May Day! May Day! May Day!

State camping bill considered a ‘workable solution’

By Amanda Waldroupe, Staff Writer

A bill that would require the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to provide between five days and two weeks notice of a camp sweep on state-owned land passed the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee on Monday.

The Senate version of the bill, SB 447, also requires that the notice be printed in English and Spanish, say when the sweep will take place, and leave information, if belongings are removed, of where the belongings can be picked up, and when.
Marc Jolin, the executive director of the outreach agency JOIN, says that the bill will ensure that the belongings of homeless individuals who camp near the Eastbank Esplanade, under bridges, and underneath freeway overpasses won’t be lost.

“(Right now) there is no specific notice,” he says. “It’s a win-win. It creates less conflict for ODOT, and improves the situation for everyone.”

The Oregon Law Center, which provides legal services to low-income and homeless individuals, was a main pusher of the bill, as was Lane County Legal Aid and Advocacy Center.

“The underlying concept of the bill is that advance and effective notice of an impending camp clean-up will encourage homeless individuals to move their belongings themselves,” said Sybil Hebb, a lawyer at the Oregon Law Center, at a February 28 hearing.

A 2010 bill would have fast-tracked camp sweeps without notifying homeless individuals who camped in those areas. The Oregon Law Center opposed the bill, and it did not become law.

The current bill originated not from homeless advocates, but out of environmental concerns. John Brown, a Eugene environmental advocate, worried that accumulated garbage along the banks of the Willamette River would enter and contaminate the river during floods, and thus impact the river’s water quality.

“On many occasions, I have had a difficult time making sure the items found under overpasses (and) bridges do not get washed into the waterways during periods of peak high water,” he said at the same hearing. He says the bill gives a “workable solution.”

The bill passed the Senate on April 7, so the bill’s next stop is a vote on the House floor. If the House passes the bill, it moves to Governor John Kitzhaber’s desk to sign into law.

TANF proposals work through the Legislature

Advocates relieved time limit won’t change, but worry about long-term effects of cutting support services

By Amanda Waldroupe, Staff Writer

Proposed changes to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program could salvage some provisions of the program after Gov. Kitzhaber proposed drastic cuts earlier this year.

The most recent sent of proposals avoid shortening the time limit a family could receive TANF benefits to 18 months, down from the federally recommended 60 months. Relieved Concerned advocates of low-income families and individuals say such a drastically shortened time limit would cause hundreds of families to become homeless. The proposed changes were announced during a hearing in the Legislature’s House Human Services Committee on Wednesday, April 20.

“That’s good news,” said Marc Jolin, the executive director of the homeless outreach agency JOIN, who estimates that half of JOIN’s clients receive TANF benefits.

But House Representative Tina Kotek (D-Portland), the principal author of House Bill 2049 and TANF’s legislative champion, said it is still not clear whether the program’s 60-month benefit limit will be preserved.

“This is the most modest package of statutory changes we can make,” she said. “We may have to make more, particularly around time limits.”

Extra! Extra!

One day away from the big event! And this one you’re actually invited to! It’s the hot-off-the-press edition of Street Roots for April 29. Vendors will be hitting the streets Friday morning with the latest news. Here’s what’s headed your way:

Gay, grey and groundbreaking:  Gay & Grey PDX celebrates and advocates for the lives of an estimated 10,000 gay seniors in Portland. Stacy Brownhill reports on their work, their accomplishments and the journey ahead.

TANF proposals work through the Legislature: Advocates relieved time limit won’t change, but worry about long-term effects of cutting support services. Amanda Waldroupe reports on what’s in flux for poor families across Portland.

‘FBI: Taken’ exhibit resonates with Portland filmmaker: Neil H. Simon’s documentary looks inside the daily life of a unique internment camp that was the destination of Portland’s Japanese residents.

Poetic justice: Street poets break down stereotypes and prejudice with the power of words.

Finding peace beyond prison, and the words to express the lessons inside: An interview with Portland author Jason Breedlove.

