New Orleans facing another storm on homelessness and housing

On Thursday The Times-Picayune reported that two experts from the United Nations said thousands of black families would continue to suffer displacement and homelessness if the demolition of 4,500 public housing units is not halted, but federal housing officials in New Orleans countered that they have units available immediately for former public housing residents displaced by Katrina.

U.N.-appointed experts Miloon Kothari, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator for housing, and Gay McDougall, an expert on minority issues, urged U.S. and local government leaders to further include current and former residents in discussions that would help them return home.

"I think this is vindication of what public housing advocates have been saying from day one," said Monique Harden, co-director of the public interest law firm Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, who testified before Geneva-based U.N. experts.

"Recovery must mean the end of displacement for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast," added Harden, who returned to New Orleans last week. "What we have instead is recovery that demolishes affordable housing."

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U.N. slams Feds on housing in New Orleans

This comes a day after the Mayor of New Orleans released a plan to push hundreds of people on the streets into crowded barracks as a solution to the on-going housing crisis in the Big Easy.

Swept to the barracks

All of this of course has warranted a response from the Feds asking the mayor to think about things.

Feds say hold

It's thought more than 12,000 people are actually living on the streets after emergency shelters are full.

Seattle police union says it's their job to write park exclusions

The city of Seattle just put out a public relations fire over the discovery that it destroys homeless camps on city property. Now the Parks Department is hiring seven people as park rangers who will have the power to banish people for camping in the city’s downtown parks and committing other violations of park rules.

The rangers won’t be able to do it without a fight, however: The Seattle police union says that it is police work to write parks exclusion notices, which can ban people from parks for days or months, with union president Rich O’Neill threatening to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

Read more...

Seattle privatized

You can help Street Roots, yeah you...

Want to throw a house party to help Street Roots? Maybe your business wants to partner to make a difference. Possible you just want to give Portland's leading social justice newspaper a donation!

Find out different ways you can help Street Roots today!

Check it out!

New Street Roots on the way tomorrow

The feature story (House of Cards) dives into the subprime market collapse and how it stands to disproportionately affect low-income and minority borrowers.

A Q & A with council candidate Jeff Bissonnette talks affordable housing and economic development, and Artis (the Spoonman) offers his insights after 20 years on the road. FInd out all about the Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization Act, read a Sunday night movie in the making on the street culture page, read some great street poetry, and explore death and laughter with Soup Can Sam.

Subprime the latest policy of poverty

On the one side of the subprime regulation debate, you have an industry that says these loans provide homeownership opportunities to people who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for a loan.

On the other side are advocates who are watching foreclosure rates climb, homeowners losing homes, credit and hope, and communities boarding up.
In the middle, at an alarming proportion, are low-income and minority families, the ones too often blamed for their own "misfortune."

In fact, there are many factors at play in this exploitation of the American Dream: Conventional banks that deal in prime mortgages have left low-income minority neighborhoods in favor of more lucrative communities. In their absence, alternative lenders have filled the void. And the mortgage market is no longer an agreement between a lender and a borrower. Loans are chopped up into financial investments with high yields for some and high-interest for others, complete with an incentive system to lenders who sell high-interest loans that, even if they end in foreclosure, return a profit to investors.

A study by the Oregon Center for Public Policy found that in 2006, about half of all middle-income black and Hispanic borrowers in Oregon received subprime loans. That’s compared with only 25 percent of white borrowers making the same amount of money. Credit ratings, which the study does not analyze, could be a factor in these outcomes, but the disparity appeared at all income levels, and the figures echo similar findings in studies across the country: Subprime loans are concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods, among minorities, even though it is estimated that between 30 percent and 50 percent of those receiving subprime loans would qualify for prime rate mortgages.

The industry’s claim of the mortgage of last resort rings false.

Call it discrimination, economic segregation, or more ugly terms, what we have is an entire money-making scheme that keeps poor people paying more, undercuts homeownership and erodes the social and economic structure of minority neighborhoods. It is a set-up ripe for predatory lenders that perpetuate and aggravate the cycle of debt, poverty and homelessness.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues its punishing crusade to cut off assistance -— in health care, emergency food programs and employment services — to the very people victimized by its policies. President Bush’s 2009 budget would cut more than $200 million in federal assistance to Oregon, including cuts to energy assistance, adult education and worker training programs, and Head Start. The symptoms get the headlines, but these are the real policies of poverty.

