Street Roots rocked the Washington County Homeless Connect yesterday. The connect included free services for more than 500 individuals including medical, transportation and housing information. Other services included free haircuts, showers, hotel vouchers and much more.
More than 1,600 Rose City Resource Guides are distributed in Washington County every three months.
Posted in Street Roots
Title aside, the event promises to be an engaging and empowering series of workshops and networking around solutions.
Town Hall on the Economic Crisis
Saturday, January 31
First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave. at Main
12:30 – Doors Open, followed by plenary, work sessions, speakers and a food reception at 5 p.m.
Information on the event is below, but volunteers are still needed to bring it together.
If you are interesting in volunteering, send a note to justice@jwjpdx.org, or just show up at 11 a.m. Saturday at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave. at Main Street. Volunteers are needed to hand out leaflets tonight at the downtown lectures:
Paul Krugman 6:30-7pm (Schnitzer) and Cornel West 7-7:30pm (Newmark
Theater). If interested, call Andrea: 503-756-9103.
Help is also needed with setup, greeting and sign-ins, transporting Day Laborers from the center to the event, workshops note takers, reception prep, day care and clean-up. Please reply to chris@jwjpdx.org to sign up.
See the schedule after the jump.
Several years ago, playwright Helen Hill worked with residents of Dignity Village to put on “Filmore Hotel,” a play about gentrification. She has now written a new show, “Perfection,” about the erstwhile practice of forced sterilization in Oregon. The first performance, on Feb. 15, will be free to patrons of Street Roots, Dignity Village and Sisters of the Road.
A state-mandated eugenics program allowed doctors to forcibly sterilize over 2,000 Oregon residents between 1917 and 1981. The state sterilized criminals, people with mental or physical disabilities, homosexuals, and at least 100 young women at Oregon’s school for delinquent girls. In 2001, just before leaving office, Gov. John Kitzhaber issued an official apology for the practice.
“Perfection” will bring that sordid past to the stage. From Hill’s description:
“Perfection” is an historical drama told through the memory of Anna May Dobbs, a ninety-year old black woman … The action unfolds on the set behind her as she recalls her work back in 1934 at a poorhouse hospital where she was committed as a pregnant young woman and subsequently sterilized. The head doctor takes an “interest” in her, and young Anna May stays on, learning to assist the surgeries. After a botched operation kills a healthy young woman, secrets of the Doctor’s past are revealed and Anna must make a choice between loyalty, livelihood, and the ethics of the work they are involved in together.
The play opens Feb. 15, 2 p.m. at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Avenue. It will run through Feb. 28. Regular tickets are $20. For more information or to purchase tickets, see IFCC’s website.
At issue: Community Engagement
Organize to address the economic crisis
Jobs with Justice and a growing number of other organizations, including Street Roots, invite you to a town hall meeting on the economic crisis.
The meeting will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 31, at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave.
We have a great opportunity to organize for an economy that provides opportunity for working and poor people, an economy that helps communities thrive and reverses decades of growing inequality, union busting, unfair trade agreements, cuts in health care and the oppression of the poor.
In these extraordinary times, it is so important that we be proactive and learn, strategize and organize together! The event will feature panelists with experience and expertise on the economic collapse and ways to organize for solutions.
Restoring Oregon’s General Assistance Program
General assistance would provide a temporary monthly cash grant to childless individuals with disabilities to cover basic necessities while they apply for federal SSI/SSDI benefits.
Oregon currently has no safety net for vulnerable people with disabilities as they pursue federal benefits. Since the General Assistance was cut from the state budget during the last recession, thousands of individuals have been left (literally) in the cold with no means to cover their basic needs.
The average application time for federal benefits is one to three years. Without assistance during this time, many individuals end up in emergency rooms, jails and shelters, likely costing more than what taxpayers would pay for the General Assistance.
Take Action: Join the Oregon Food Bank in restoring Oregon’s General Assistance Program. Or print out the following doc and fax it to the Oregon Food Bank at 503.282.0922. 
Posted Jan. 22, 2009
So much news, so little time! But it only takes a minute to trade a buck for the finest collection of news and information assembled on 16 pages. Here’s what you’ll find in the new edition of Street Roots, available from our outstanding vendors Friday morning:
Bordering on insanity: Portland author and educator Martha Gies combines her own personal insight on Mexico with reflections on a new book by John Gibler on how immigration policies are denying migrants the dignified life they risk their lives to find. John Gibler will be speaking at Powell’s books on Feb. 6.
