The BulleTin • Sunday, March 28, 2021 A3
TODAY
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
PORTLAND
Neighborhood groups assist homeless
residents, rather than rally to eject them
BY NICOLE HAYDEN
The Oregonian
Tony Gonzales finds solace
as he rests on a concrete space
an arm’s reach from a down-
town Portland church, its stee-
ples stretching heavenward on
either side. He sleeps in a gray
and green tent, neatly tucked
at the edge of the sidewalk, try-
ing to be unobtrusive to pass-
ersby. His goal: to be invisible.
To just make it safely through
the night.
“I don’t really like it here. It’s
uncomfortable. My situation,
it’s embarrassing,” he said on
a recent blue-sky Sunday. “At
night I can hear people yelling
and it bothers me. I wish they
would stop.”
A lot of life squeezes into the
four-square block section of
downtown he now calls home.
Archways of trees with springs
buds. Red brick walkways.
Buildings dripping with history.
Tents that are temporary homes.
And housed neighbors who, as
they walk down the street to the
hair salon or coffee shop, some-
times advert their eyes from
things they find hard to see.
But there are also those
who feel moved to help their
neighbors experiencing home-
lessness — and want them to
know they aren’t invisible.
“I think every neighborhood
association should understand
who their neighbors are,” said
retiree David Dickson, who
co-leads volunteer homeless
outreach for the Downtown
Neighborhood Association.
From Lents to Sunnyside
to downtown, self-governed
neighborhood groups are set-
ting their sights on a new goal
of filling homeless services
gaps. They have organized
trash clean-ups, free showers,
laundry services, food and cold
weather gear distribution and
weekly wellness checks.
Gonzales appreciates the
kindness neighborhood volun-
teers have shown him.
Such actions mark a distinct
change in Portland. Historically,
neighborhood associations
from Overlook to Laurelhurst
to Mt. Scott-Arleta expressed
wariness or outright hostility
to shelters or other communal
living spaces for people expe-
riencing homelessness existing
within their bounds.
When the Sunnyside neigh-
borhood found itself occupied
by a large homeless community
centered on its public school
playground last year, however,
the Sunnyside Neighborhood
Association responded by,
among other actions, launching
a free shower program.
Hannah Wallace, who leads
that project, said the work
started after neighborhood
residents elected a new asso-
The Oregonian
Ramona Kearns, center, hands a bottle of hand sanitizer to a person inside a tent. Kearns, Missy Voux and
Robert Northman check on their homeless neighbors in downtown Portland once a week, distributing food,
water, gloves, flashlights and other essentials to people who want them.
ciation board last summer, re-
sulting in “new blood” and “an
attitude change.”
Dickson said the Downtown
Neighborhood Association
board similarly saw a changing
of the guards last spring.
Volunteers who’ve joined
the new movement hope it will
catch on across all of Portland’s
94 neighborhood associations.
Currently, at least 15 groups
are engaged in some sort of
organized homelessness en-
deavor, according to a poll of
neighborhood officials.
Bottomless need for outreach
Every Sunday at 1 p.m.,
downtown residents Dickson
and Stephanie Hansen, who
was formerly homeless, meet
outside of Hansen’s apartment
near Southwest 10th Avenue
and Main Street. They are one
of 14 homeless outreach teams
within the Downtown Neigh-
borhood Association. Each
has an assigned set of blocks to
walk around once a week with
a wagon full of granola bars,
water, coffee, socks, blankets
and more for people living on
the street. Teams have been do-
ing this since November.
“We provide survival items
for folks, but it is equally im-
portant to build relationships
and trust over time,” Dickson
said. “We want them to know
we are there to support them
and we can provide informa-
tion about mental health ser-
vices, shelter, and to really just
listen and be a good neighbor.”
Starbucks donates the coffee.
The group buys half the gear
with private donations. The
other half is provided by the
joint city and county supply
warehouse.
The downtown associa-
tion is the only neighborhood
group that picks up supplies
on a weekly basis, said Mult-
nomah County communi-
cations director Julie Sul-
livan-Springhetti. The city
spreads $2 million across all
94 neighborhood associations
which can be used for any pro-
gramming costs, including
homeless outreach.
This past Sunday, Dick-
son and Hansen met right on
schedule. The weather hinted
at spring, enjoyable for a stroll
around the neighborhood, but
still too cold to live outside.
Dickson started walking,
pulling the heavy red wagon
that Hansen had packed full.
Before they made it even half a
block, a man gingerly stopped
them and asked for water. He’s
not homeless, rather he lives
down the street in an afford-
able housing complex. But he
was hungry and thirsty and
low on cash.
Within their few blocks,
Dickson and Hansen walked
past nearly 25 tents. They
stopped to say hello at each.
Darlene Garrett, who chairs
the downtown association’s
homeless outreach commit-
tee, estimates about 200 people
are experiencing unsheltered
homelessness in the downtown
area, based on a count the as-
sociation conducted.