 Western States Center: A new column from the Western States Center United Communities program on the shared values between communities of color and the LGBTQ community.

Plus much, much more, including news, a vendor profile, poetry and commentaries. It’s hot stuff for a cool weekend. Stop by your friendly neighborhood vendor tomorrow and pick up a copy for the weekend!

Life Support

Jamaica Imani-Nelson used TANF to get back to work and support herself. Photo by Jennifer Jansons

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and related employment services has helped thousands of people like Jamaica get back to work. Its own future looks less positive.

By Joanne Zuhl, Staff Writer

Through the clarity of her own past, Jamaica Imani-Nelson can see the future, in a sense, of thousands of Oregon families struggling to overcome poverty and unemployment.

It does not look good.

Not too long ago, Imani-Nelson was in their shoes, one of the 30,000 families — including about 55,000 dependent children — using the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and related programs to get back on their feet. TANF, as it’s known, provided a small cash allowance per month, but it also enveloped Imani-Nelson with programs to help her overcome her barriers to employment: recovering alcoholism, employment gaps, a legal history and incarceration. Because without a job, and with two small children, $488 per month from TANF was no measure of surviving.

With support, however, it worked. She competed for and received an internship with PovertyBridge. Within three months, she was hired and is now a full-time employee there.

Under Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposed budget, an estimated 7,000 families with children will lose that kind of stability or support. Kitzhaber is proposing more than $67 million in reductions in TANF as part of an across-the-board effort to balance the budget against a $3.5 billion anticipated shortfall. It’s a penny-wise and pound-foolish cut, observers say, that will result in more families becoming homeless, more children entering foster care, and fewer people getting back in the work force. Earlier this month, hundreds of people who have or currently receive TANF, along with advocates for families and children in poverty, testified in defense of TANF before the Joint Ways and Means subcommittee in Salem, spilling out into the hallways and into waiting rooms to give their testimony. Imani-Nelson was among them.

“It is our reasonable duty to make sure that our children, our most vulnerable community members are safe, that they are taken care of, that they are not neglected,” Imani-Nelson says. “If this proposed cut is set in place, we are neglecting our reasonable duty to do just that. We will be throwing thousands of children in Multnomah County into the street.”

Proud Ground helps deliver a dream of having a home

Casey and Angela Baker in their yard. Behind is their home, made affordable through Proud Ground's Land Trust program

By Stacy Brownhill, Staff Writer

When Sakorya Avery first heard of the nonprofit Proud Ground in 2005, then called Portland Community Land Trust, she hesitated. Twice she had already looked into buying a home, but the sky-high market resigned Avery to living in Section 8 Housing at $825 per month. She took the plunge, and six years later, the 35-year-old teaching assistant and mother of four owns her own 2,300 square foot home in Southeast Portland, pays $750 per month in mortgage payments, and sings the praises of Proud Ground and homeownership.

Proud Ground is one of 230 community land trusts (CLTs) nationwide — nonprofits born out of soaring home prices and shrinking urban space over the last thirty years, designed specifically to provide stable land and housing to those who would otherwise be denied. Simply put, Proud Ground acquires relatively modern, renovated homes and the land beneath them, and sells the homes heavily subsidized (about $60,000 to $100,000 under the market rate) to people hankering to own a home.

Measure 11’s failing scorecard fans sparks of reform

By Amanda Waldroupe, Staff Writer

Last month, the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission released an in-depth and critical study of Oregon’s mandatory minimum sentencing law, Measure 11.

The Justice Commission, composed of legislators, prosecutors, defenders and others involved in criminal justice and charged with monitoring Oregon’s public safety sector, spent one year collecting and analyzing data from the 16 years that Measure 11 has been on the books.

The 83-page report made a number of findings, including who receives Measure 11 sentences, how the law is applied in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, how many people are indicted with Measure 11 crimes but subsequently charged with lesser crimes, and other ways in which Measure 11 has affected Oregon’s criminal justice system.

In all respects, the study found that Measure 11 is not working the way Oregonians were told it would when they voted on the measure in 1994. The report “makes a fair case that it falls short of reaching all of the objectives,” says Department of Corrections director Max Williams.

