Thursday, March 27, 2008

We're not betting on it

From this weeks Directors Desk

The sit-lie ordinance continues to be a controversy. Seventy-nine of the 88 warnings and tickets issued under the ordinance have gone to people experiencing homelessness. According to police reports, 69 of those were either homeless or transient and 10 had no address listed at all. In fact, one individual was cited at the very location he gave police as his
address — the Portland Rescue Mission.

We assume that the number of verbal warnings given are in the hundreds and have no reason to believe that the majority aren’t against people sleeping out.

Many of the individuals who have received written warnings and tickets are what some call "frequent flyers." They are individuals who tend to rack up multiple “quality-of-life” offenses. Some for drugs and booze, others for
things like sleeping in a park or trespassing in front of a business, depends.

The business community and law enforcement have long argued that the sit-lie law is a tool to deal with Portland’s frequent flyers - mostly panhandlers, and individuals that clearly aren’t with the program. It also serves as a tool to target people sleeping on our sidewalks.

Because panhandling is a freedom of speech issue, and the camping ordinance can’t be enforced without a 24-hour notice to vacate, the sit-lie serves as a key component to move people from our public sidewalks.

It's been clearly documented by city officials that nearly 1,600 individuals are homeless after shelter beds are full. We’ve said it until we are blue in the face. That means, like it or not, that 1,600 individuals will be sleeping in our doorways, parking lots, parks, neighborhoods, and on park benches tonight.

I don’t know what else we can say. Should we call for a suspension of the ordinance? Should we respectfully decline to say anything at all? Street Roots has stood up time and again to oppose this ordinance. We’ve stood up even when it meant being accused by some of punking out after working with the Safe Access For Everyone committee (the same committee the ordinance came from) to help produce the Rose City Resource Guide.

We believe in all of the services being worked on through the SAFE committee – more park benches, public restrooms, and a day access center. How could anyone not be in support of these services that will not only help people on the skids but our community at large? We had hoped we were wrong about the ordinance. Maybe we will still be proven wrong, but looking at the way things are now, we’re not betting on it.

posted by Israel Bayer

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Kids let themselves out of school, oh and take over City Hall is all

Who says the young people don't care? Students from several high-schools and middle schools walked out today to protest the war in Iraq. Vendor Frank Cobb just happened to be walking to Sisters Of The Road for lunch after selling Street Roots at 23rd and Lovejoy when he encountered the protest.

Here's some pics from Frank.



Of course it wouldn't be a real student walk-out without taking over City Hall and all.





Amy J. Ruiz has more on the young radicals over at blogtown
  • City Hall under siege!
  • Prowling through history with the Black Panther Party - new Street Roots

    The new Street Roots will hit the street tomorrow. The feature story sheds light on Portland's Black Panther history with co-founder Kent Ford. Street Roots has a chilling Q & A with abortion doctor Susan Wicklund from Portland and Affordable Housing Now's Julie Massa talks about the politics of affordable housing in Portland.

    A section 8 landlord argues that the problem with the lack of availability for low-income residents is a bigger problem than a tight market. A mother offers a letter to Portland's street community after her daughter was found dead at Laurelhurst Park, Jay Thiemeyer offers up his world-view of St. Augustine and Street Roots offers up its opinions on the latest results of Portland's ever controversial sit-lie law.

    Did we mention the great art and poetry from Portland's streets? All of this and much more in tomorrow's Street Roots.

    Support a vendor in your neighborhood and get a great read in return.

    Monday, March 17, 2008

    Seattle protests homeless sweeps on the doorsteps of City Hall

    Real Change in Seattle squats at City Hall to protest homeless sweeps.

  • Ten tents my ass


  • Tensions between advocates and officials in Seattle and San Francisco are red hot.

  • When bureaucrats attack
  • Thursday, March 6, 2008

    Street Roots video from Portland Trail Blazers and Hands on Greater Portland

    Street Roots was recently given the "volunteer innovation" award from the Portland Trail Blazers and Hands on Greater Portland.

    Here's the video they made for the awards presentation.

    Sectioned Out on the streets tomorrow

    A brand new Street Roots will be on the streets tomorrow. The feature article explores how Oregon law allows landlords to refuse Section 8 vouchers and how it contributes to hurting those who need housing most.

