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
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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
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Jesuit Volunteer
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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
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Rathore, Zoe Kiingmann, Haven Herrin, Dan
Jones, Dennis Hogan, Tom Wright, Judy Taylor,
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Lunsford, Yasmin Amirsoteymani, Jason Cohen,
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Raymond, Hilary Smith, Diana Richardson,
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If you're interested in volunteering with Street
Roots, please submit a volunteer application at
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