Measure 11 was sold to voters as a tough-on-crime measure giving prosecutors the power to giving longer prison sentences to the worst of the worst criminals to protect society and victims.

Mandatory minimum sentences requiring a specific prison sentence for a crime, no matter the circumstances, would create consistency in sentencing across the state. And the specter of those long sentences would deter potential criminals from committing crimes.

But many advocates argue the Justice Commission’s report debunks that argument for Measure 11 in its entirety.

“At this point, it’s clear,” that Measure 11 is not working the way it should, says David Rogers, the executive director of the advocacy organization Partnership for Safety and Justice.

Measure 11 has always been a hot-button issue for both tough-on-crime conservatives and liberals arguing that it is too costly and ineffective.

So the Justice Commission’s study leaves one to wonder: Has enough evidence mounted to give opponents of Measure 11 the steam to drive reform?

“People talk about it all the time,” Rogers says. “There are definitely people actively talking about the need to address Measure 11 at the Capitol.”

The Justice Commission’s report is the second critical report on Measure 11 to be released within the past year. Last summer, former Governor Ted Kulongoski’s Reset Cabinet, a group that investigated ways for Oregon to save money, reviewed the measure and recommended that Oregon rein in its prisons spending in order to have a stable budget. One of the main ways to do that, the report said, was to make changes to Measure 11.

Street Blues: Police see the worst, by design, but kindness abounds

Business and home owners often call me to complain about homeless people on and around their property, but the one that I received a few weeks ago was a little unusual.

A person living in the caller’s tool shed out back had begun leaving trash and feces around her property and scaring her neighbors. She wanted to know what I could do to help her. Most people would be quick to act if they discovered someone living in their outbuilding, but by the way she spoke, it sounded as if this person had been there a while. I dug a little deeper.

It turned out the man, whose name she didn’t know, had been living in the tool shed since before she and her husband purchased the house, eight months ago. Since he didn’t seem to have anywhere to go, they let him stay there after they bought it. His behavior recently turned disruptive, but because he was there with permission and refused to leave willingly, she had to go through a lengthy civil eviction process, which was still ongoing. In addition to the garbage and feces, she was also worried that he might retaliate when deputies issued him an eviction notice.

Though not the first homeless-person-overstays-his-welcome call I’d received, this seemed a little extreme. My jaded, devil cop was yelling in my ear that this was a problem completely of the woman’s own creation, and now she wants me to fix it for her.

After months of budget fights, one victor emerges: Rhetoric

By Heather Lyons, Contributing Columnist

Last week when Democrats and Republicans in Congress were out-press-conferencing each other on who was more fiscally competent and who cared more about the American people and our country’s future, I got angry several times.  I yelled at the TV, rolled my eyes at the computer, debated with my partner, and with some inanimate objects too (the inanimate objects are easier sometimes).

Here’s what I know. This was not a fight about balancing the budget. If it were, there would have been serious negotiations about changing the tax code, letting some tax cuts expire, and reducing spending in a variety of Federal agencies, including a real look at defense and major reform of entitlement programs. It was also not about Democrats protecting the more vulnerable. The actions that allowed the Bush tax cuts to continue and the administration’s budget, which came out in February, already indicated that poor and sick people were not a priority (reductions in Community Development Block Grant, Community Health Centers, etc.).

BTA: Welcome to Portland — the Portland of North America

By Margaux Mennesson, Contributing Writer

Portland is the most successful North American city at implementing policies to promote bicycling, according to a new study just published by researchers at Rutgers University and Virginia Tech.

The authors, John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, compared nine North American cities: Portland, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, Washington, and Vancouver. They concluded that “the success of Portland is important because it shows that even car-dependent American cities can greatly increase cycling by implementing the right package of infrastructure, programs, and policies.”

