Street Roots • June 19-25, 2015
Page 3
Editorial
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Street Roots
211 NW Davis St; .
Portland, OR 97209
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BY CHRISTINE HANLON/WESTERN REGIONAL A D V O C A C Y PROJECT
The streets are alive with the good, the bad and the ugly
31
-L
I .
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roofs. You can
reach him at
israel@streetroots. org
or follow him on
Twitter @israelbayer.
e streets are hot, literally. It’s summertime in
the city. People are everywhere. If you are a
P(
Portlander then you’re probably spending as much
time as possible soaking up the sun. It’s that time. The
days are longer. Our senses seem sharper. The morning
coffee and the evening breeze taste and feel just a little
bit sweeter. The city is alive. If you listen close enough,
yoy can hear it breathe.
Summertime also means tourist season. Family and
friends are visiting from all over the
world to celebrate graduations and
weddings, to enjoy outdoor
adventures or to simply fall in Joye_
with the Rose City. The reasons are
endless.
By Israel Bayer
After all, to the rest of the world,
Portland is simply an amazing city,
nestled somewhere in the middle of
paradise. It’s no lie. We have
magical waterfalls and beaches, mountains covered with
tall trees, beautiful streams and rivers, too. For people
with resources, Portland, and the rest of Oregon, is the
place to be, or at least to visit.
One thing tourists and transplants to Portland
mention time and again, along with the great food, of
course, is the amount of visibly homeless that are in
Portland. It’s shocking. Unfortunate. Filthy.
Heartbreaking. Why don’t we help these people? Why
don’t they get a job? The opinions are many.
For many newcomers and tourists alike, especially
those who haven’t experienced urban environments,
poverty can be .traumatizing. Saying that, imagine how
the people actually experiencing poverty must feel? Yep.
Traumatized. Especially considering the amount of
wealth that permeates in everyday life throughout the
city.
The comments about the homeless are mostly
sincere, even if they aren’t always politically correct.
How can people live like this? It’s a great question.
How can people live like this? It’s surely isn’t normal. No
it is not. For some, seeing people suffering and being
asked for spare change throughout downtown is
heartbreaking. For others, seeing people surviving on
the streets is infuriating and it disgusts them. The idea
of people begging for money is both unsightly and a
nuisance. Either way, their response typically comes
from a place of wanting something to be done about.
No one ever thinks, when coming to visit or moving to
a place billed as paradise, that they will witness raw .
poverty. Being panhandled, or seeing people sleep en
masse in Waterfront Park, or witnessing someone have a
mental health collapse wasn’t in the brochure.
. Longtime Portlanders, for the most part, are either
engaged at a very intentional level around the issue of
"> 1 S K
homelessness and poverty, Or they have simply become
fatigued in trying to come up with a solution to the
problem. Of course, there is the more radical element of
the business community that believes the answer to
solving the problem of the visibly homeless is to create
stricter laws against people on the streets, which
includes advocating for stricter sidewalk laws, camp
sweeps and banning panhandling.
In Oregon, panhandling is considered constitutionally
protected free speech.
That’s why it was no surprise that this week the
Change Spare Change program. It promotes, not giving
money to panhandlers, but instead giving money to
organizations that help'the homeless.
; Programs like this have a long history in American
cities. They almost alwàys fail. They tend to be
demonizjng to the poor and rarely tell the whole story.
Instead of conveying a message of compassion and
empathy, or helping to take action on a nationwide
housing crisis, they tend to feed the stereotype that
homeless people are all boozers and drug addicts. It’s
ridiculous.
I personally think readers should give their money to
whomever they like, people selling Street Roots,
panhandlers, of your favorite nonprofit. It would be so !
easy for Street Roots to join a càmpaign like this, but the
reality is, it’s not where you. give your money, or what
people are spending their money on that’s the problem.
It’s not having access-to housing, jobs and livable wages
that’s the problem.
Last year, The Oregonian asked me my thoughts on
panhandling. They haven’t changed:
I have a one quarter or dollar rule, I told The
Oregonian. The first person who asks me for change
each day gets a little something. After that, I tell people
no. Ifs a quick and easy way to give, but to not bother
myself with the complexities of trying to understand if I
should give, or why I.should give to a specific person, §
I would advise people to be aware of your
environment, to usé your gut instinct and to give as little
or as much as you like. There’s nothing remotely fun
about living in poverty and having to beg for money. The
idea that people panhandling are somehow making out
like bandits is an urban myth.
Does panhandling help someone? My grandfather
taught me at a very young age to never judge a person
unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Who am I to
judge? Giving to people thâtare less fortunate, in my
mind, is the measure not only of a person, but the
community as a whole. I also believe the simple act of
offering people a smile and acknowledging they exist can
also go a long way.
,
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Advertising
Interested in advertising in Street Roots?
Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org
Staff
Executive Director Israel Bayer
israeitstreetroot5.org .
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl
joaiine@sfreetroote.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
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 Giode
Canvasser Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
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.org/volunteer. Or
call Volunteer Coordinator Grace Badik for
more information at 503-228-5657. .
,