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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2018)
Street Roots • Aug. 24-30, 2018 Opinion Page 3 Partnering income, housing gets us all across the finish line R executive d irector o f Street Roots. You can reach her a t kaia@streetroots. org. F ollow h er on Twitter @ m kaiasand s k ills a n d t h e ir xs. \ X. that you’ve written published „ in our pages, or would \ ; J / \ / like to get involved as a member of our reporting-staff, contact Executive Editor Joanne Zuhi at 503-^3-5657, panoe^streetroot$.org. We ask that all submissions include the author's name and contact infonriation, if available. 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.-fti, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. Advertising Interested in advertising in Street Boots? Email Andrew Hogan 3tandrew@streetroots.org Staff Executive D irector Kaia Sand kaia@streetroots.org . Executive Editor Joanne Zuhi joanne@streetroots.org Vender Pro gram D ire cto r Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org Development D irector Andrew Hogan andrew@streetroots.org Se n ior S t a ff Reporter Emily Green Program A ssista n t Caefin Miltko, Jesuit on the streets. T hat’s the death. Four Street Roots resources. goal. Street Roots vendor vendors or former vendors Cory McKelvey is have died in the last month, participating in this program decades before their time. Two with a determination that, other vendors died earlier this year. We have should he secure been running tributes to our late vendors in housing, any success he recent editions of the paper. achieves helps more People need safe dwellings. This includes people secure housing. self-governed, secure places to camp, places “We are not measured like Right 2 Dream Too. And this includes a as a people by how the place indoors to call their own. first of us cross the There isn’t a quick fix to getting people finish line but how the housing, but there are many fixes. And last of us cross the that’s what we need - a lot of collective finish line,” he said, and energy toward many fixes. this philosophy guides There is a constant energy at Street him. * Roots. The door swings open with people Housing is sky-high offering what they can. I could fill columns expensive and subsidies singing the praises of community partners are few. We need to get who find a way to offer their skills and their more money into resources. That’s what happened when Laura Locker people’s pockets and we need to get the cost of of Mercy Corps Northwest began housing down for more brainstorming with Street Roots Vendor people. At Street Roots, Program Director Cole Merkel about how we take Cory’s Mercy Corps Northwest - based only blocks philosophy to heart as we fight for systemic from Street Roots - could make a difference change, but we also know that, one-by-one, if in the local struggles around homelessness. we can get a few people closer to housing -= Locker manages the organization’s across that finish line, as Corey put it - that Individual Development Account, or IDA, matters. As we pilot a program like this one matched savings program, which works with with Mercy Corps Northwest, we aim to low-income, entrepreneurial people to help carve out a model that can be extended. them build their assets and become more Life shouldn’t be so cruel that someone financially resilient. She decided to take the should fear falling asleep each night, prey to tools she has to apply it to the problems of violence, delirious from sleep deprivation. If homelessness. one night in a safe home did one Street “We work in Old Town. We care about the Roots vendor wonders, just think what his people we see,” Locker said. She reached own house keys would do. That’s what is at out to Street Roots, she said, because, stake. Mercy Corps Northwest works with / \ Z —------ \ something D IR EC TO R 'S K a ia S a n d is the Write iii If you would like ecently, a Street Roots vendor showed entrepreneurs, “and Street Roots is all about up in our office refreshed. His face entrepreneurs.” Our vendors buy the looked smoother, more rested, than it newspaper for a quarter and sell it for a had earlier in the week. His speech, calmer dollar. The currency is often in pennies, and clearer. His mood, more optimistic. And nickels and dimes, but they are doing all his black eye had begun to disappear. they can to make that grow enough to It had been only two weeks since. survive, managing ledgers in pocket . someone had beat notebooks and sharing marketing tips with him with a beer each other. Each day, they must summon bottle when he was the gumption to hit the sidewalk and earn asleep in his sleeping money. bag in an attempted Locker realized that she could use the robbery. h ByKaiaSand IDA program to increase fivefold the money What was the earned by at least a few Street Roots difference? One night vendors when they save that money toward indoors in a safe housing. space. A friend had Over the next year, Mercy Corps given him a night’s respite from the Northwest is piloting this program with a exhaustion and insecurity of homelessness, handful of vendors. Participants open a bank a little time to heal. account, and every dollar they save is The next day his weariness returned. He matched with $5. Through was back on the streets, the program they create a careful not to overstay his plan that helps them analyze welcome, he said. But oh, There Is a constant barriers to housing and would he like keys of his own, create a budget, and they energy at Street a safe place to sleep each attend rent-well classes. Up Roots. The door night to $600 will be matched with swings open with At Street Roots, we work $3000, which can go toward with about 175 vendors each people offering many expenses of housing - week, more than half of whom what they can. I deposits, first and last áre homeless, and most, could fill columns month’s rent, moving deeply poor. On the streets, singing the praises expenses, application fees, people áre subjected to furniture. of community violence, stress, sleep Locker hopes that this partners who find a deprivation, exposure to program can grow, and we infection, and other struggles way to offer their can apply it to more people th at result too often in early Volunteer Vendor A ssistant Scott Jackson, Alex Gillow-Wiles Development A ssistant Rosemary Wilson Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnik Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado, Eitena Rosenthal, Amanda Waldroupe, DeVon Pouncey, Helen Hill Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown, Celeste Noche C anvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors C h air Rachel Langford Vice-Chair Dan Jones Treasu rer Heather Stadick Se cretary Alison Hallett D irectors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Hels Johnson Street Roots Vendor Cory McKelvey. 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 Horen, Mark Oldani, Bianca Butler, Camber Hansen- Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan, Helen Hill, Mary Emerson, Brooke Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Malle Yeats-Rowe, Erin Parsons, Faye Powell, 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. ,
