Street Roots • July 13-19, 2018
We must separate homelessness from criminality
ometimes it feels like we’ve been given
different maps to the same city. When
your map has no residence that you rent
or own, your city looks dystopian, one where
your very existence is illegal, again and again.
Do you need to chart your next meal? Where
you are less likely to be harassed if you camp?
Do you map the city
according to what helps
you avoid arrest?
DIRECTOR'S
This is a big moment.
The Oregonian reported
that the majority - 52
By Kaia Sand
percent - of the arrests
targeted people who are
struggling with
homelessness. How we
respond to this moment defines us.
So far, Mayor Ted Wheeler has not stepped
up, quibbling instead about statistics rather
than acknowledging that the criminalization of
unhoused Portland compounds the problem.
It’s not about whether or not you have solved
homelessness, Mayor Wheeler. Many, many of
Us will energetically defend your point that this
is a national problem, highlighting the brutal
defunding of deeply affordable housing since
the 1980s.
Of course, you haven’t solved homelessness
in Portland. It’s not yours alone to solve. We all
need to be led to our better selves on this
matter.
But we don’t need spin. We need
commitment.
Here’s the thing: if you say that the oqlyway
S
K a ia S an d is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach her at
kaia@streetroots.org.
Follow her on
Twitter @mkaiasand
Page 3
Opinion
perceived homelessness is illegal under state
law. It’s an easy way for police to get arrests, a
lot easier than fishing for warrants in gated
communities.
2. There are plenty of activities that are legal
inside our houses that are illegal if we are
unhoused. Sleeping. Going to the bathroom.
Portland ordinances target loitering, sleeping,
camping, urination, and curfew. We need to get
people housed, but when the reality is they
aren’t, they need to be able to camp safely and
legally. Many unhoused people know how to
organize, and they must have spaces to do so,
just as they have done with Dignity Village,
Right 2 Dream Too, and Hazelnut Grove,
among others. Otherwise, their existence is
illegal. And in that case, we are equating
homelessness and criminality.
3. Drug addiction is a public health issue.
People in houses tend to their addictions in
private; unhoused people in the public, where
they are subject to a rre st They need safe
places to go. Canada has led the way with safe
injection sites. There’s movement afoot across
the United States - from Philadelphia to San
Francisco, Seattle to New York - to make this
happen. This approach looks at the trauma,
despair and brain chemistry of addiction, and
focuses on saving lives. Less criminality, more
humanity.
4. Court fines and fees extract money from
the poorest among us. And the more people
are fined, the more they have to make
desperate choices, The more their problems
t o iSrm^^L^ e ^ ^ m ib e r s of a rre sts down is to ^
compound. It’s among th e m ost ironic
end homelessness, then you are equating
homelessness and criminality. Instead, we must
unflinchingly evaluate what these arrest
numbers reveal. Here are some of my thoughts
as we ah grapple with our way forward, and I’ll
expand on these points in upcoming columns: ,
1. People struggling with homelessness
should not be profiled by the police. The
American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon
demanded an investigation, and Police Chief
Danielle Outlaw responded by calling for an
inquiry by the Independent Police Review, and
for this, I applaud them. In the letter to Mayor
Wheeler and Chief Outlaw, the ACLU of
Oregon described receiving reports of police
“stopping and questioning people on the street,
running warrant checks, and searching their
tents and personal belongings without
reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a
crime has occurred.” Profiling people based on
examples of these failed policies, and when
factoring in the wasted time and money from
police and court processing, it’s taxing all of us.
5. Housed Portlanders need to stop fueling
the criminalization of homeless people. The
Mayor said that he receives many calls to this
point. Over the past five weeks, more than
3,000 people reported campsites through the
city’s online system. Yes, it can be painful to
see camps. But one person’s short-term
discomfort should not worsen another person’s
long-term pain and trauma.
Please flood the Mayor’s office with
supportive phone calls for unhoused neighbors
and the vital services needed to help them rise
above. Let him know that we do not want to
police people into greater despair. If we really
do want to separate out homelessness from
criminality, we need to m ap a new way forward.
Write in
«
ip hâve
¡favaBabk
Street Roots
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Portland, OR 87209
503-228-S657
Fax: 5(0-2274117
www.news.streetroots.org '
1
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
B IB
H
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
Vender Program Director Cole Merkel
cote@streetroots.org
Development Director Andrew Hogan
andrew@streetroots.org
Senior Staff Reporter tonify Green
Operations Director Sarah Beecraft
Program Assistant Caelin 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, Ellena Rosenthal, Amanda Waldroupe,
Thacher Schmid, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hill
Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown,
' Celeste Noche
Canvasser Desmond Hardison
Board of Directors
Ghair Rachel Langford
Vice-Chair Dan Jones
Treasurer Heather Stadick
Secretary Alison Hallett
Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn,
John.Brown, Nels Johnson
Volunteers
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
Fl'oren, 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
application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can
call for more information at 503-228-5657