Street roots., April 13, 2018, Page 6, Image 6

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prison and never received addiction
treatment before arriving in Portland,
where she was arrested for possession.
“The judge, Sidney Galton, sent a
psychiatrist with Multnomah County to
talk to me. And he’s the one who got me
BY LEONORA KO
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
into De Paul (Treatment Center).”
“That’s how I got treatment on Feb. 22,
hen Netty Johnson did a good
2004. And I’ve been clean since,” said
deed and helped a stranger in
Netty.
Portland, a chain of events led to
a long friendship and eventually to Street Because of her recovery work, Netty
qualified for housing through REACH
Roots.
Community Development, a private
It started when an elderly woman fell
nonprofit corporation that provides
trying to catch the bus.
affordable housing. She also went through
“Back 30, 40 years ago, I was a nurse’s
job training at Central City Concern, a
aide,” said Netty, “so I was able to pick
nonprofit agency that provides services
her up.”
addressing homelessness, poverty and
Netty stayed with the woman until the
addiction.
ambulance arrived and thought no more
She has worked as a dishwasher,
about it. A few months later, a bouquet of
counselor and welder and has been always
flowers arrived at her workplace with a
eager to do a good job.
message: “My name is Margaret and you
“It’s just in my DNA to work,” said
helped me. You saved me a lot of damage,
Netty.
and I’d like to take you to lunch one day.”
But finding jobs has been difficult. She
Eventually the two women became
said, “When I applied for a job as a
friends. Netty did odd jobs around
dishwasher, it took the chef almost six
Margaret’s house and Margaret, a retired
long weeks to get me that job
literature professor from Evergreen
because I have a (prison)
College, taught Netty to read.
record that’s 14 years old.
At that point Netty was one year into
And I’m not even
her recovery from drug addiction.
touching money. When
Netty said she had a challenging
you have a record,
childhood growing up in Seattle and was
when does it come to
the 10th of 11 children raised by a single
the point that you say,
mother.
‘She’s worked long
“We never did the foster system in my
enough and didn’t
family,” said Netty. “My mother was never
violate the laws?’ By
*
then my
She m a d e u i^ o n i^ h ^ a u g h t
us what she could and gave
us all wisdom. But as I
experience mental health
treatment now, I realize I
was born with some type
of syndrome.
“Life started
happening,” she said. “I
became pregnant. I was
16 and a half. He was 34.
He gave me heroin,
cocaine.” Her boyfriend
was abusive and Netty left
him and took their
daughter. But she was not
able to stay off drugs and
her mother and two sisters
ended up raising her child.
She said she went in and out of
W
IN STORES
3 y
Street Roots • April 13-19, 2018
Vendors
Page 6
mental health is too exhausted to get it.”
Netty was near the home of her friend
Margaret when she met Earl, a Street
Roots vendor. She happened to be
between jobs, and he encouraged her to
sell Street Roots.
She now sells Street Roots near New
Seasons Market Woodstock and often
brings her dog Sunny “just so he can
socialize.” Netty always brings her best
self to the job and during this interview,
she had a grey sweatshirt and hat specially
made with the words “Street Roots” and
made sure Sunny was presentable.
“Everybody knows Sunny because he’s
always with me. He’s at the meetings.
He’s at church. He’s everywhere,” said
Netty.
Recently, Netty had a reporting gig
where she helped interview Black Lives
M atter” activist DeRay McKesson for
Street Roots. A reader was so impressed
with the interview that they sent a $500
donation to Street Roots, to which Netty
exclaimed, “Wow, that’s cool!”
Netty described her experience selling
Street Roots this way: ”We get out there
and smile with that paper, right? We might
be mad at the whole world and haven’t
seen our family in years, but we still
try to dress nice. You know, put on
something cute, make up our little
outfits.
“Some (of the vendors) are not
there yet. But they still have a reason
to get up and go out in the public.
From whatever they went through
before they arrived here in the
^..tbey get -their, papers. They
got something to hold onto that
makes them feel
human.”
Celebrate National Poetry
Month with Street Roots
vendors and Multnomah
County Library.
Join us for a reading
April 29,2-3:30 p.m.
at the Central Library,
801 SW 10th Avenue