Vendor profile: Making each day better than the ones before

By Kaisa McCrow, Contributing Writer

It’s a sunny day on NE 15th Avenue and Broadway when Street Roots vendor Raymond Thornton and I sit down to chat outside of Peet’s Coffee. People are walking their dogs, enjoying coffee outside, and generally greeting the day with enthusiasm. Raymond is no exception; he thanks God for the day, for the evidence of spring, and for the good workday the sunshine is offering him. He loves working at this spot, and not just on the beautiful sunny days. Raymond has been selling outside of this Pete’s Coffee corner for roughly two months now, and he has become a part of this corner’s “circle of friends.” A woman and her dog stop by for a hello and a pat, Raymond knows both of their names and greets them excitedly. An elderly man makes his way by our table and before he can speak Raymond beats him to it, “I owe you a paper, sir!”

Old Town Chinatown relations misguided

This past week a photo with two police officers arresting a drug dealer and headline above the fold in the Portland Tribune read, “Adams vows to help Old Town.” Three weeks prior, the Tribune ran an article above the fold with a homeless person smoking what appears to be crack cocaine with a headline that read, “Crack Alley.”

Leaders from the Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood association and business owners have gone on a crusade about the drug dealing in the neighborhood. These voices coupled with folks at the District Attorney’s office and the police bureau have, in my humble opinion, forced the mayor to respond with a plan to publicly come down on the dealers. It all amounts to nothing more than political theater that would have made for an excellent episode of the Wire.

Help SR stay strong this spring!

Dear Street Roots supporter,

When I first met vendor Ted Jack he was recovering from a career-ending back injury he had gotten while working as a fisherman in Alaska. Unfortunately, Ted was also in the depths of his addiction — drinking most every night until he was stumbling drunk. He lived under a bridge, and was socially alienated from the rest of his peers and society.

Life Support

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and related employment services has helped thousands of people like Jamaica get back to work. Its own future looks less positive.

TANF assistance helped springboard Jamaica Imani-Nelson from poverty into a career. But those opportunities could get the axe under the state's budget plans.

By Joanne Zuhl
Staff Writer

Through the clarity of her own past, Jamaica Imani-Nelson can see the future, in a sense, of thousands of Oregon families struggling to overcome poverty and unemployment.

It does not look good.

Not too long ago, Imani-Nelson was in their shoes, one of the 30,000 families — including about 55,000 dependent children — using the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and related programs to get back on their feet. TANF, as it’s known, provided a small cash allowance per month, but it also enveloped Imani-Nelson with programs to help her overcome her barriers to employment: recovering alcoholism, employment gaps, a legal history and incarceration. Because without a job, and with two small children, $488 per month from TANF was no measure of surviving.

With support, however, it worked. She competed for and received an internship with PovertyBridge. Within three months, she was hired and is now a full-time employee there.

Under Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposed budget, an estimated 7,000 families with children will lose that kind of stability or support. Kitzhaber is proposing more than $67 million in reductions in TANF as part of an across-the-board effort to balance the budget against a $3.5 billion anticipated shortfall. It’s a penny-wise and pound-foolish cut, observers say, that will result in more families becoming homeless, more children entering foster care, and fewer people getting back in the work force.

“It is our reasonable duty to make sure that our children, our most vulnerable community members are safe, that they are taken care of, that they are not neglected,” Imani-Nelson says. “If this proposed cut is set in place, we are neglecting our reasonable duty to do just that. We will be throwing thousands of children in Multnomah County into the street.”

Jean DeMaster, executive director of Human Solutions, which houses families with children in poverty, says people are already scraping by to pay rent, and this will put them over the edge.

“TANF is a safety net, and we should be increasing TANF, not decreasing it,” DeMaster says. “That’s the travesty in this.”

Read more about what’s at stake with the planned cuts to TANF and the JOBS program in this edition of Street Roots, on sale now from Street Roots vendors.

Editorial: TANF cuts set families up for failure

Most people, the vast majority of Portlanders, know little about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. And that’s a good thing, because it’s there for the poorest families in our state, those with no other source of income. But people do need to understand TANF if they are to realize what’s at stake as lawmakers look at cutting the program to the quick, ultimately reducing some families to homelessness and children to foster care.