Street Roots • April 29-May 5, 2016
E d it o r ia l
Homeless are not Public Enemy No. 1
F | S h e stories of people experiencing
homelessness are many.
JL Starting today, readers will be.able
to get a 32-page zine of stories about
people’s experience of sleeping outside and
in Portland’s shelters. Street Roots has
been working with vendors and others
outside for nearly 16 weeks to capture these
amazing stories and artwork. You won’t /
want to miss i t
The zine will cost
readers $4, with all
__ __ j
•
,,
Proceeds gorng Erectly
Twitter @israelbayer. to vendors. The book IS
full of hope and triumph,
love and laughter,
heartache and despair - a true reflection of
our streets.
■ - 1 was reminded of the diversity of
people’s experience this past week when I
met Virginia; a 78-year elder who has been
living in her van in a Wal-Mart parking lot
for the past five years,
Virginia’s sjory is heartbreaking.
Suffering from lung cancer, Virginia has
story may have never come to light. All
three organizations are volunteer-run, a
harsh reality in a place like Clackamas
County, where services are so pathetic that
much of the social safety net system for
thousands of people living on the streets is
volunteer only.
. Then there’s Lorie, a 29-year-old
homeless woman who is escaping a
domestic violence situation. She is 8-months
pregnant I sat with Lorie and her dog,
Layla, over dinner this week.
Lorie has been homeless for dose to a
year. Her story isn’t unlike many that we
hear. After living in Portland for seven years
and working in construction and retail, she
was evicted after not having the necessary
income to pay for housing.
Lorie began living in an upsafo
relationship with someone on the streets for
her safety. They were not sexually involved.
When Lorie found out she was pregnant
the man she was living with became violent
For two days, she hid behind a Portland
bowling alley not knowing exactly what to do
next.
For the next several months Lorie found
shelter outside and in people's homes. She
is currently living with a couple in
Vancouver, Wash., but said she has worn out
her welcome.
“No one will hire me right now. I have no
permanent address. I’m homeless and
pregnant,” said Lorie, as she clutched her
small dog.
b e e n u n d e r g o in g r a d ia tio n t r e a t m e n t f o r t h e
•
B IR E C T O R 'S
D ESK
By Israel Bayer
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach h im a t
israel@streetroots.org
o rfo U o w h im o n
past seven weeks. Her body is frail. She will
find out her fate at the beginning of May -
not knowing if the cancer will eventually ?
take her life.
Five years ago, at 73-years-old, Virginia s
husband passed away. She had no income.
By the time her husband’s Social Security
had been transferred to her nine months
later, she had lost everything, including her
home.
The only thing she had left was a van and
personal belongings. For the.most part,
she’s been cut off from the rest of the world
since that time.
If it weren’t for a team in Clackamas
County with Free Hot Soup, Rose City ?
Backpacks and Boots on the Ground, her
The. new Street Roots zine hits the streets
today. I t ’s $4, with a ll proceeds going directly
to your vendor.
L a r ie z h a s b e e n ' r e e e iv i n g i > r e n a t a l c a r e a t
common folk, caught out on the wire.
People on the streets put up with verbal and
physical assaults all of the time. Not to
mention people are discriminated against all
of the time. Need a public restroom? Forget
about i t Want to eat at a nice café in the
city. Sorry. Have a bike and are homeless?
(Gasp). Thief!
I was interviewed by The Oregonian last
week for an article that explored ways to
respond to people on the streets. These are
soipe of the comments that were posted
online in response to it:
“You can help by taking a bum terrorist
into your warm home.”
“Adopt á biim terrorist! Get them out of
our parks in our city of Portland.”
“Build a wall around the City of
Portland.”
“Toss the homeless on the other side of
the wall.”
“Round them up and send them to desert
work camps.”
“They are mostly genetic lemons, no
program will fix them (except sterilization)..
All the churches and all the government in
the world will still come up short.”
Write in
If you would like
to have
something
that you've
written published
in our pages, or would
like to get involved as a
member of our reporting staff,
contact Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl 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 St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-228-5657
Fax:503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.news.streetroots.org
Hours: 7:30a.m .-3 p.m, M on.-Fri„ 7:30
a.rn.-2 p .m Sat. and 7:30-11 a.m. Sun.