Finally, the two came upon
Gonzales’ tent. Dickson yelled
out his scripted “knock-
knock,” and was initially
brushed off. But Gonzales and
his neighbor in the next tent
over both perked up with the
offer of blankets.
“Whatever you guys want
to give us, we need,” Gonzales
said, thanking the team and
asking how their day was go-
ing.
Dickson saw that Gonzales
didn’t have a cover over his tent
like most campers. He rooted
through the wagon and pulled
out a blue tarp and an insu-
lation blanket. He instructed:
“put this blanket between your
sleeping bag and the ground.”
Gonzales was thankful — he
had never before seen outreach
workers in his neighborhood.
“I know there are so many
programs available to help us,
but I really appreciate that they
came to us,” Gonzales, 40, said.
“I am really shy and sometimes
feel overwhelmed going to a
resource center to ask for help.
I feel embarrassed to have to
ask ... I think it’s really awe-
some that they put forth the ef-
fort to come to us.”
It’s Sunday, March 28, the 87th day
of 2021. There are 278 days left in
the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1979, America’s worst com-
mercial nuclear accident occurred
with a partial meltdown inside the
Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile
Island plant near Middletown,
Pennsylvania.
In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs of New
Hampshire received a patent for a
washing machine.
In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court,
in United States v. Wong Kim Ark,
ruled 6-2 that Wong, who was
born in the United States to Chi-
nese immigrants, was an Ameri-
can citizen.
In 1935, the notorious Nazi propa-
ganda film “Triumph des Willens”
(Triumph of the Will), directed by
Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Ber-
lin with Adolf Hitler present.
In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia
Woolf, 59, drowned herself near
her home in Lewes, East Sussex,
England.
In 1942, during World War II,
British naval forces staged a
successful raid on the Nazi-occu-
pied French port of St. Nazaire in
Operation Chariot, destroying the
only dry dock on the Atlantic coast
capable of repairing the German
battleship Tirpitz.
In 1969, the 34th president of the
United States, Dwight D. Eisen-
hower, died in Washington, D.C.,
at 78.
In 1977, “Rocky” won best
picture at the 49th Academy
Awards; Peter Finch was honored
posthumously as best actor for
“Network” while his co-star, Faye
Dunaway, was recognized as best
actress.
In 1978, in Stump v. Sparkman,
the U.S. Supreme Court upheld,
5-3, the judicial immunity of an
Indiana judge against a lawsuit
brought by a young woman
who’d been ordered sterilized
by the judge when she was a
teenager.
In 1990, President George H.W.
Bush presented the Congressional
Gold Medal to the widow of U.S.
Olympic legend Jesse Owens.
In 1999, NATO broadened its
attacks on Yugoslavia to target
Serb military forces in Kosovo in
the fifth straight night of airstrikes;
thousands of refugees flooded
into Albania and Macedonia from
Kosovo.
In 2000, in a unanimous ruling,
the Supreme Court, in Florida v.
J.L., sharply curtailed police power
in relying on anonymous tips to
stop and search people.
Ten years ago: Vigorously de-
fending American attacks in Libya,
President Barack Obama declared
in a nationally broadcast address
that the United States intervened
to prevent a slaughter of civilians;
he ruled out targeting Moammar
Gadhafi, warning that trying to
oust him militarily would be a mis-
take as costly as the war in Iraq.
Five years ago: The FBI said it had
successfully used a mysterious
technique without Apple Inc.’s
help to hack into the iPhone used
by a gunman in a mass shooting
in California, effectively ending a
pitched court battle.
One year ago: The number of
confirmed coronavirus deaths in
the U.S. topped 2,000, twice the
number from just three days earli-
er; five countries had higher death
tolls, including Italy with more
than 10,000. New York’s presi-
dential primary was delayed from
April 28 to June 23. President Don-
ald Trump considered and then
rejected ordering a quarantine for
residents of New York, New Jersey
and Connecticut.
Today’s Birthdays: Author Mario
Vargas Llosa is 85. Country musi-
cian Charlie McCoy is 80. Movie
director Mike Newell is 79. Philip-
pines President Rodrigo Duterte is
76. Actor Dianne Wiest is 75. Coun-
try singer Reba McEntire is 66.
Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart
Conner is 63. Rapper Salt (Salt-N-
Pepa) is 55. Actor Tracey Need-
ham is 54. Actor Max Perlich is 53.
Movie director Brett Ratner is 52.
Country singer Rodney Atkins is
52. Actor Vince Vaughn is 51. Actor
Annie Wersching is 44. Actor Julia
Stiles is 40. Singer Lady Gaga is 35.
— Associated Press
If your spring
vacation takes you to
the beach or a
ski resort, you’ll need
plenty of sunscreen
to keep your
skin protected.
Come give
us a visit!
Gerald Peters, MD, FAAD, FACMS
Ann Reitan, MHS, PA-C • Ericka Luckel, PA-C • Julie Natoli, PA-C
541-323-SKIN (7546) • www.petersderm.com • 2353 NE Conners Ave, Bend