It is time for state and local governments to say not in our communities, not to our people. If the larger policies at work are not in our best interest, lawmakers in Salem have to make up the difference. It is imperative that legislators push through not only the remedial subprime reform House Bill 3603, but follow through next session with the larger protections offered in the more comprehensive Senate Bill 1090, which now languishes in committee.

More importantly, however, the larger policies of poverty must be called out, and the perpetuation of economic discrimination taken as a nationwide responsibility. We have to stop punishing the victims, and hold the oppressors accountable.

Housing Candidate Forum Q & A's

Housing Opportunity Candidate Forum for City Council Seat No. 2 Feb 21

On February 21st, a broad base of community organizations held the Housing Opportunity Candidate Forum for candidates for Portland City Seat No. 2 to hear candidate veiws on homelessness and affordable housing. The candidates who participated in the forum are Nick Fish, Jim Middaugh, Ed Garren, Fred Stewart and Harold Williams III.

In addition to the discussion at the forum, Street Roots, Sisters of the Road, JOIN, Coalition for Homeless Families, Affordable Housing NOW!, Community Alliance of Tenants and the Community Development Network developed the following list of questions designed to get to the heart of a candidate’s views on the issues.

Read the candidates reponses

11th Annual Homeless Marathon on KBOO tomorrow

The 11th annual Homelessness Marathon from Nashville, TN starts tomorrow and will be aired on KBOO (90.7) starting at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

You can also listen live on-line at

Listen live

The Homelessness Marathon is the world's leading broadcast focusing on homelessness and poverty. Last year's broadcast from Fresno, California aired on more than 120 radio stations coast-to-coast with another 30 or so stations across Canada.

"This year, we picked Nashville," explains the Homelessness Marathon's director, Jeremy Weir Alderson, "partly because it is a city at the crossroads in terms of its treatment of homeless people, and in this respect, it is like many other cities across the United States."

Call in numbers are 1-877-NOBODY-8 (877-662-6398) for anyone, and 1-866-LEFT-OUT (866-533-8688) is a special number to give an extra for people who are homeless, formerly homeless or afraid they're about to become homeless.

Here's the schedule: (all times are eastern standard)

Hour 1 - SHORT: Welcome from host "Nobody" (live) - (7pm) LONG: A panel of homeless Nashvillians.

Hour 2 - SHORT: Performing A One Night Count - (8pm) LONG: Homelessness in Music City - Part 1 - The Civic View. Co-hosts: George Gruhn, CEO of Gruhn Guitars and Howard Gentry, Chairman, Mayor's Homelessness Commission.

Hour 3 - SHORT: Housing First -(9pm) LONG: Homelessness in Music City - Part 2 - The Street View. Co-Hosts: Father Charlie Strobel, founding director, Campus for Human Development, and Clemmie Green Lee of the Nashville Homeless Power Project.

Hour 4 - SHORT: Poetry by Homeless Teens - (10pm) LONG: Homeless Nation I - A survey of homelessness in Benton Harbor, Michigan; New Orleans, and Denver

Hour 5 - SHORT: Homeless Vets - (11pm) LONG: Homelessness, Crime and Criminalization. Co-Hosts: Matt Leber, organizer, Nashville Homeless Power Project and Tulin Ozdeger, civil rights director, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

Hour 6 - SHORT: Street Poetry - (mid) LONG: "The War and The Poor - Co-Hosts: Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy" and Frances Fox Piven, author of "The War At Home: The Domestic Cost of Bush's Militarism."

Hour 7 - SHORT: Addressing Rural Homelessness - (1am) LONG: The Fight in Fresno - A live remote from Fresno, CA.

Hour 8 - SHORT: A Homeless Job Program - (2am) LONG: The Working Poor. Guest Host: Nell Levin, coordinator, Tennessee Alliance for Progress. Co-Hosts: William Miles, Nashville Jobs with Justice, Cornell Professor of Sociology Thomas Hirschl.

Hour 9 - SHORT: Registering Homeless Voters - (3am) LONG: Homeless Nation II: A survey of homelessness in Los Angeles, Ontario, CA; and Santa Cruz, Ca

Hour 10 - SHORT: Generational Homelessness - (4am) LONG: International Hour. Guest Host: Nell Levin. Co-host: Peter Fredriksson, senior adviser to the Housing Ministry of Finland.

