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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2017)
Street Roots • Dec. 29, 2017-Jan. 4, 2018 Opinion Page 3 Together, moving forward, we can make lives better ere we are at the turn of a new year. While some are angered over the Some of us will attend parties with presence of trash, it serves us well to glitter and clinking glasses. Others remember that this is a structural issue. will hunker in with families around board With no home, no garbage service, no games or a TV. Some will get away to the public dumpster nearby, trash piles up. A mountains or ocean or somewhere, little creativity here would help. Neighbors anywhere, that’s warmer than here. can help neighbors, housed and unhoused. Others of us will brave yet another night In comparison to the more insidious on the streets. Others still will expend an trappings of homelessness, such as the lack H K a ia S a n d is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her a t kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @ m kaiasand inordinate amount of of health care and mental stability, the energy securing a ravages of addiction and vulnerability to shelter bed for the violence - the issue of trash on the night, only to start sidewalk is a relatively easy fix. over the next day. And we must never forget that 80 people At the turn of this died homeless on our streets last year. The new year, we are in average age of death was 49. By Kaia Sand the midst of another So as we start our new year, let’s take public conversation stock of when laws target a class of people about the presence of - in this case, people living in such poverty homeless people bn our city sidewalks. they lack shelter - and make a decision to While the debate flares on phone screens, focus on more constructive actions. The people continue to huddle in tents and American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon under tarps. has tallied 224 laws across Oregon that This is not a new conversation, but target people who are homeless. These amidst tweets and news feeds, it can feel laws, the A C L U points out, do not affect in brand new. the same way those who have access to Some folks talk about homelessness as private homes, regular hygiene situations, an eyesore, but most of us can question why and protected sleep. a supposed visual offense looms so Let’s reject laws that target people for important when we are talking about human their poverty, making it more difficult to Jives. The ire over tarps, tents, pallets, and escape poverty and homelessness by cardboard - materials of our lives - is webbing them into the criminal justice misplaced. system and furthering debt by leveling fees. A desire to not see poverty by m oving We know that our extreme shortage of people along d o es not s e r v e us w ell. We are one fabric of citizenry in our city. L e t’s not forget that for som e of u s, shelter itself is an impossibility. W hen som eone erects some semblance of shelter - a tent for a bit of privacy and a wind block from the elements, a car or RV to sleep in - this is a precarious position, and that person endures the stress of knowing they must move along. People wear down from disrupted sleep and vigilance for their safety. T h e a d a g e “ o u t o f s i g h t , o u t o f mind” holds truth; “sweeping” away people who are homeless summons amnesia. If some of us - thousands of us - live without secure shelter, it serves us all well to know this. In our sight, on our mind. Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. Advertising Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org V endor P ro g ra m D ire c to r Cole Merkel affordable housing dem ands an extraordinary response, but as we w ork on cole@streetroots.org D e v e lo p m e n t D i r e c t o r A n d r e w H o g a n t h is , w e c a n a lso s tr iv e to g e t p e o p le in fr o m S en io r S t a f f R e p o rte r E m ily G r e e n O perations D ire c to r Sa rah B e e c ro ft the cold, m aking sure they have the shelter beds to save their lives, and we can also address hygiene struggles (access to toilets, showers, laundry, garbage disposal) that lead to some of the actions often criminalized. We can also champion creative organizational leadership among people who are homeless. P ro g ra m A ssistan t Caelin Miitko, Jesuit Volunteer Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson, AJex Gillow-Wiles Development Assistant Rosemar R e p o r t e r s Sarah Hansen, Leonoia i\u , l iiiih •*» Ppt’c; not rehash artempfs to c r im in a liz e Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Stephen Quirke, Helen Hill Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown Canvasser Desmond Hardison the survival of people on the streets. That’s taking three steps back. In 2018, let’s measure our actions against what makes lives better for those among us who are homeless. Let’s be hospitable to their health, rest and potential to thrive. Board of Directors Chairman Brad Taylor Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Dan Jones Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson and Alison Hallett Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore, Zoe Klingmann, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jason Cohen, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana Richardson, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne Joyce, Brooke Anderson, Gillian Floren, Mark Oldani, Bianca Butler, Alex Cherin, Jenny Farres, Evan Firsick, Camber Hansen-Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan, Megan Smith, Helen Hill, Mary Emerson, Brooke A person sleeps on the sidewalk in Old Town Chinatown. E Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Bronwyn o Miles, Maile Yeats-Rowe, Erin Parsons, Bridget d Brown, Faye Powell, Jon Raymond and Megan w Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering m | ' with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can J call for more information at 503-228-5657.
