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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (May 27, 2016)
Street Roots • May 27-June 2, 2016 Lawmakers pick up the mantle on timber workers t is unconscionable that there are thousands of workers in Oregon who would suffer injury, forego fair pay and endure untenable living conditions out of fear of losing their jobs. It’s happening on our farms, in our hotels and restaurants, and in our beloved forests, where reforestation workers - most of them immigrants - are laboring with little or no tangible representation ™ for their rights. In February, Street Roots investigated these working conditions, and through a series of stories, turned the heads of state lawmakers who are now taking the issue to heart. This week, the Oregon Senate Workforce Committee, chaired by Sen. Michael Dembrow (D-PorÜand), took up the issue of forest workers rights and abuses in a special informational hearing. Lawmakers listened to accounts of crowded living conditions, undrinkable water, debilitating injuries, a demoralizing environment and in some cases death. The lawmakers should be applauded for pushing this issue forward, as should the organizations that supported the workers and the workers themselves who had the courage to testify. We trust lawmakers and the bureaucratic machinery in Salem will honor the testimony of these laborers with real action. And to make it easy, much of the improvements don’t have to involve creating something new. It is about following through with the laws that already exist, and putting the resources behind the agencies charged to I EDITORIAL Page 3 Editorial enforce them. This means increasing the budgets for enforcement, and compelling the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management - which are already inspecting many work sites for compliance with project contracts - to work with OSHA to conduct joint inspections so safety can be examined at the same time. Improving workforce conditions also means removing the barriers to reporting problems, most notably the fear of retaliation. That fear not only means serious issues go unreported, it also skews the reports that do exist: The worst offenders, those who intimidate workers, have the fewest complaints, and continue to receive government contracts. Other suggestions have practical applications on the ground. Joel Iboa with the nonprofit Beyond Toxics calls for supplying crews with water purification kits and sanitation, and given the hazardous nature of herbicides and pesticides applied by forest and field workers, requiring that all applicators be licensed. “We owe fair treatment to these workers.” Sen. Dembrow said. Yes, particularly considering that many of the people employing them do so with our tax dollars. So as the 2017 Legislative session starts ramping up, we will look for real movement forward in fulfilling the charge of our state agencies to ensure safe working conditions for all workers. Oregonians are tired of oversight bureaus functioning in name only. We can demand, and deserve, fair treatment for all. Write in /x. Mjvou would like / ■ h a ve / \ \ Z——— A, \ __ jflmeihrng i p you’ve ^ x . Sjiiien published ^ x . \ d in our pages, orwouid x \ / tike to get involved as a momber of our reporting staff contact Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl at '503-228-5657. joanne^sffeetroots,wg, ( j e ask that all submissions include the author’s name and contact inforniafion,-- if available. Street Roots 211 NW Davis St Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 www.jstreetroots.org www.news.streetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 j j m . 2 p.m. Sat and 7:30-11 a.m. Son. Advertisings Roots? Contact Israel Bayer at israet@streetroots.org ■ Staff Executive Director Israel Bayer It’s time for real investments in housing I Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach h im at israel@streetroots. org o r follow him on Twitter ®israelbayer. have witnessed people suffering on the streets every day - all day, year after year, for the past 15 years. s k y ro c k e tin g in y o u r city. H u n d re d s of b a b y b o o m e r s o n fixed incomes are retiring by the month and you re short 35,000 affordable housing units to support the very people that made your city.great. What do you do? That’s the They are traumatized. I am traumatized. question everyone is asking. People tell me on the streets that they are desperate to One thing is clear. We need leadership and support from find housing. It’s one tragic story after another. They also all sectors of our community. The old way of doing tell me how tent cities or business isn’t working. Some would argue it never has. encampments are keeping them neither Folks here nor there today. What we need are real safe, especially That’s for women. housing reforms and massive investments in the affordable BIBBCTOB*! describe to me just how important housing stock in our community. it is to have a small moment of M SB First things first: Editorial boards and the business calm in the middle of a raging community around the city should support newly storm or the hell that is By Israel Bayer introduced legislation by the city for a construction excise homelessness. They tell me these tax. The tax, referred to as CET, is a 1 percent encampments save their lives. construction tax for both residential and commercial “ I also work with a lot of people developments. It’s a small price to pay for developers in power — the politicos, the media, the bureaucrats, the strategists, the do-gooders and given the opportunities it will create. The tax would generate millions of dollars annually for affordable housing. the affluent - who all care very deeply about the issue of So why are we making it more expensive to build homelessness. Working together, we all do our best try to housing? News flash. It’s already expensive to build capture opportunities for the collective good. housing and the final costs for new development are Still, on the issues of encampments, many people try to already well beyond anything affordable that poor and rationalize or debate why encampments or tent cities will working people. Understanding that we are in dire need of not work. We could do so much better. The neighborhoods more affordable housing - we have to capture ongoing will hate it. It’s a bad policy decision. We just need more revenue on the construction boom we find ourselves. shelter beds and housing for people on the streets. All Beyond the construction excise tax, Portland needs deliver points that I do not disagree with. a housing bond on the November ballot measure. More Unfortunately, the reality is that encampments do not so, Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Legislature have to exist in response to a rational approach to urban planning deliver important legislation on no-cause evictions and or a policy strategy or a philosophical approach to wor ensure a massive investment in affordable housing around with the homeless. Encampments exist simply because the state thousands of American citizens live in absolute poverty, on After all, it’s not just Portland experiencing this our streets, in one of the wealthiest communities on the problem. There isn’t housing available for minimum wage planet. They are living and breathing human beings workers and elders up and down the coast, in the central without a safe place to call home. There are no time-outs valley and out on the range. It’s high times for some, and for people on the streets. There is no walking away from hard times for others in Oregon. To quote the great Woody the situation that is homelessness. Guthrie, California and in this case, Oregon is the Garden I use the encampments as an example, because it of Eden — a place to live in and to see, but believe it or appears that no matter how we respond to the housing not, you won’t find it so hot if you don’t have the do re mi. crisis, our community finds itself on different ends of a Doing nothing isn’t an option. If you think it’s bad now, perspective, debating why things can’t be achieved instead wait five or 10 years. It’s going to get a whole lot worse of how things can be achieved. before it gets better. It’s essential we come together as a Imagine you were in charge of a city and you have community and work together to tackle the problem. thousands of people experiencing homelessness sleeping on sidewalks, in public parks and under bridges. Rents are israet@streetroot.otg Managing Editor ioanne luW \oanoe®skeetroofs.org Vendor ProgramDirector Cote Merkel R M B co/e@sireeiroois.org Operations Director S arah B e e c ro ft Development Director Sarah Cloud Program Assistant Scott Jackson, Jesuit Volunteer Development Assistant Ann-Derrick Gailfot t Reporters Emily Green, Suzanne Zalokar, Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Giode,- Ben Brink 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 Holum, Anjali Rathore, Zoe Klingmann, Haven Herrin, Dan Jones, Rob Shyrock, Dennis Hogan, Tom Wright, Eileen Deerdock, Vince Waldman, Judy Taylor, Karen Allen, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas 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.org/volunteer. Or call our volunteer coordinator for more information at 503-228-5657.
