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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2018)
Roots • Nov. 2-8, 2018 O p in io n Page 3 Street Roots 211 NW DavisSt. - Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 Fax:503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org news.streetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. S a t and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. If you would like to have something that you’ve written published in our pages, or would like to get involved as a member of our reporting staff, contact Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl at 503- 228-5657, joanneW reetraots.org. We ask that ail submissions inducte the author’s name and contact information, if available. c D PHO TO BY M O T O Y A N A K A M U R A street Roots Vendor Paulette Bode, standing, a nd Sherry Asbury hold up a picture o f their friend, form er Street Roots Vendor Rebecca LaBar, who passed away earlier this year. Domicile Unknown underscores the toll exacted from our streets Advertising Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email Andrew Hogan at amkewteeetroots.org Staff Executive Director Kaia Sand n Tuesday, Oct. 30 we released the findings fortunate than some of the people who camp of the 2017 Domicile Unknown report, an nearby. One woman who has been on the streets ongoing project of the Multnomah County most of her life suffers from what looks to him like Health Department and Street Roots, sponsored schizophrenia. by He worries about her. And then Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. In there is that man who is 77: “Shit, I’m afraid he is 2017, 79 people were formally registered as dying going to die out there.” hom W ftR ^ number Too many people do die on the streets. Street » w idely acknow ledged a s an undercount, as the hospital numbers represent only a portion of hospital deaths By Kaia Sand among people _______________ experiencing homelessness. We do this report to honor the dead, and we do this to fight for the living. There are many people for whom I utter a grateful prayer that they are alive. The man who manages his addiction with methadone and a chihuahua for live-saving comfort. Another man, chronically ill, who finally lives indoors in a single room occupancy with his hotplate and clean clothes in his closet. The woman who describes her carpet as plush as a mattress after nearly 20 years on the streets. The elders who look out for each other in their building, helping with groceries, medicine, friendship. Housing is health, and so are services for mental health and addictions. Because it really is touch and go. In the past few weeks, three people wandered into our office with black eyes from being beaten up in their sleep, and one man showed me how, on the back of his head, staples stretched his flesh back together from where it was split apart when he was also beaten on the streets. One man lifted his shoe, pointing to where the rubber sole was dangling, his sock exposed. This happened just as the rains started, he said. There are people whose addictions roar in their ears, drowning out much else, including bits of the pain, or the cold, or the fear. People wander, guarding possessions, never fully sleeping, exhausted. At Street Roots, we fight for their lives. One man told me about his campsite. He props a “Yes for Affordable Housing Measure 102 & Measure 26-199” lawn sign against his tent because, as he tells me, if there were housing he could afford, he would live there. His tent is visible to a busy road. But he feels fortunate, more DESK K aia Sand is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots. org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand J R o o ts h a s p a r tn e r e d w it h M u lt n o m a h C o u n t y a n d the medical examiner on this Domicile Unknown report since 2011, cataloging deaths on the streets. In the seven years we have been tracking these deaths on the streets of Multnomah County, at least 438 people have died. People on our streets die decades before their time. Men died at an average age of 48. Females at 41. The freezing weather in January 2017 proved fatal for five people sleeping outside who died of hypothermia. The repeated traumas of homelessness exacerbate health vulnerabilities. People are exposed to violence and die that way. They lack safe conditions for a range of health struggles, including mental illness and addiction, resulting in deaths, by suicide, methamphetamine, alcohol and opiates. So far, 2018 is on track to replicate previous years. At least 49 people who were experiencing homelessness died in Multnomah County between Jan. 1 and Oct. 8, 2018, according to an interim review of the medical examiner. Multnomah County has extended its work addressing homelessness, forming with the city of Portland the Joint Office of Homeless Services in 2016, helping move people from homelessness to housing, and working to create supportive housing - deeply affordable housing coupled with mental health, addiction and other services. We cannot let up on the local level, and all of this work must be bolstered by strong state and federal support Many of these deaths would have been preventable if people had housing, as well as additional support for their addictions and illnesses. Many more senseless and premature deaths can be prevented in the future. When we get people indoors, we save lives. When we get people supportive services, we save even more. The numbers are grim, but my hope is that we don’t turn away from each other’s humanity. It’s my hope that we turn toward each other with love; kaiateeetroots.org Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Program Director Cole Merkel coleteeetroots.org Development Director Andrew Hogan andrew@streetroots.org Senior S ta ff R eporter trcwiy Green emily@streetroots.org Vendor Coordinator DeVon Pouncey Administrative Assistant Kayla Jones Program Assistant Meghan Murphy, Jesuit Volunteer Vendor Assistant Alex Gillow-Wiles Development Assistant Nina Lee Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnik Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado, Ellena Rosenthal, Amanda Waldroupe, Helen Hill, Jason Cohen, Stephen Quirke, Libby Oowsett Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown, Celeste Noche Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chair Rachel Langford Vice-Chair Dan Jones Treasurer Heather Stadkk Secretary Alison Hallett Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson Volunteers 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 Oldanl, 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, Danny Moran, Susan Maloy and Megan Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots. orgA/olunteer. Or you can call for more, information: at 503-228-5657.
