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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2018)
Street Roots • Dec. 21-27, 2018 Page 3 O p in io n City’s new police liaison must put streets first wo vendors leaned on the garbage can outside fall, «hows us how violence and health struggles - our office^ a cloth spread over its lid like a from substance use to depression to cancer - are tablecloth as they organized items from their aggravated by living on the streets. Those streets pockets. They were discussing the announcement took 79 lives last year. They’re, on track to take as that the Portland Police Bureau is hiring a homeless many again by year’s end. community liaison, which we cover in this issue. Police need to learn from unhoused communities . They spoke of distrust of the police, and joked what Can be done so they can be safer and heard. with me about the word liaison - where does that One of our vendors, C.W„ described how his situation second “i* land? - as one of them jotted the position illustrated a lack of both: he was nearly killed when title on a scrap of paper. The woman suggested that he was assaulted and robbed in his sleep, and then police have a lost and found. he could not secure a police response. Again and People often describe how again, people walk through our doors with bruises, their backpacks “grew legs” in gashes and worse, beat-up and robbed in the night. the night, a bit of levity to Violence is recurring and it’s hard to get justice. And describe turmoil: For people our reports have shown how life is especially perilous who have little, their for women on the streets. possessions are too often In order to advocate to the police about how to stolen from their bodies when help unhoused people be safer, this liaison must be they sleep. entrenched in the culture of homeless folks, not the It’s important to remember that the two sides culture of police. Because one thing we can say loud needing this liaison — this link — are not equal. There and clear at Street Roots - there is no accurate is a power imbalance. The effort needs to go toward stereotype of a homeless person. 'listening'to and representing unhoused communities. At Street Roots we are privy to something special People on the streets have reason to fear - knowing the diversity of vibrant human beings who interactions with the police. The Oregonian reported live unhoused. Yesterday, a woman dabbed on her that 52 percent of all arrests last year targeted mascara as she cheerfully chatted. A woman in a unhoused people. Street Roots consistently covers wheelchair told me her favorite color is blue. A man aspects of this high rate óf criminalization. We’ve who cusses as easily as he breathes was also, covered how homelessness itself is criminalized, simultaneously, courteous and which ACLU of Oregon has sweet. Teasing rippled around the studied. The Western Regional office. Vendors bantered with the I f At its best, the Advocacy Coalition - which vendor program coordinator about Street Roots belongs to with which Arizona college sports team liaison can improve... Sisters of the Road and Right 2 is "super ion A longtim evendor ■ K a ia S q n d is th e executive director of_ Street Roots. You can reach her at .,£ kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand 'Slirvive ^continues to address thi^w táie development of a-- 4 Homeless Bill o,f Rights. interactions when , poljc3^riS Q .unter' ; • I people-' óñ Ih e fr stre&IS; ■ B S im prove their introduced, to m e to a new vendor, [ h is n e i g h b o r - t h e i r t e n t s s it adjacent in inner southeast. Substance use and mental And all óf yóu áre privy to this illness are too often tangled up too through your relationships in situations that result in with Street Roots’ vendors. Qpen arrests - * from possession our centerfold in this issue to see .responses when, charges to disorderly conduct - a gloriously diverse smattering of .-unhoused people- rather than addressed through gratitudes. People give thanks for the realm of public health. life, for an RV, for customers, .'need them . But w e . People experiencing dental floss, autumn colors. homelessness report feeling need to deroo uple Coffee. targeted for how they look, such So .if this liaison can train police police w o rk from as our vendor who rushed into to better know the humanity of non-crim inal m atters I our office recently, brimming people on the streets, that’s an with frustration as he described accomplishment What this not be around hom elessness; getting ticketed for jaywalking. ¿ is an extension of the bureau as a Other people who did not appear public relations exercise. homeless were also jaywalking, This liaison position cannot become another way he said, and they were not ticketed. He calmed down to police homeless people, but a way to better once he was able to vent and be heard, but there was support them, so it is promising that this is not a still the issue of the ticket, which he could never badged position. At its best, the liaison can improve afford to pay. interactions when police encounter people on their We recently ran a series on how court fines and ; fees disproportionately affect the poor. A ticket that a streets, and improve their responses when unhoused people need them. But we need to de-couple police middle-class person might pay without much thought work from non-criminal matters around can catapult a poor person into years of turmoil when homelessness. the unpaid traffic ticket leads to rapidly escalating This means that we must bolster the extraordinary fees. This, Emily Green showed in her investigation, work that nonprofit and peer outreach workers do can lead to the lossof a driver’s license or even before emergencies arise. As we report in this issue, vehicle impoundment - all paralleling one’s plummet these positions are too few and underpaid - but well- further into poverty and homelessness. worth a community investment I’ve argued the system structures antagonism — And we need a system-wide emergency outreach such as people calling 911 on unhoused people for for non-criminal matters. As we argued in a recent non-criminal matters or reporting campsites through editorial, CHIERS and Project Respond all offer the city’s One Point of Contact System - rather than portions, as does the Portland Fire and Rescue’s I constructive responses. We must make it easier for Community Health Assessment Team, or CHAT, and neighbors to be constructive. we suggest that our city study the Eugene model of Street Roots won’t let up on this coverage. We’re CAHOOTS, which dispatches medic and a crisis . determined to not just despair, but analyze and solve. worker for mental health emergencies. Today, Friday, Dec. 21, is Homeless Persons Ultimately, people who are homeless need to be Memorial Day. The Domicile Unknown report, which policed less and supported more. Street Roots released with Multnomah County this Street Roots . Portland, OR 97209 503-228-5657 g f 1 E I Fax:503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org news.streetroots.org Hours: 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon.-RL, 7:30 a.m,-2 p,m. Sat, and 7:30-1 p.m. Sun. Submissions you’ve written published in our pages, : or would like to get involved as a mèmber of our reporting staff, contact Executive Editor Joanne Zuhi at 503- 967-3982, joanne@streetroots.org. We ask that all submissions include the author s name and contact information, if available. . Advertising interested in advertising in Street Roots? Email Andrew Hogan at andrew@streetroots.org S ta ff Executive Director Kaia Sand kaia@streetroots.org Executive Editor Joanne ZuhI joanne@streetroots.org Vendor Program Director Cole Merkel Development D ire c to r Andrew Hogan andrew@streetroots.org S en io r S ta ff R e p o rte r Emily Green em ily@ streetroots.org - SB * Vendor Coordinator Pe Von 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 Dowsett IBS Photographers Celeste Noche Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chair Rachel Langford Vice-Chair Dan Jones Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Alison Hallett Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson Volunteers Stacey Heath, Anjalf 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, Danny Moran; Susan Maloy, Pat Zimmer 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.....
