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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2017)
Street Roots • Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2017 Editorial State lawmakers: Step up to the housing plate rying to understand all of the policy decisions being made by both the Trump administration and the Oregon State Legislature is like waiting for the impact of a car crash. It’s that moment when time stands still and you know you’re about to have a bad accident, you’re just not sure what the actual impact is going to be and if everyone will be OK. It’s sure to be traumatic. — The reality is that the decisions being made by the current DIRECTOR'S administration and the DESK cuts being proposed by the State Legislature By Israel Bayer are going to create — j.eaJ pajn £or to maintain a safe place to call home. After all, we are talking about the Realtor organization that not too long ago spent millions of dollars and went on the offensive to successfully ban a real-estate transfer tax from happening in Oregon - a tax that would have created an enormous amount of revenue and equity for affordable housing in Oregon. They wanted their cake - and eat it, too. They still do. Now they want to offer Oregonians breadcrumbs for rent assistance in exchange for not creating tenant laws to protect renters. Unreal. There are many elected officials, including Democrats in Salem, who remain on the fence regarding housing reform. Legislators need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid, or at the very least find another way to fund their Oregonians. In some political campaigns and represent the people. cases, it will potentially result Nonprofits are forced to adapt in a complete collapse of the So should politicians. The safety net for thousands of writing is on the wall. Oregonians and millions of The harsh reality is that local Americans. communities will suffer the Legislators need to most. It’s trickle down In his first week in office, President Donald Trump has stop drinking the economics at its best and we’re already signed executive Kool-Aid, or at the not talking about numbers here, orders to begin to undermine friends, we’re talking about very least find the Affordable Healthcare Act, people’s lives. another way to and made sweeping changes Both Portland and Multnomah to hurt first-timéhomebuyers. fund their political County Tiave been front-loading campaigns and That’s the tip of the iceberg. m oney for housing and h om eless He’s intent on restrictin g serv ices for years. T h o se re p r e s e n t th e wonien’s health worldwide p e o p le - N o n p ro f it s o n g o in g in v e s t m e n t s a r e n ’t | guaranteed. The housing bond átid creatingMuslim l* a re fo rc e d to will help, b u t it’s sm all in scale registries. He’s already a d a p t. So sh o u ld to the problems we are facing on moving forward with the politicians. the horizon. suppression of scientists and So what do we do? climate change eduction. The First and foremost, the City of list grows longer everyday. Portland and Multnomah County , Did I mention that the have to continue to go all in on president has also signed an housing in next year’s budget. executive order to potentially Finding ways to improve the system to cut funding for aU sanctuary cities, including maintain and create more affordable housing Portland? Home Forward, Portland and is essential. Multnomah County receive about $45-50 Local leaders should also know that million in federal funding for homeless regardless of the consequences, we not only services alone — about half of the current want a sanctuary city, but a city that refuses investments. to work in any way, shape or form with To add insult to injury, the state of Oregon, barring a revenue fix, is more or less federal officials targeting immigrants and • refugees - period. in one of the worst positions possible to The state of Oregon and the business respond to a federal meltdown. Due to our community hive to find a compromise and current tax structure, the state is estimating work toward creating a revenue package that a shortfall of $1.8 billion. will at the very least stop the bleeding. The There’s no sugarcoating cutting health business community has to step up to the insurance for up to 335,000 Oregonians from plate and put their money where their mouth the Oregon Health Plan, or making massive is. If not, all Oregonians will suffer. cutbacks in services for senior services, As for all of us readers, I suppose your housing, mental health and more. That’s guess is as good as mine. Call your elected exactly what the State Legislature could be officials. Raise hell. Commit to direct action doing barring some kind of revenue fix at the if necessary. Refuse to be silenced. Be in state. solidarity with other social movements and It is a disaster. people. Be prepared for anything. Meanwhile, we have state legislators and The reality is we are living in lobbyists who are playing politics and oppose unprecedented times, not unlike an Arab tenant rights and eviction reform - along Spring, where people flood the streets and with cutting back subsidies on Oregonians refuse to leave under any circumstances until who own more than one home, government leadership steps aside. It’s not Some groups around the state believe we don’t need housing reform. The leadership of all together out of the question. It’s a historic time, and we support our the Realtors and landlords are out for blood, and it’s blood they will get. The blood of poor state and local lawmakers in answering the call to action. and middle-class Oregonians who can’t afford a Israel B ayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach him a t israel@streetroots.org or follow him on Twitter @israelbayer. Page 3 Write in If you would like to have that you’ve written published I in our pages, or would asa member of our reporting staff, 503-228-5657, joanne@streetroofs.org. We ask that all submissions include the author’s name and contact information, if available. Street Roots 21f NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 . www.streetroots.org .. . www.news.sireetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri.. 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. S a t and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. ' Advertising Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org Staff Executive D irector Israel Bayer ¡srael@streetroots.org Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Managing Editor Vendor Program D irector Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org ’ Operations D irector Sarah Beecroft Development D irector Sarah Cloud Program Assistant Meghann Van Pelt, Jesuit Volunteer Development Assistant Patricia Romero R e p o rte rs Emily Green, Suzanne Zalokar, Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Stephen Quirke Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Glode . Editorial Assistant Monica Kwasnik Canvasser Desmond Hardison ■ 1 1 . j l l l l l i l . Board of Directors Chairman Brad Taylor . Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Dan Jones Directors Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson, Leo Rhodes, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Marcus Swift Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore, Zoe Klingmann, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jeanie Lunsford, Yasmin Amirsoleymani, Jason Cohen, Tom Ray, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana Richardson, Cherie, Manning, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne. Joyce, Anne Reif, Gillian Floren, Mark Oldani, Meg .Holden, Bridget Brown, Cody Travels, Bianca Butler, Robb Hengerer, Alex Cherin, Tom Vandel and Grace Gallagher. If you're interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can call for more information at «503-228,5657;
