Around 80 individuals experiencing homelessness and supporters, including six Street Roots vendors have plopped down tents along the Rose Festival Parade route on SW 4th and Washington.
The group is protesting Portland’s camping ordinance — which criminalizes people sleeping outdoors. One participant says, “We’re making a statement about homelessness and the fact that we are criminalized for our social status. It’s inhumane, especially when so many people are sick and dying out here.”
Legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild were on hand to make sure that people’s right on the streets were upheld, including “free speech.”
Street Roots has extensively covered the camping ordinance over the years, including highlighting alternatives.
Posted by Israel Bayer.
For those who can't afford free speech 
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I wish I could have joined those of you who camped on the parade route, but I decided last year that my dog and I had finally gotten too old to sleep on the ground and gave my camping gear to JOIN to pass forward to someone who really needed it. Besides, the dog’s camping preferences include a large fire for roasting meat, not stinky flowers and loud honking and tooting.
Hopefully the camping event will become an annual public statement — reminding those who are lucky enough to feel secure in their housing that there are folks in our community who camp out nightly, not just to save themselves a place to watch a parade but because modern cities, with their laws, zoning and codes, have displaced the extremely poor.
This is so great, I wish I’d known about it. I’m going to start reading more Street Roots.