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o ctober 21, 2015
P ortland
and
s eattle
V olume XXXVIII, n o . 3
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C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Housing
Pilot
Project
25
CLIMATE
Urban League, city
partner to stabilize
Black households
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner News
See HOUSING on page 3
INDEX
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
A
new partnership between the Urban
League and the Portland Housing
Bureau promises to help stabilize 50
Black households by July of next year.
City Council appropriated $391,000 from
the general fund to pilot the project, which
sees the Housing Bureau partnering with a
culturally specific organization for the first
time to benefit their target population.
The deal comes right on the heels the
city’s recent declaration of a housing state
of emergency, when Mayor Charlie Hales
promised $30 million dollars to help the
city’s growing houseless population.
Bisi Carter, head of the Urban League’s
healthy familes program, said African
Americans have been in a housing crisis for
a long time, but called the partnership with
the City a “step in the right direction.”
“African American homelessness contin-
ues to kind of rise, so we’re seeing the cri-
sis of homelessness every day,” Carter said.
“We’re pleased with the commitment from
the city to address the racial disparities, and
consider this investment a small but strong
step in the right direction.”
The League will spread the across their
many services, using them for both eviction
prevention and getting homeless people into
stable housing.
There’s been an increase of almost 50
percent in African American homelessness
since 2013 alone, according to Multnomah
County statistics released that year. That,
coupled with a growing joblessness rate, has
had a crippling effect of Blacks as a boom-
ing Portland is even beginning to price some
of its more affluent residents out.
Jerome Brooks, program coordinator for
the housing bureau says the numbers are
probably higher once factoring in people not
traditionally factored in homeless counts,
like those “couch surfing.”
“You’re not always going see somebody
On Oct. 14 Seattle joined 170 communities around the country in the People’s Climate March. About 1,000 people
marched from City Hall to Occidental Park in Pioneer Square to protest the TPP, and try and impact the United Na-
tions Climate Change Conference in Paris in November.
On Black Male Achievement
National conference sends attendees home with mood of urgency
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner News
A
fter a three-day con-
ference of organizers
working nationally to
better the outcomes for Black
men and boys, the general mood
was one of urgency as organiz-
ers prepared to return to their
respective cities.
Thirty-five
representatives
from six cities convened in Port-
land from Oct. 14-16 to discuss
the Black Male Achievement
and different strategies to better
effect, the program’s four core
areas of concern: education, em-
ployment, family stability and
ending the disproportionate rep-
resentation of Black males in the
criminal justice system.
As the conference came to
a close, on the top floor of the
Marriott hotel downtown, many
participants commended the
Portland conference for what
they viewed as progressive
work on the front of restorative
justice.
Local Black Male Achieve-
ment organizer, C.J. Robbins
cautioned that there is still much
to be done in the city.
“There are [schools] that are
struggling with implementing
restorative justice with any kind
of fidelity. There are organiza-
tions that just pay lip service.
And as you go further out [in
East County], you’ll see more of
the hurting. It’s just like any oth-
er gentrified area, where people
are being pushed out to an area
where they are not welcomed,”
Robbins said. “I just want to be
honest about what Portland is
facing.”
Mayor Charlie Hales, who
interacted with the conference
intermittently during the three
days, agreed with Robbins add-
ing that the City has underin-
vested in African Americans for
decades.
Activist and author Eric
Grimes, of the New York chap-
ter of Black Male Achievement,
said there must be innovation in
how Black lives can be bettered
on the levels of policy as well as
perception.
See CONVENTION on
page 3
Crews Reflects on Teaching Conference
News ................1,3,9-10
Event drew more than 500 people to highlight work of educators
Opinion .......................2
By Arashi S. Young
Of The Skanner News
Calendars ................4,5
A & E ........................6-8
Bids/Classifieds ..........11
E
ducator Karanja Crews has a calling
to change the way teachers reach their
students. Through his 12 years of pro-
fessional teaching experience, he has made
his teaching culturally relevant and empow-
ering to students of color.
For the last five years, he has helmed the
Teaching With Purpose conference, which
shares these insights with other local educa-
tors. The event has grown from attracting 10
attendees to bringing in more than 500 and
highlights the work of nationally renowned
educators.
Crews spoke with The Skanner News
about the recent conference, the current state
of equity in local education and his plans to
continue this work. Here are excerpts of that
interview, edited for space and clarity.
The Skanner News: First and foremost,
how did the conference go?
Karanja Crews: It was an awesome
weekend, awesome high energy. I think peo-
ple really left empowered and charged up,
which is the goal.
See CREWS on page 3