates working
to end homelessness come and go. National
strategies to help build the political will to
end homelessness lay strung out in political
graveyards from Washington D.C. to
Portland. It’s frustrating, ta say the lea st
I’m not saying we should all throw our
hands in the air and stop working to end
homelessness. Anyone who reads this
column and Street Roots knows we’re
constant optimists regardless of the.
challenges we face. We know housing equals
opportunity. We also know it’s cheaper to
house someone than i t is to let individuals or
families remain homeless.
HomelessneSs is the result of outside
forces related to numerous realities. The
recession, the war, the health care system, a
broken foster care, mental health and justice
system, domestic violence — the list goes on
and on. Regardless of what your crazy uncle
might have told you about people choosing to
he homeless — that’s Simply not the case.
T venevef m<^t anybrib in my life'ihar Woke^~"
up one day and said, “I want to be
homeless.” It simply doesn’t happen.
Our community is in the process of
unveiling Home For Everyone: A United Plan
to End Homelessness for Portlahd and
Multnomah County. In layman’s terms, it’s a
plan to bring together the community to
oversee an array of complex services to help
deliver the best outcomes for ending
individual and family homelessness in our
region.
Before the Home For Everyone plan you
may remember the Bush Administrations
10-yearplan to end homelessness. Before
that there was the Clinton five-year plan to
end homelessness. The reality is that there
have been a lot of plans to end homelessness
since the 1980s.' *
Needless to say, I’m a bit skeptical about
the new plan. Call me crazy, but it’s one of
the reasons I accepted the opportunity to
serve on the board for Home For Everyone.
I believe there’s a collective sense on the
board that if this plan is going to be
successful then we’re going to need the
leadership to make this something more
than the status quo. This has to be more
than simply rearranging the deck chairs.
It all starts with Multnomah Courity Chair
Deborah Kafoury and Portland Mayor
Charlie Hales. It’s one thing to develop a
plan and to bring people together It’s
another thing all together to lead our
community in prioritizing affordable housing
and homelessness.
For years, housing has been a central
focus of Multnomah County and the City of
Portland. What hasn’t been the focus is
gaming additional ongoing resources in a way
that changes the playing field. For far to long
we’ve been funding homeless and housing
systems around the edges, while state and
federal cuts continue to bleed our
communities dry, . ‘ 3.
If Multnomah County is to set itself a part
and practice what we preach concerning
sustainability and equity in our community
than we’re going to have to create something
that has never been built before.
How might we get there, you ask? It starts
with holding state and federal officials’ feet
to the fire. It makes me cringe every time T
hear our governor talk about health care,
Jobs and education witliuut l
......
mentioning housing. Without access to
affordable housing, everything else becomes
a moot point Local officials need to direct
government lobbyists to put the full court
press on elected officials in both Oregon and
in D.C. concerning housing.
Locally, it’s a matter of building the
political will to move additional ongoing
resources forward. Without it, the Home For
Everyone plan will simply be spinning its
wheels.
darkness in arduous retreat
By William Holmes
subtle shadows trip over the early light
clouds coordinate in accord to the windows frame
room for two without furniture or fret
patient to wake the hazel gaze
Our mission
Staff
Board of Directors
Vendors
Street Roots creates income opportunities for
people experiencing homelessness and poverty b y '
producing a newspaper and other media that are
catalysts for individual and soda! change.
Executive Director Israel Bayer
Bruce Anderson (Chairman), Michael Anderson (Vice-
chairman), Heather Stadick (Treas.), Eddy Barbosa (Sec),
Rldh Rodgers, Brad Taylor, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon,
Darren Alexander, Amber Bielman
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 publ ishes every two weeks, launching
on Fridays, and is available exclusively through our
street vendors or by subscription, W e are proud
members of the International Network of Street
Papers.
Street Roots
211 NW Davis S t
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax: 503-227-3117
streetroots.org
news.streetroots.org
israel@streetroots.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl
joanne@streetroots.org
Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel
cole@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, Ann-Derrick Galliot
Photographers Kristina Wright, Christopher ‘
Onstott, Adrienne Burkett
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, Elizabeth Tierney, Rob Shryock, Ann-
Derrick Gailtot, Stacey Heath, Vinnie Kinsella, Michelle
Breslau, Paula Cracas, John Barker, Mary Locke, Lucas
Manfield, Jessie Carver, Cherie Vedai, Sam Bouman,
Isaac Hastings Hauss, Emily Green, Tom Ray, Sarah
Hansell, Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento, Kyle Craven,
Audrey Benison, Crystal Sinks!
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 online at www.rosecityresource.org.
75
goes directly to the vendor
who sold you the paper
25
goes toward
printing costs
Vendor orientations are at 1 p.m. every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday at the Street Roots office.