Street roots., December 01, 2017, Page 6, Image 6

Vendors
Page 6
P R O F IL ]
Allen
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BY LEONORA KO
C E N T R A L C IT Y
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
COFFEE
¿DhinkuMlL. 3)agowL.
Sourcing & roasting craft coffee to
benefit programs at Central City Concern.
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Answers to Page 15 Puzzles
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llen grew up in the Portland area but
learned about hard work in faraway
and foreign places.
Early on, he worked for 10 years as a deli
and catering manager in Chicago. But when
Allen started a bakery and a liquor store in
Mexico, he worked day and night for three
years.
“I was definitely humbled by staying in
Mexico. People work, struggle hard there,”
he said. “But if you want to open up
businesses, it’s a lot easier to do there.”
His former wife was Mexican, and when
Allen inherited a little money, they decided
to open a couple of businesses near her
family in San Bartolo, a town outside
Mexico City. His wife worked at their liquor
store, and Allen worked at the bakery with
her relatives.
“It was seven days a week (with) two
shifts,” where they made dough in the
evening and baked the bread in the early
morning hours, Allen said. “We had
different contracts with the little stores, and
we would drive into the mountains to
deliver bread every day. People would also
come running up to the car and buy bread.
“It was a lot of hard work, and there’s a
lot of people down there who are just hard,
hard workers. But they still have more joy
than people here in America do, you know?
So they may not have all our shopping malls
and everything might be nice (here), but
they still get together and have a good
time.”
In 2014, things went downhill. He and his
wife divorced, and Allen moved back to
Portland. On top of having a heroin
A
Sheeptoast
Street Roots • Dec 1-7, 2017
River, where “it’s still frustrating and hard,
addiction, he experienced an episode due to
but it’s better than sleeping outside.”
a long-term schizoaffective disorder and
This past summer, Allen was laid off from
ended up on the street.
his construction job, and he is glad Street
“The main downfall of my problems out
Roots is there as a fallback.
here was the result of self-medicating,
“It’s a life saver is what it is,” Allen said.
Allen said. “When you’re doing it, you’re
“Street Roots is something I can actually do
thinking it’s just making it better. But in
and feel good about myself. (I’m happiest)
reality, it’s just making your whole life
when I’m talking with people, being social,
worse.”
things like that. Going to Street Roots every
He found help through Allied Health
morning is very helpful.”
Services of Portland, which provides
Allen sells Street Roots newspaper at the
medically supervised methadone treatment
Green Zebra Grocery in the Lloyd Center
and counseling to help people overcome
District from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on
opioid addiction and move toward recovery.
weekdays.
Allen has been successfully off of street
“My quality of life is one hundred times
drugs since 2014, he said - “thanks to the
better,” Allen said. “I may be out here
methadone clinic and the programs they
again, but I don’t have a drug problem now,
offer.
so things are a lot easier, and it was one of
“Once I was put on the right (mental
the biggest things in my life. Since then,
health) medication, and since I started
I’ve been able to hold down jobs.”
receiving the drug treatment, things have
Allen has goals of finding another full­
really turned around. The only setback I’ve
time job so that he
had is housing.”
can pay rent
When Allen became homeless in 2014,
again and have a
Transitions Projects placed him and three
permanent
others in a house in Southeast Portland.
home. He
Allen was able to find a full-time job as a
said: “Giving
forklift operator and began paying his own
up is too easy,
rent.
.,w
*
refuse to be
However, last December, the landlord
stuck out
moved everybody out.
here.”
“Nothing
bad
happened;
she just
j '/
\ dllSi
wanted to
iSSfe■
* -
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move back
■
into the
place,”
*
Allen said.
|
Since then,
I
he has been
sleeping at the
Columbia Shelter
on the east side of
the Willamette
by Elizabeth Considine