Legislature weighs individual, state needs for assistance: General Assistance, the state program that once tied people over while they navigated the bureaucracy of Social Security, was eliminated years ago, but there’s a new push to reinstate it, against some dismal economic odds. Mara Grunbaum reports.
Helen Thomas: The First Lady of the White House press corps talked with Joanne Zuhl about her return to cover her 10th administration. Ms. Thomas talks about the responsibility of the press, it’s failures, and her hopes for the Obama administration.
Street Roots 2008 Annual Report: A guide to our year, our supporters, our vendors and all things Street Roots.
Plus, columns by Alejandro Queral, John Thompson and a highlight of some memorable quotes from interviews with John Dean, Angela Davis, Brandon Roy and more! Chime in on our blog, or e-mail us your thoughts at joanne@streetroots.org.
Posted by Joanne Zuhl
The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a report on homelessness between 2005 and 2007. The Alliance, a D.C. powerhouse institute that led efforts to create the 10-year plan to end homelessness across the nation also reports that due to the recession an additional 1.5 million could become homeless in the next two years without effective intervention.
The report also states the obvious:
• Many communities have already seen significant increases in their local homeless population.
• Unemployment, poverty and deep poverty rates could reach depths not seen in decades, putting unbearable pressure on local homeless assistance programs.
The report comes on the eve of Portland’s homeless count scheduled for Jan. 28 of this month.
While several national publications are highlighted in the report as sources, no street newspapers, including Street Roots is referenced. You would think with the in-depth coverage that Street Roots and other papers like Real Change in Seattle are producing that wouldn’t be the case.
Posted in Street Roots
Matt Davis with the Portland Mercury reports on the controversial list used to target individuals on the streets.
On Jan. 7, the O finally picked up the piece as well.
Street Roots wrote about the controversial program back in April. Story is below. Continue reading
Posted Jan. 8, 2009
Tough times have lots of newspapers raising prices and cutting back pages. Not Street Roots! Your neighborhood vendor is living proof, offering up 16 fresh pages brimming with news and information for the always-low price of $1. Pick up yours today and check it out:
Death – out there: Amanda Waldroupe writes on the case of George Grigorieff, who died in the extreme cold weather in Lone Fir Cemetery. It made us wonder what happens to people who die, unidentified, on the streets. Amanda found out. (Don’t worry, it’s a photo illustration)
Falling temperatures raise trauma of depression: We know about the frostbite and physical suffering extreme weather can cause, but Mara Grunbaum talked with health care providers who say the mental impact can be just as severe.
This bird has flown: Famed as the setting for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Oregon State Hospital’s J Building succumbs to the wrecking ball. Amanda Waldroupe reports.
Reflections on Gaza: Commentaries by Peter Miller, president of Americans United for Palestinian Rights, and Sandy Polishuk and Joel Glick, co-chairs the Portland Chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom/Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, highlight the shared concerns for peace in the Gaza crisis.
And oh, so much more than we can possible cover in a mere blog! That’s why the gods made newspapers! And readers! Pick up your Street Roots today, and let us know what you think. We love to hear from you.
Posted by Joanne Zuhl: joanne@streetroots.org
Posted in Street Roots
Tagged Extra! George Grigorieff, Oregon State Hospital, Palestine
At issue: Community engagement
Join Sisters Of The Road and Oregon Action on Jan. 19 for their 30th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. event to honor the work of the Poor People’s Campaign.
The MLK Day event will be on the eve of the inauguration of a new president and a fitting time to remember Dr. King’s work for economic human rights.
A march from Sisters Of The Road to St. Mary’s Academy will be preceded by a program honoring Dr. King and kicking off Sisters’ work to bring economic human rights to our community.
This is a special time in our country; by working together we can use this as an opportunity and achieve the goals we all know we need to achieve. Please take the time to join us with your friends and family.
The celebration begins at 2 p.m., Monday, Jan. 19 at Sisters Of The Road (133 NW 6th Ave). There will be some snacks before the march. At 3 p.m. the march will leave from Sisters and head toward St. Mary’s Academy (1615 SW 5th Ave). If you don’t want to march, feel free to meet at St. Mary’s around 3:30 p.m. for the program.
Organize to address the economic crisis
Jobs with Justice and a growing number of other organizations, including Street Roots, invite you to a town hall meeting on the economic crisis.
The meeting will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 31, at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave.
