Street Roots • May 8-14, 2015
Editorial
Kudos and expectations for the mayor's budget
ayor Charlie Hales and the rest of City
Council continue to send a message that
housing matters. In his 2015-16
proposed budget, the mayor has allocated
additional $5.9 million on housing. This comes
out of a nearly $50 million surplus the city has
m b m h b h í
this year.
It includes funding for
year-round women’s shelter,
homeless veterans, home
ownership and preventing
displacement in North and
Northeast Portland, public safely and rent
assistance — including an effort to support some
of the harder to reach people on the streets.
Kudos.
Housing commissioner Dan Saltzman and
advocates had hoped the mayor’s budget woujd
include a $5 million investment in the Housing
Investment Fund — a fund created to help to
acquire land and build more affordable housing.
The mayor’s proposed investment is $2.5 million.
The long and short of it is that the proposed
budget is holding the line when it comes to
investing in housing and homelessness. The city
will rely on Multnomah County — which will
release its budget in June - to make a hefty
investment in housing tó support the newly
created Home For Everyone, a group working to
tackle ending homelessness in the region.
The city is also investing heavily in supporting
individuals and families experiencing pove rty
with programs for youth, street improvements in
East Portland, domestic violence services, wage
H
increases for all city employees and continuing to
invest in Hooper Detox.
Overall, this year’s budget gets a passing grade
an when it comes to investing in people. Saying that,
it’s not nearly the investment needed to move
the dial on the growing housing crisis in our
community. We’re being outpaced. In fact,
without a more robust investment of long-term
revenue for affordable housing the city will
continue to lose ground.
It’s unclear how the city plans to balance the
housing crisis in our community with the needs
they’ve laid out on transportation and emergency
preparedness. It’s time for the mayor and City
Council to lead. Street Roots continues to believe
it’s a no-brainer — that nothing should come
before prioritizing people when it comes to
building more affordable housing units and
tackling the housing affordability needs of
Portlanders. Plain and simple, housing should
move to the front of the line. Any additional
money found in this year’s budget should go to
the Housing Investment Fund.
More so, City Council should find a way to
begin to fund the Housing Investment Fund
through specific policies where there’s a nexus
between housing and market profitability.
Not allocating tax dollars from short-term
rental companies such as Airbnb toward housing
was a missed opportunity this past year. Adding a
demolition fee for developers that would go
towards housing and creating a developer impact
fee this coming year are two examples where the
city can lead. We’re waiting, anxiously.
Page 3
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Street Roots
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Interested in advertising in Street Roots?
Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org
S taff
Executive Director Israel Bayer
■
israel@streetroots.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl
jo a n n e @ s tr e e tr o o ts .o r g
Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel
cole@streetroots.org
Everything we do is for the vendors. Join us!
verything Street Roots does is with the
idea of looking at the world through a lens
of love. Regardless of where you come
from, or where you’re going — Street Roots
strives to give people a sense of belonging.
The mission of Street Roots is to create
income opportunities for people experiencing
homelessness and poverty by
_
producing a newspaper and
other media that are
catalysts for individual and
social change.
Being a catalyst for
By Israel Bayer
individual and social change
— -¿X M i m is at the heart of everything
we do.
Street Roots is more than
just a weekly publication. It’s a force of good for
social justice in our community. The newspaper
is so much more than just an income, It’s a way
for people to be able to build genuine .
relationships in the community across class lines.
It’s a tool for building self-confidence and a tool
for helping change the lives of not only the
vendors selling the newspaper, but the thousands
of readers that support Street Roots.
Back in January, when Street Roots launched a
weekly publication, we had moved the price of
the paper for vendors from 25 cents to 35 cents
— something vendors had supported to help pay
for the additional production costs of a weekly
newspaper. The first couple of editions sold like
hotcakes, but it was d ear that additional increase
of 10 cents was eating into the vendors’ income.
B
. DESK
Israel B a yer is the
executive d irector o f
Street Roots. You can
reach h im a t
israel@ streetroots.org
o r fo llow h im o n %
Twitter @israelbayer.
Street Roots collectively made the decision to
come back down to 25 cents. After all, why
should vendors have to pay the price? Wasn’t the
entire idea of publishing weekly suppose to boost
vendors’ income? Exactly. It was the right thing
to do.
At the end of the day, everything we do is with
the goal of providing vendors with the necessary
opportunities to improve their quality of life.
“Having a weekly publication has allowed me to
make more money, but it’s also allowed me to
think about my future in different ways,” says
Earl Bennett, a Street Roots vendor. “It’s allowing
me to stand on my own two feet.”
In this edition of the newspaper you’ll find an
envelope. You can help offset giving vendors a
raise by supporting the larger organization by
giving a one-time or recurring donation this
month. In May, all recurring donations are being
matched by a generous donor.
Thisis an incredible time at Street Roots. The
dialogue happening in the pages of Street Roots
and on street corners between vendors and
readers is amazing. After all, selling the
newspaper is more than just an income. It’s
about building self-confidence. It’s about self-
respect. It’s about being a part of the larger
community. It’s about finding solutions in both
individuals lives and the lives of the people we
collectively serve.
We car# thank you enough for all of your
support.
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Program Assistant Grace Badik, Jesuit
Volunteer, grace@streetroots.org
Development Director Sarah Cloud
Development Assistant Ann-Derrick
Gaillot
Reporters Emily Green, Sue Zalokar,
Christen McCurdy, Sarah Hansell, Sam
Bouman, Jacques Von Lunen, Jared Paben
Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Glode
Canvasser Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
Chairman Brucé Anderson
Vice-Chairman Brad Taylor
Treasurer Heather Stadick
Secretary Amber Bielman
Directors Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson,
Leo Rhodes, Ñora Cóon, Darren Alexander,
Eddie Barbosa, Rachel Langford
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, Rob Shyrock, Stacey Heath, John
Barker, Sarah Hansell, Aaron Von Reyn, Chere
Cobb, Audrey Cerchiara, Jade Maniscalco,
Anjali Rathore, Eliese Baker, Doug Spangle,
Susannah Kamala, Susan Gallagher, Tom Ray,
Lee Ko, Dan Jones, Lisa Waldo, James Yu, Sam
Bouman, Cherie Vedal
If.you are interested in volunteering, with .
Street Roots, please submit a volunteer
application, at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or
call Volunteer Coordinator Grace Badik f o r J
more information at 503-228-5657.