Street Roots • Feb. 24-March 2, 2017
Page 3
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Street Roots
211 NW Davis a
Portland, OR 97209
503-228*5657
Fax:503-227-3117
www.streetroots.org
www.news.streetroots.org
Right 2 Dream Too too valuable to lose
ight 2 Dream Too, the five-year-old rest
stop that serves more than 100 people
experiencing homelessness offers
critical services in Portland’s Old Town/
Chinatown.
Some people don’t want to admit it, but the
camp has offered a calm in a never-ending
R
storm of mental health
and homelessness. Prior
DIRECTOR'S
HRP
is o la ted an d alone
By Israel Bayer
throughout th e
neighborhood.
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him at
israel@streetroots. org
or follow him on
Twitter @israelbayer.
Without the camp,
elected officials, the neighborhood and
businesses are naïve to think that the
hundreds of people won’t return to their
doorsteps. Which of course, will set off a chain-
reaction of powerful interest groups calling for
the criminalization of people on th e streets. It
will also push advocates and others on the
streets to setu p shop in front of City Hall --
demanding that R2DToo find a permanent
location.
R2DToo’s current lease is set to expire on
April 7. That’s not a lot of time to find a
permanent location for the camp. The reality is
letting R2DToo disband without a plan would
be a nightmare, both practically and politically.
It’s true that R2DToo has been at the center
of controversy for years. Obviously, developers
and the neighborhood association believe that
the current location on Fourth Avenue and
Burnside is not reasonable. They’ve thought so
for years. Now, the land owned by the Portland
Development Commission, is needed to
support development at the Grove Hotel.
The politics surrounding R2DToo are many.
Everyone seems to point fingers in a different
direction when it comes to the question of
trying to find a permanent location for the
camp. Everyone has a different opinion on
what needs to happen.
Some believe the city has exhausted its
options when it comes to finding land for the
camp to be sited. I happen to believe that s
ridiculous. If the city all worked together
collectively to find a location for R2DToo, they
8
Hours: 7:30 a.m-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri„ 7:30
a.m.-2 plm. Sat and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun.
outside of your traditional shelter network —
offering people on the streets a welcome and
safe environment.
More so, the camp works with local social
service providers to help give individuals a safe
place to call home. Since the R2DToo was
created in 2011, they claim to have supported
and stabilized more than 400 people while
Interested in advertising in Street Roots?
Contact Israel Bayer at israel@$treetroots.org
Staff
Executive D ire cto r
M anaging E d ito r Joanne Zuhl
joanne@streetroots.Grg
fo r h o u sin g fo r m an y p e o p le e x p e rie n c in g
N o t ev en th e m o s t s o p h istic a te d n o n p ro fits in
th e city are able to house people on th e dime.
It’s a long, hard slog. No one has the answer,
Modern day homelessness is a conundrum.
For nearly 40 years local governments have
been carrying the water for what was
historically a federal priority. Homelessness in
Portland and throughout America isn’t going
away anytime soon.
After years of homeless advocates fighting
with government official about the need to
decriminalize people on the streets for their
own existence and to allow tent cities to be a
viable option - government officials
throughout many urban environments began to
reluctantly understand the complexity of the
situation on the ground. They began toJ
understand the tent cities do play a critical
role in supporting the human rights of people
without a safe place to call home.
The reality is that R2DToo plays a critical
role in helping people access a community
with love and tru s t Without the camp,
hundreds of people on the streets will be
isolated and on their own. That’s simply
unacceptable.
Whatever the outcome is for R2DToo, it
shouldn’t end in disbanding the camp. The fate
of R2DToo shouldn’t get wrapped up in the
current politics surrounding City Hall. It
should be reflective of the camp itself - a
community that comes together and works to
create a better tomorrow for people
experiencing homelessness.
Now is not the time for us to lose faith in
local government. We are behind the many the
officials working to create a safe place for
people on the streets. We expect officials to do
the same: to find a way to support both
could. They should.
R2DToo and others working to give people a
R2DToo provides vulnerable individuals and
safe place to call home.
couples experiencing homelessness a safe
We must find a way.
place to rest and sleep. The camp operates
Israel Bayer
israd@stxeetioots.org
they waited to access housing.
In case you w eren’t aware, th e average wait
'
Vendor P rog ram D ire c to r
....
.
'
Cote .Merkel.
O p eration s D ire cto r Sarah Beecroft
D evelopm ent D ire cto r Sarah Cloud
P ro g ra m A s sis ta n t
Meghann Van Pelt
Jesuit Volunteer
Patricia Romero
Emily Green, Suzanne Zalokar,
Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Jared Paben,
Amanda Waldroupe, Stephen Quirke
P ho to gra phe rs Diego Diaz, Joe Glode
Editorial Assistant Monica Kwasnik
Desmond Hardison
Development A s sista n t
R e p o rte rs
Board of Directors
Chairman Brad Taylor
Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford
Treasurer Heather Stadick
S e cre ta ry
Dan Jones
Directors Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson,
Leo Rhodes, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Marcus
Volunteers
Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjaji 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, Grace
Gallagher, Jenny Farres, Evan Firsick and Helen Hill. 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.