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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2018)
Street Roots • March 23-29, 2018 O p in io n Page 3 SPARC-ing conversation on homelessness and race iy does homelessness affect communities of color at higher ra rates, and how can we make sure that we respond to homelessness in Multnomah County with racial disparities in mind? This is a conversation that SPARC - Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities - launched this week in Multnomah County with a series of panels and trainings for folks in the city, county and numerous organizations working on the frontlines of homelessness, including Street Roots. The Joint Office of Homeless Services — a partnership of Multnomah County and the City of Portland—formed this partnership with SPARC, an initiative of the Center for Social Innovation. Previously, SPARC conducted initial research with six partners - Atlanta, Ga.; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; San Francisco, California; Syracuse, N.Y.; Pierce County, Wash. Multnomah County joins up now in the next phase, which will take place over the next year. The initial research showed that African Americans and Native Americans are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Here’s how it plays out W T T K a ia S a n d is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @ m kaiasand African Americans experience homelessness at twice the rate, and Native Americans at four times the rate. There’s more, and it’s connected. African American and Native Americans earn half the average salary as white Portlanders. And there’s no one, two or three-bedroom apartment that an African American or Native American-led household who earns that average salary can afford. Oregon has a history of excluding and displacing people of color. Federal housing policies, forced relocations of Native people, mid-century termination of some Oregon tribes, exclusionary housing laws, racist real estate practices, planning and policies, terrible terms on housing mortgages and on and on. And then there’s less to pass on - people of color lose out on intergenerational wealth. This all impacts housing stability. Portland must grapple with decades of policies that gentrified - and continue to gentrify - neighborhoods, displacing communities of color. We can be misguided by assumptions and experiences, and by who is at the table and who is not. Then we miss what is right before our eyes, in terms of both problems and opportunities. Over the next year, SPARC will work locally on research, conversations and strategies around the intersections of race and homelessness. This willingness to grapple with hard questions means we are lo c a lly , a c c o r d in g t o l a s t y e a r ’s P o i n t in m o r e lik e ly t o c r e a t e m o r e e q u i t a b le Time count: Compared to white folks, responses. We’ve got to try. Street Roots 211 NW Davis S t 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. S at and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email Andrew Hogan at andrew@streetroots.org Staff Executive Director Kaia Sand kaia@streetroots.org Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Program Director Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org Development Director Andrew Hogan andrew@streetroots.org Senior S ta ff R e p o r te r Emily Green Operations Director Sarah Beecroft Program Assistant Caefin Miltko, Jesuit Volunteer Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson, Alex Gillow-Wiles Development Assistant Rosemary Wilson Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnik , Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Thacher Schmid, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hill Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown, 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, Danny Moran and Megan Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer Marc Danes with Supporting Partnerships fo r Anti-Racist Communities, or SPARC, speaks to an audience o f service providers in Portland March 19. SPARC is part o f the Center fo r Social Innovation, and is working with Portland as part o f a nationwide effort to change how housing and homeless services work with communities o f color. application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can call for more information at 503-228-5657.
