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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2018)
Street Roots • March 9-15, 2018 O p in io n Page 3 M M — Real progress statewide vs. street-level sweeps w M K aia Sand is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand P H O T O CREDIT: M IA A LLE N . C H R IS T O P H E R E A D IC IC C O , A L IG H T IN U S .C O ark jotted a letter on a sheet of amber- city of Portland to enter into agreements with the green colored paper that he tucked into Oregon Department of Transportation to do a Street Roots newspaper. He did this camp sweeps. Some land in Portland is managed over and over, writing letters to Oregon by the city, some by the Oregon Department of legislators and their staffers, imploring them to Transportation, and each operates under a make more housing affordable to more people. different legal settlement that resulted when the A few weeks ago, Mark traveled to Salem with Oregon Law Center litigated on behalf of campers several other Street Roots who were homeless. vendors and a busload of On face value, the settlement with the Oregon Oregon Housing Alliance Department of Transportation sets up a longer advocates to argue for the period of notification for homeless campers, but importance of increasing in practice, there’s a signficant exception: When the document recording “no trespassing signs” are posted, O DO T is fee. Street Roots is a allowed to sweep homeless folks after 24 hours, member of the Oregon the same as Portland. Housing Alliance. The new legislation stipulates that “no I’m happy to report that trespassing” sweeps conducted under this Mark was a part of a winning effort. On March 3, agreement between O DO T and the city must the Oregon Legislature increased the document abide by a longer notification period of 48 hours. recording fee from $20 to $60. The fee is applied This legislation could lead to some better to the first page of real estate documents at the time they’re recorded, and is projected to bring notification and transparency. The city of in an additional $30 million each year for Portland operates with more transparency than affordable housing, rent assistance and first-time ODOT, each week listing the number of calls it homebuyer assistance. A quarter of this funding receives reporting homeless camps and the is directed toward veterans. number of sweeps it conducts. There were other successes on the housing But the problem is that the emphasis front during the continues to be on recently concluded sweeps. Repeated camp short session. sweeps are traumatizing, One bill awaiting the making life harder for our governor’s signature neighbors who have no '' funds assistance for home to shelter them. We towns and cities for must demand that our residents who spend actions actually make life more than half their better. income on rent. Hundreds of The legislature also Portlanders report voted to create a task homeless camps to the force to study racial city each week. This past disparities in week alone, the city homeownership. received 449 reports Another successful through its One Point of bill waives some Street Roots vendor Mark, on the Capitol steps in Contact System. Last licensing fees in rural Salem. week, 49 “campsite communities, putting cleanups” were more electricians, conducted by the city; 59 plumbers and other more are scheduled for subcontractors to work this week. building affordable housing. I wish more of these phone calls and emails Quirky - but a small gain nonetheless - was were focused on constructive responses, so that the fee waiver for transforming land zoned for a our city government hears from citizens who cemetery into affordable housing. want to better support our houseless neighbors. Funding was also allotted for shelters around We need to support organized camps, connection the state - including a youth shelter dreamed up by a M cKay High School student in Salem. to services, shelters, health care, transit, hygiene The legislature also sent a constitutional services - all the ways that life can actually be amendment to voters this November that would better while people work to overcome loosen some constraints around how affordable homelessness. housing bonds can be pooled with other funds, And we have to step up again and again for which will immediately matter when we hopefully renter protections and affordable housing. have the opportunity to vote for a Metro Regional Please make sure the city officials hear these Housing Bond in that same election. demands louder than demands for camp sweeps. And just this past Wednesday, the Portland This matters. City Council made permanent the relocation fees Statewide, we made some housing gains this landlords pay when they issue no-cause evictions past month in the legislature, but we need many or raise rent by more than 10 percent. They gains, and big gains. voted to expand this requirement in most cases Let Mark’s letter be a letter to us all. Imagine to single-unit landlords. that handwriting on amber-green paper, and how While all this legislation focused on how to it is attached to one person who absolutely make housing conditions better, other legislation deserves the best of life’s opportunities. And focused on another element of our housing crisis then imagine thousands and thousands more - camp sweeps. This was problematic from the people across our state who deserve to thrive. As get-go because an emphasis on sweeps is an long as some of us are suffering the scarcity of emphasis on making life more difficult for our housing and the danger of the streets, it matters neighbors who live outside. to us all. The legislature passed a bill that allows the . . - gggl llilillll - Street Roots 211 NW Davis St, ‘ Fax:503-227-3117 Hours: 7:30 a,nv3 p.m. Mon.-Frt, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. in « tnq in Staff Executive Director Kaia Sand kaia@streetroots.org Executive Editor Joanne Zuhi Vendor Program Director Cote M erkel coie@ streetroots.org Development Director Andrew Hogan andrew@streetroots.org Senior Staff Reporter Emily Green Operations Director Sarah Beecroft Program Assistant Caeiin Miftko, Jesuit Volunteer Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson, Alex Gillow-Wiles Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnlk Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emifly Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Thacher Schmid, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hill Celeste Noche Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chair Brad Taylor Vice-Chair 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, Dennis Hogan, 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, Camber Hansen- Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan, Helen Hill, Mary Emerson, Brooke Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Maile Yeats-Rowe, Erin Parsons, Faye Powell, Jon Raymond and Megan Pickerel-Winer. 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.
