Street Roots • Nov. 13-19, 2015
Editorial
Page 3
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An open letter to the President of the United States
In Portland and in Multnomah County
we’ve declared a state of emergency. We are
committed to helping shelter all individuals
By now, I’m sure you may have
and families, while working to create more
heard that Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and
housing to support an overwhelming need in
the state of Hawaii have all declared
states of These efforts take reaF
our communities.
emergency for housing
investments. We need your help.
and homelessness in their
We do not pretend to speak for our
communities.
colleagues in other cities, but we do know
Portland, Seattle, Los
that local governments, residents and
Angeles and Hawaii, like
advocates are taking action. We
many
By Israel Bayer
have no choice.
communities
With wages lagging and the
in the United
cost
of housing skyrocketing in
States, are
Watching cities
many communities around the
dealing with
up and down
country, hundreds of thousands of
thousands of men, women,
the
West Coast people continue to find
children and elders sleeping
outside without a safe place to call declare states of themselves without a place to call
emergency for home. There doesn’t appear to be
home.
For decades local communities
homelessness an end in sight.
have been asked to carry the
and housing
Watching cities up and down
majority of the burden of solving
should be seen the West Coast declare states of
homelessness in their
as a rallying cry emergency for homelessness and
communities. While we appreciate
housing should be a rallying cry
efforts to support ending veterans to our state and
| to. our state and federal
federal
homelessness and investments
made by local, state and federal
government to government to support our
efforts.
governments to support homeless
support onr
Knowing that local
and mental health services and
efforts.
communities are now taking
housing opportunities, we have
action by declaring emergencies,
failed as a nation to give our
we ask you, Mr. President and
citizens-the tools they need to be
governors across the country, to
successful in life. The
disinvestment in federally
consider executive actions within your
supported housing in the United Stated has
capacity to help local communities - rural and
been well documented in the past 30-plus .
urban alike - restore lost housing and billions
years.
of dollars in lost revenue to help support
For far to o long local communities have
American citizens in having a safe place to
been forced to answer the question - why
call home.
should we invest more in housing? In many
Without state and federal intervention,.
cases, the people have responded. Just last
unfortunately, even with the best of intentions
week, both San Francisco, Calif., and
we fear we will not be able to scale up our
Kalamazoo, Mich., voted to give their
investments to solve the problem of
neighbors experiencing homelessness and
homelessness and to give individuals and
poverty a fighting chance by supporting more
families a safe place to call home.
revenue options at the ballot to support
housing and homelessness services.
B
ear Mr. President, governors and local
mayors of the United States: :
«ssctoirs
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him 'at
israel@streetroots.org
or follow him on
Twitter @israelbayer.
Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org
Staff
Executive Director Israel Bayer
israel@streetroots.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl
- ;
jqapne@streetroots.org
Vendor Coordinator Cole M e rM
coie@ streetroots.org
-
...
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j .4 ... ..
Operations Director Sarah Beecroft
Development Director Sarah Cloud
Program Assistant Scott Jackson, Jesuit
Volunteer
Development Assistant Ann-Derrick
Gaillot
Reporters Emily Green, Sue Zalokar,
Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Sarah Hansell, Lenora.
Ko, Sam Bouman, Jared Paben ..
Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Glode
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, Mora Coon, Darren Alexander,
Eddie Barbosa, Rachel Langford, Marcus Swift
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Brian
Ritchie, Anders Frederickson, Stephanie
Holum, Anjali Rathore, Sam Bouman, Joanna
Chase, Zoe Klingmann, Haven Herrin, Eliese
Baker, Dan Jones, Rob Shyrock, Tom Ray,
Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamaia, Jessica
Pollard, Lee Ko, Diana Richardson, Cherie
Manning, Thomas Buell Jr.
If you are interested in volunteering with
Street Roots, please submit a volunteer
application atstreetroots.org/volunteer. Or
call our volunteer coordinator for more
information at 503-228-5657.