Hour 11 - SHORT: Homeless Mothers - (5am) LONG: Fighting Back - Co-Hosts to be Cheri Honkala, director of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign,
Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Hour 12 - SHORT: Street Poetry - (6am) LONG: Health Care and Homelessness. Co-hosts, John Lozier, Director National Health Care for the Homeless, Dan McMullan, a disabled homeless advocate.

Hour 13 - SHORT: A Profile in Homelessness - (7am) LONG: Will the Foreclosure Crisis Drive People to the Streets? Co-hosts Danilo Pelletiere, research director, National Low Income Housing Coalition and a co-host TBA.

Hour 14 - SHORT: A Homeless Romance - (8am) LONG: First: Where Is The Housing? Co-Host, Jeremy Rosen, executive director, National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness. Next: A panel of homeless vets.

Join us this Thursday for the Housing Candidate Forum

Join us for a candidate forum with candidates seeking Erik Sten’s seat on City Council. A broad base of community
organizations will be asking candidates questions about homelessness and affordable housing.

First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97205
Thursday February 21st, Noon-1:30PM



Sponsors of this event include, Street Roots, Community Development Network, JOIN, Sisters Of The Road, Community Alliance of Tenants, Affordable Housing Now!, and the Coalition for Homeless Families.

Is Portland a magnet for poor folk? Check out the new SRs tomorrow to find out

In communities throughout the country you will hear a common complaint by critics of homeless services - our city is a magnet for homeless people because of services. If we build it, they will come.

Liberal communities up and down the West Coast have been dubbed by many as a place of last resort for people experiencing homelessness. Los Angeles has been called the homeless capital of the United States, San Francisco, a bum's paradise, Seattle and Portland, a place to go to access great services.

Street Roots takes a look at what's happening on the ground and talks to city officials in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle - giving you the real dirt.



Other stories this issue include a look Urban Opportunities, a empowerment based job skills programs for homeless youth, and a Q & A with the young and up and coming Portland City Council candidate John Branam. Other features include three in-depth grassroots news pieces from our sister paper, the Big Issue Kenya, and lots of poetry and prose from the streets.

Support a vendor today, and get a great read.

Street Roots awarded "volunteer innovation" honors from Trailblazers and Hands on Greater Portland

Street Roots has been awarded with the 2008 Portland Trailblazers/Hands on Greater Portland 'Volunteer Innovation" award.

The Portland Trail Blazers/Hands On Greater Portland Heart of the Community Awards luncheon celebrates volunteerism and honors outstanding volunteers and volunteer programs that are the Heart of our Community.

Portland Trailblazers/Hands on Greater Portland Awards

Thank you to all of our volunteers that makes Street Roots what it is today!

Along with Street Roots, Senator Margaret Carter will be honored for the "Heart of the Community Award."

The housing opportunity candidate forum

Join us for a candidate forum with candidates seeking Erik Sten’s seat on City Council. A broad base of community
organizations will be asking candidates questions about homelessness and affordable housing.

First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97205
Thursday February 21st, Noon-1:30PM



Sponsors of this event include, Street Roots, Community Development Network, JOIN, Sisters Of The Road, Community Alliance of Tenants and the Coalition for Homeless Families.

People on the streets targeted with sit-lie enforcement

Between Nov. 1, and Nov. 19, Portland police issued 42 sidewalk
obstruction (sit-lie) warnings and six citations to people sitting on
sidewalks, according to documents obtained by Street Roots. At least 34
of those warning and citations were to people experiencing homelessness.
Several police reports do not determine if an individual was "transient"
or had a place of residence.

After a 30-day lull in enforcement – police began to issue more sidewalk
warnings and citations on Dec. 19. From Dec. 19 and 27, police issued
seven warnings and five citations, all to people experiencing
homelessness.

The latest round of warnings and citations issued brings the total number
to 62 warnings and 14 citations issued since the beginning of September
2007.

The most recent revision of the sidewalk obstruction ordinance bans
individuals from sitting or lying on public sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 9
p.m. The maximum penalty for violation of the ordinance is $250.
Beyond the majority of individuals receiving warnings – Street Roots found
that at least 11 of the individuals receiving warnings, and five who
received citations, were sleeping at the time of enforcement.