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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2016)
Street Roots • Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2016 E d ito ria l Real opportunities, not a jail, will spur change A I srael Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach h im a t - ' israel@streetroots.org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer. p | A he idea of Wapato Jail, an empty including domestic and sexual violence and facility in far out North Portland, working families who have literally been -L being used as a homeless shelter priced out of their neighborhoods. just won’t die. That’s why I was sad to see a candidate At this point, the issue is nothing more running for Multnomah County than a political football. It’s wasted political Commission b é naïve about the energy for an. effort that doesn’t offer our circumstances we find ourselves in. communityany real solutions to actually Éric Zimmerman, the county candidate, ending people’s homelessness. recently told the Willamette Week: “It’s OK In January, I wrote that if s a bad idea for for this Community to say you cannot just many reasons. The biggest being the camp everywhere. We owe it to the city Wapato facility is 22 miles hom Gresham, a overall, the county overall, to say we want ! chy badly in need of our parks back. We want our streets back. If more shelter. It’s 11.7 someone does not want to be sheltered in M B IC T Ô B Î miles from downtown our community, they don’t want to work Portland. toward more stability, then they would have The location of a choice to leave this community. I don’t B y Israel Bayer Wapato has very think that sleeping in the middle of any one limited transportation of our parks is something we should be options. During the • agreeable to.” \ weekdays there’s one Qhboy. bus line. It comes every hour and takes That sounds an awful lot like saying to more than an hour to get to Wapato from - Multnomah County residerits forced to live downtown alone. During the weekends, the hell that is homelessness that if you there’s no service at all. don’t get with the program, you can get out Wapato’s location is completely isolated of Dodge. from the rest of the community. There are The last thing our community needs no public businesses, including a grocery or currently is increased criminalization convenience store, nearby. In fact; there’s efforts of the homeless. We have 30 years . nothing but industrial flatlands and green of failed policy to show for it.Putting space surrounding the facility. Siting a mass people in jail, who have literally nothing, is shelter at Wapato would be nothing short of inhumane, costly, and creates more harriers to en d in g an individual’s h o m e le s s n e s s . . warehousing the poor far,, fa r i i In fact, Street Roots and It’s ea§y, to. think that. r other organizations led by Right creating mass shelter is a 2 Survive, an advocacy viable solution to ending The last thing our organization in Portland, is people’s homelessness. It is community needs helping lead the campaign for not. currently is the Right 2 ReSf Act in Salem That’s not to say that increased this upcoming legislative creating more shelter beds for crim inalization session. The goal iato limit people on the streets shouldn’t efforts of the local communities ability to be a priority. In the past 18 homeless. We have criminalize people experiencing months the city and 3 0 years of failed homelessness when the Multnomah County have policy to show for it. community can not provide created 420 new shelter beds enough housing. . with another 120 coming in . The harsh reality is mid-November. Those beds homelessness isn’t pretty. The include shelter beds for issues we are facing right now in óuf domestic violence survivors, families and community feel monumental. Perhaps they vulnerable residents from around our are. Neighbors and businesses are ~ region. The real problem is that some of our key frustrate^. People on the streets are , suffering. The media is swarming. Elected Strategies to end homelessness are being, officials are scrambling. threatened due to the lack of housing stock We ultimately have two options. We can in otir community. One of the biggest strategies our community has used over the continue to be divided as a,community or we can come together. The problems We years is providing people with short-term face aren’t easy or will they be solved rent assistance. Unfortunately, with nearly tomorrow. In fact, they may get worse a zero vacancy rate, Skyrocketing rents and before they get better. a growing homeless population, we aren’t Saying that, it will take a village. It will able to place people into temporary or permanent housing at the rate we were just take all of us coming together across political ideologies and class lines to' create two or three years ago. It has created a momentum to help save the city we all love. humanitarian crisis on the streets. That means all of us working together and It’s one of the reasons the housing bond moving in the same direction. Italso means and new housing legislation in Salem not using people experiencing becomes a critical tool in creating more “ homelessness as a political football. It housing that is deeply affordable in our community for those who are living on fixed means giving people on the streets better opportunities in our community, not a bus incomes and can’t afford current rents ticket out of town or a jail facility on the under any circumstances. Many of these edge of town. It means working to give individuals are vulnerable seniors, people people a safe place to call home. experiencing a high level of trauma, Page 3 Write in If you w ould®« 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, panne@streettoote.prg. We ask that all submissions include the author's name and contact information, if available. Street Roots 211 MW Davis SL Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org www.news.streetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m. 2 p,m. Sai. and 730-11 a m . Sun. Advertising interested in advertising in Street Roots? Contact Israel Bayer at i$rael@str^ttooteprg Staff Israel Bayer israel@streeUoote.org M a n a g in g E d it o r Joanne 2uH ■ ioanne@stieetrocte.org Vendor Program Director Cptg Uerket * cp(e®fStreetroots,6rg E x e c u tiv e D ir e c t o r Operations D irector Sarah Beecroft Development Director Sarah Cloud Program Assistant M eghann Van Pelt, Jesuit Volunteer Development Assistant Patricia Romero Reporters Emily Green, SuzanneZalokar, Sarah HanseJi, Leonora Ko, Jared Paben, Amanda W aidroupe, Stephen Quirke Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Giode Editorial Assistant Monica Kwasnik Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chairman Brad Taylor Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford Treasurer Heather Stadkk Secretary Marcus Swift Directors Rich Rodgers, MichaelAnderson, Leo Rhodes, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Dan Jones Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore, Zoe Kiingmann, Haven Herrin, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Tom Wright, Judy Taylor, Karen Alien, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jeanie Lunsford, Yasmin Amirsoteymani, Jason Cohen, Tom Ray, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Hilary Smith, Diana Richardson, ' Cherie Manning, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne Joyce and Faye Powell. If you're interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can call pur , volunteer coordinator for more information at .503-228-5657.
