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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2015)
S treet R oots • May 29-June 4, 2015 E d ito r ia l Page 3 Solutions, not sweeps, will end homelessness very year about this time, like clockwork, the Dream Too on the inner eastside, something inner City of Portland conducts annualcamp sweeps in eastside residents should support. inner Southeast Portland, and eventually parts of Put into context well beyond the sound bite, this downtown right before the Rose Festival. collection of tents, tarps and human beings is the And every year, like clockwork, Portland! media product of limited social resources, a lack of living machine jumps on the story as if it were the first time wages and job opportunities; a decline in our affordable homeless camps have ever been and low-income housing stock; and a development swept. Elected officials and the agenda that is plowing over formerly low-income lots police claim to be helping the and erecting luxury rentals and condos. Currently, homeless by cleaning up the Multnomah County is an estimated 20,000 units short troubled camps, while posturing to of affordable housing. It doesn’t help that skyrocketing neighborhoods, businesses and the rents are hurting local efforts to support general public that they are getting people with rent assistance dollars. Not tough on crime, so to speak. The script If we are to turn the only are there not enough units is always the same. corner on homelessness, available to house people, the burden of What makes this year different? Portland needs to get first and last months rent and stablizing One thing you could say is serious about prioritizing people’s lives adds additional obstacles neighborhoods where homeless people long-term housing for social service providers and people have historically slept en mass are investments in our experiencing poverty. . rapidly changing. With new housing community, including developments, rising rents and Human beings are living in extremely regulating development, businesses emerging throughout the unhealthy conditions, regardless if their taxing groups such as city. There are simply fewer public sleeping in an “entrenched” camp or Airbnb, implementing spaces where people are allowed to alone down by the river. Living without demolition fees and sleep. building more affordable a home means living through a There’s no question that with more traumatic experience that isn’t logical housing. organized business, neighborhoods and or rational. People die, very literally. cycling communities — on the eastside People are experiencing mental health specifically —people experiencing crises, domestic violence, sexual assault, sleep homelessness will systematically continue to be pushed deprivation, trauma in many forms. out of the area, at least for the time being. What can be done? The rhetoric behind the sweeps is standard — it is The niayor’s office, has touted the idea of more rest the first step to getting people into housing. Everyone areas citywide for people experiencing homelessness. supports that. But w h e r e i^ tn ^ ie x ^ te p f in ^ a ^ e s ^ j M o r e o r le s s , th is w o u ld b e a p la c e for p e o p le o n t h e shelter agency in the city, Transition Projects, has a streets to have a safe place to sleep. If we are to turn 5-month wait list for men — 462 men on the list. And the corner on homelessness in Portland not only does there’s a 7-month wait list for women, with 271 in line. the city need to think out of the box, it needs tq get They have 310 shelter beds. They’re all full. They serious about prioritizing long-term housing almost always are. What’s the long-term plan for people on the streets in investments in our community, including regulating development, taxing groups such as Airbnb, camps? Some elected officials will point towards A implementing demolition fees and building more Home For Everyone, the latest plan to support people experiencing homelessness and an increase in money in affordable housing, to name a few. Until that day, camp sweeps will come and go, but homelessness will remain this upcoming budget. Others will point to supporting the same. more rest areas for people on the streets and Right 2 E 1 P 1 IÌW 1 m IA f A * Vicious Cycle of Homeless Policy Street Roots is a member o f the Western Regional Advocacy Group, o r | WRAP, a coalition o f organizations along the West Coast working to eliminate ■ the root causes o f homelessness an d poverty. Since passage o f the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act in 1987, the federal governm ent has created several homeless plans b u t they continue to fail because they lack political w ill, adequate funding fo r actual housing, Si implementation. iv I i 1S 8'1 M iI 81I H M M S H ' I ' I m Write in . .. If you would like - / , : to have / \ something ' that you’ve written published . in our pages, or would / \ / / I like to get involved as a • ' member of our reporting staff, contact Managing Editor Joanne Zubf at 503-228-5657, joanne@streetroots.org. We ask that all submissions include the author’s name and contact information, if available. : Street Roots 211 NW Davis $ t Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 - Fax; 503-227’3i17 www.streetroofs.org www.news.streetroots.org . Hours: 7:30 a.m,-3 p.m. Mon,-Fit, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Sat. and 7:30-11 a, m. Sun. interested in advertising in Street Roots? Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org Staff Executive Director Israel Bayer iSrael^streetroots.org Managing Editor v ' joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel coie@streetroots.org 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 Temporary responses Increased homelessness, tohom elessnessthat Fail to address the systemic causes of Stereotypes of homeless people as degenerate. hom ele ssn ess,^- Periodic calls for local homeless plans based oh the newest p o lic y .. Premise th a t homelessness is caused Ever-changing policies geared tow ard fixing b y th e d è fid e n d é s o f homeless people. different sub- populations o f •^homeless. p e o p le -^ I t has replaced tens o f billions o f HUD housing dollars w ith a few billion homeless assistance dollars. — • There are 355 ten-year plans to end homelessness th a t cover 860 cities, yethomelessness continues to grow. Chairman Bruce Anderson Vice-Chairman Brad Taylor Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Amber Bielman Directors Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon, 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, CherieVedal If you are interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.orgA/olunteer. Or call Volunteer Coordinator -Grace Badik for more information at 503-228-5657. .