Advertising
Interested in advertising in Street Roots? .
Contact Israel Bayer atisraefetreetroots.org
Staff
Executive Director Israel Bayer
israeS@skeetoote.org
Managing Editor Joanne Zuhi
joanne@streetroote.org
Vendor Program D irector Cole Merkel
ccte@sfreetroote.org
-
O perations D ire c to r Sarah Beecroft
Legacy Emanuel hospital, but sfiesaid if she - ■
doesn’t find housing by the tim e she has her
baby, they will be required to call the
Department of Human Services to report
her.
|
. v . <. ■*.
“My only goal right now,* is not get my kid
taken away from me,” said Lorie. “That
means I have to find housing. I’m
desperate.”
Lorie ¿aid she spends three to six hours a
day taking transportation from one housing
agency to the next trying to find something.
“It feels futile,” she said.
Virginia and Lorie’s stories,
unfortunately, are not unique. The wave of
extreme poverty and homelessness being
experienced right now is overwhelming.
That’s Why it’s hard for me to stomach the
hate being directed at people on the streets
- in some cases portraying people as
subhuman, or worse.
The level of hate and hysteria I feel
coming from liberal Portlanders about other
human beings is blowing me away.
It’s politically correct to care about
equality nationwide or a refugee crisis far
away, but a pain to deal with homeless
people in our neighborhoods — our own
neighbors in distress.
Just this week, I was in a meeting at City
Hall where a neighborhood representative
from the Pearl District threatened that if
something isn’t done about homeless camps
in the neighborhood, people were going to |
Page 3
Development Director Sarah Cloud
Program Assistant Scott Jackson, Jesuit
.
Volunteer
Development Assistant Ann-Derrick
Gaiflot
Reporters Emily Green, Suzanne Zaiokar,
Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Sarah Hansell, Leonora
Ko, Jared Paben, Am anda Waldroupe
Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Glode,
Ben Brink
Virginia, 78, has been living in her van in a
Wal-Mart parking lot fo r five years. She is
also currently undergoing cancer treatment.
The sick reality is people on the streets
experience this kind of abuse all of the
time. f
The truth is/% million Americans didn’t
all decide yesterday to become homeless
and camp in our neighborhood park just to
piss us off.
There’s a reason thousands of people are
living on our streets and it’s got a lot more
to do with greed and bad housing policy
than it does with someone drinking a bottle
of wine on your street or a specific mayor’s
attempt at trying to curb the problem.
One or two bad experiences on the
streets doesn’t act as a qualifier to label all
homeless people as Public Enemy No. 1,
especially considering many of the people
on the streets are small children and elders.
As for Virginia and Lorie’s stories, the
housing agency JOIN has stepped in and is
arm themselves.
now partnering with a team of volunteers to
Say what?
try to help both of them access housing. It’s
Yes, you heard that right.
not easy, especially when there are
I understand there are bad actors out
thousands of people in crisis. We’re all
there and nobody likes to see human beings
hoping for the b e st
suffering, but the reality is there are far
more people on the streets that are good,
Editorial Assistant Monica Kwasnik
Canvasser Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
Chairman Brad Taylor
Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford
Treasurer Heather Stadick
Secretary Amber Bielman
Directors Bruce Anderson, Rich Rodgers,
Michael Anderson, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon,
Marcus Swift
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Stephanie
,Hoium,:
Rathore, Zoe Kiingmann, Haven
Herrin, Ban Jones, Rob Shyrock, Dennis Hogan,
Tom Wright, Eileen Beerdock, Vince WaWman,
Judy Taylor, Karen Allen, Monica McKune,
Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thom « Buell
Jr., Jeanie Lunsford, Yasmin Amirsoleymani,
Jason Cohen, Tom Ray, Doug Spangle,
Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Hilary Smith,
Diana Richardson, Cherie Manning
If you are interested in volunteering with Street
Roots, please submit a volunteer application at
streetroots.orgAzolunteer. Or call dur
volunteer coordinator for more information
at 503-228-5657.