We have a great opportunity to organize for an economy that provides opportunity for working and poor people, an economy that helps communities thrive and reverses decades of growing inequality, take-backs, union busting, unfair trade agreements, cuts in health care and the oppression of the poor.
In these extraordinary times, it is so important that we be proactive and learn, strategize and organize together!
The event will feature panelists with experience and expertise on the economic collapse and ways to organize for solutions.
The Oregon Law Center’s class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Portland’s camping ordinance follows in a long line of similar lawsuits filed across the country to vindicate the Constitutional rights of homeless individuals.
And because of prior lawsuits and the precedents they established, the lawsuit, Anderson v. Portland, has a strong chance of being successful. That would add Portland to a small list of cities whose camping ordinances have been declared unconstitutional.
“There is a solid basis for this lawsuit,” says Adam Arms, the civil rights lawyer who successfully challenged an unconstitutional version of the city’s sidewalk obstructions ordinance in 2004.
Tulin Ozdeger, the National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty’s civil rights program director agrees. “As shown by other successful cases across the country… there are a lot of Constitutional problems with these kinds of measures,” says Ozdeger.
Anderson v. Portland, filed in federal court on December 12, argues that the camping ordinance is unconstitutional in two respects.
First, the illegalization of outdoor sleeping when there are not enough shelter beds for homeless individuals cruelly and unusually punishes homeless people, violating the 8th Amendment of the Constitution.
“The Defendants’ [the City of Portland and the Police Bureau] pattern of citing and threatening to arrest involuntarily homeless individuals such as Plaintiffs for illegal camping and other offenses when they are sleeping outdoors… based on their status as homeless persons… is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the lawsuit reads.
A 2006 case, Jones v. Los Angeles, challenged Los Angeles’ camping ordinance, which made it illegal to camp in public spaces at any time of the day.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city of Los Angeles could not legally punish homeless individuals for sleeping outside when not enough shelter beds exist to provide night shelter to all the city’s homeless.
“It was a huge victory,” says Becky Dennison, co-director of the Los Angeles
Community Action Network, which pursues community organizing efforts in Skid Row.
The precedent set by that case recognized that people have a right to sleep and perform other activities necessary to survive and live.
“There’s no right more fundamental than the right to survive, the right to perform life sustaining activities,” Arms says. Continue reading
Posted in Street Roots
Tagged Adam Arms, Amanda Waldroupe, camping, camping ordinance, Monica Goracke, Oregon Law Center, Paul Boden
From the Dec. 26 2008 edition
Mayor-Elect Sam Adams and Portland’s housing commissioner Nick Fish announced on Dec. 16 the formation of a new city bureau.
The new bureau will replace the Bureau of Housing and Community Development (BHDC), the city agency responsible for economic opportunities, ending homelessness and economic development.
The new bureau will solely focus on Portland’s affordable housing stock and ending homelessness, including incorporating the housing development and finance functions currently at the Portland Development Commission (PDC).
“It’s a complimentary set of changes,” says Kate Allen with Nick Fish’s office. “The notion that we can create a new bureau with a clear focus on housing will give both the new housing bureau and the PDC much clearer direction.”
The North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) hired its first Executive Director, Andy Freeze from StreetvVibes in Cincinnati, Ohio. Freeze, pictured above (left), will head up the North American organization starting in January and be headquartered in Washington D.C.
Street Roots is a member of both NASNA and the International Network of Street Papers. There are more than 25 street newspapers in North America and 90 worldwide.
Over the past two years, Street Roots has played a leading role in developing both organizations by helping with strategic planning and business development for individual newspapers worldwide.
Israel Bayer, Street Roots director, is the Vice-Chairperson for NASNA, while Joanne Zuhl, Street Roots Managing Editor sits on both the INSP and NASNA Board of Directors.
Both organizations have created the Street News Service, a news wire service for street newspapers around the world to share content.
Street newspapers date back to the 19th century, when the Salvation Army created the War Cry, a weekly publication in Cleveland. From 1872 to the 1920s, the Christian-influenced paper was sold on street corners to help explain to the public how they could help the needy.
Several other papers followed the “War Cry,” including the “Hobo News” sold in cities throughout the United States during the depression era. The oldest existing street paper today is “Street Sheet” in San Francisco, which came out with its first issue in December 1989. Street Roots followed ten-year later.
Freeze will be helping grow the organizations’ development capacity and working one on one with street papers throughout North America to develop the technical assistance needed to make each newspaper successful in their respected communities.
