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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2018)
Street Roots • Feb. 2-8, 2018 O p in io n Page 3 New self-governed camp brings opportunity irst, they hauled away bag upon bag of response is understandable. She wants to garbage. Then, in small clearings, they protect the park, and she wants to connect pitched 10 green tents on platforms atop homeless folks to services. cement pier blocks. Next, they scattered bark In her statement released Jan. 29, she stated dust on existing paths, determined to leave a the Big Four Corners Natural Area, which is a light footprint. The underbrush, the downed sensitive wetland habitat, is “not an appropriate branches; all was left in place. place to house people.” On Jan. 28, this group of people experiencing Yet because we don’t have enough affordable homelessness housing, we don’t have enough shelter space organized with a and shelters do not work for everyone, people • < $ Ï coalition to launch will Continue to camp in places that seem M • w I IRb Village of Hope, a inappropriate in one way or another. ' • ': • S new self-governed Fritz is committed to addressing By Kaia Sand encampment. It’s homelessness, and she has long been open to located along creative solutions that include the leadership of ■ Northeast Airport people experiencing homelessness, such as her Way in the Big Four support in finding a site for Right 2 Dream Too. Corners Natural Area, managed by Portland So I wonder if Fritz might take a second look Parks and Recreation. at the Village of Hope, and return to the In the process, they put into the spotlight this intriguing question that Village of Hope question for our community: highlights: How might people who are homeless How might people who are homeless be be involved in the ecological work of our land involved in the ecological care of the land on where they camp? which they camp? Could campers at Village of Hope work with A bit of background: Organizers with Right 2 park rangers? Could they be elevated into Survive and Advocacy 5 teamed up with Anawim environmental stewards and given the tools to Christian Community, which was working with do this? homeless folks in outer Northeast Portland who In October, natural resource managers from are frequently displaced by the dozens of “camp around the Pacific Northwest met with cleanups” the city of Portland contracts each environmental and homeless advocates to find week. Village of Hope was launched the same ways to collaborate on compassionate solutions week the city contracted 49 campsites to be to the impacts of homelessness on public lands “cleaned.” and in outdoor recreation areas. People must continually move elsewhere. Kathleen Guillozet, director of the Willamette A number of people already camping along Model Watershed Program, helped to facilitate the Columbia Slough had been displaced that meeting of minds and has been seeking to repeatedly by these camp sweeps, and they were provide natural resources professionals with trainings that better equip them for the social isolated in the woods without access to trash dimensions of their work. disposal. At best, they could haul trash on their “If we are accepting the tough reality that bikes or with shopping carts. people are going to need to shelter outside for Steve Kimes, a pastor with Anawim Christian the foreseeable future, I think it’s fair to say that Community Church — who is acting along with sweeps are really not the great answer,” Ibrahim Mubarak of Right 2 Survive and Lisa Guillozet said. “What comes after that is the Lake of Advocacy 5 as the on-site oversight huge question mark. That’s a really committee — emphasized that Village of Hope is uncomfortable place for natural resource “not pulling people and saying go ahead and managers and many members of the public. We move here. We’re taking people who are already don’t have good models to look to.” here and saying, ‘Let’s have a clean village. Let’s Guillozet wonders whether Village of Hope have an organized one. Let’s have a secure one. offers an opportunity. Let’s protect the businesses. Let’s protect the “Can we figure out how to sanction different environment.’” kinds of villages without compromising larger One of the people who has lived in this park agency and public values, so we can test new over the past year is Kerry Wheeler, now one of compassionate pathways that give the park staff the “Houseless Managers” at Village of Hope. some leeway to engage in ways that have been She camped with 11 other people for nine so hard in the past?” she asked. months, she said, until she was forced to move But the bigger questions remains: How can this autumn. She estimates she was swept eight we honor the fact that people in poverty are more times during the past two months. whole and deserving? That they are capable of Now, she is enthusiastic about being part of leadership? an organized effort; one that means she will be Village of Hope is just one effort among many. involved in ecological care. “We are going to The Multnomah County Board of have environmentalists explain things a little bit Commissioners voted to fund a shelter on better,” she said. “And I would love to volunteer Southeast 61st Avenue and Southeast Foster time to plant yearlings and give back.” Road that aims to support couples and people As a city, we are caught up in a cycle of camp with pets, hopefully transitioning people to more displacements, exacerbating trauma and further permanent housing. isolating people who are already vulnerable. In other words, we have to act again and How might people targeted by these again, and so do elected officials. displacements instead be engaged in solutions So when homeless neighbors are proposing themselves, given tools to clean spaces and take creative solutions, let’s listen. care of the land? “I pray that they are going to let us be,” said Lisa Fay, board chair of Right 2 Survive, said, Kerry Wheeler, standing next to her tent in her “Instead of people complaining about houseless pink coat, her dog Baila next to her on a leash. people being in natural spaces, why not create a “Give us one chance to show we can do this stewardship program where they become the properly. We are going to make it our everything ambassadors of an area?” to make that happen.” Commissioner Amanda Fritz is in charge of F 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 Portland Parks and Recreation, and her initial Street Roots 211 NW Davis St. Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657..... Fax:503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org www, news.streetroots.org 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. interested in advertising in Street Roots? 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