    We go train-hopping across Canada with Rodney Graham, talk politics and affordable housing with Ed Garren and break down just exactly how much Portland taxpayers are spending on the war in Iraq. Did you know we could have built 26,000 affordable housing units, and built several schools in Oregon alone? That's not counting hiring scores of music and art teachers or fixing our roadways.

    Check out all of this and much more in Street Roots tomorrow. Support a vendor and get a great read!

    Monday, March 3, 2008

    Feds bring idea of housing first to New Orleans, but offer no assistance

    The Associate Press reports that the Bush Administration's "homeless czar" spent Monday morning in a tent city of displaced people and the afternoon in the offices of Mayor Ray Nagin, offering new ideas to help a growing homeless population but promising no immediate increase in federal funding.

    Philip Mangano, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, began his first visit to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans by touring a stretch of avenue where about 150 homeless people have been living in camping tents for months on end. Later, Mangano met with Nagin and members of the city council to discuss the mayor's plan to transfer the colony to a military-style barrack where they would be provided bunk beds, meals and care.

    Read more
  • Feds offer no help
  • Sunday, March 2, 2008

    Security guards in Seattle take to the streets

    In a bid to get a first-ever union contract with their employers, about 200 security guards staged a rush-hour street blockade Feb. 25 at Fifth Avenue and Columbia Street in which Seattle police arrested two participants.

    Read more
  • Seattle rent-a-cops unionizing
  • House of Cards

    House of Cards - The subprime market collapse stands to disproportionately affect low-income and minority borrowers
    By Mara Grunbaum, Street Roots Staff writer

    The sweeping effects of the national mortgage crisis are beginning to catch up to Oregon homeowners, and in the ensuing storm of foreclosures and financial ruin, low-income minority families may stand to lose the most.

    Black and Hispanic Oregonians at all income levels were more likely than whites to have received subprime loans in 2006, according to a study released in January by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, an economic research group.

    The subprime mortgage industry — the business of lending money to people with “subprime,” or less than ideal, credit — can help those who don’t qualify for traditional mortgages become homeowners by offering small or nonexistent down payments, interest rates that start low and increase after several years, or minimal requirements for documenting income. But subprime loans are also far likelier than traditional mortgages to end in foreclosure.

    Consumer advocates contend that many homeowners have been pushed into subprime mortgages they can’t afford or persuaded to refinance unecessarily by predatory mortgage brokers, who have financial incentives to sign people to expensive loans. In many cases, recipients of the high-risk loans actually qualified for better terms. “We have seen a common practice where someone with a prime rate credit score sits down with their broker and ends up being sold a high-interest subprime loan,” said Angela Martin, director of the Economic Fairness Coalition at the progressive advocacy group Our Oregon.

    According to RealtyTrac, a California foreclosure-tracking company, there were 1,099 foreclosure filings in Oregon in December 2007 — more than four times as many as in December 2006. The Center for Responsible Lending projects that 8,372 homes in Oregon ultimately will be lost to foreclosure on subprime loans made in 2005 and 2006.

    Read more
  • House of Cards


  • Read this and much more in the current issue of Street Roots. Support a vendor and get a great read today!

    Saturday, March 1, 2008

    Jeff Bissonnette talks housing and homelessness

    For the past nine years, Jeff Bissonnette has been a consumer advocate with the Citizens’ Utility Board of Oregon. He has also spent the past decade working a as a social service advocate to set up school breakfast programs and summer feeding programs for children.

    He is a candidate for City Commissioner seat No. 1, being vacated by Sam Adams.

    Street Roots: You talk about the need for the city’s education and technical training needs to keep up with the times, including post-high school education and lifelong training. How will you interface that with the low-income and homeless populations that are in particular need of workforce training opportunities?

    Jeff Bissonnette: Very low-income and homeless people need particular attention when looking at work force training opportunities. First, we need to ensure that there are adequate support systems in place to help individuals and families maintain basic needs: housing services, substance abuse treatment and mental health treatment if needed, assistance to pay energy bills, nutrition programs in schools and community organizations to make sure children are well-nourished (and these programs also help to stretch household resources), good before- and after-school programs to keep kids out of trouble.

    Second, we need to help individuals get a job that leads to a career and offers a future. I intend to advocate for a “green collar jobs program” modeled after a successful initiative in Oakland, California. The Ella Baker Center runs a “pathways from poverty” designed to get very low-income people started in jobs in the clean energy industry, such as making homes and commercial buildings more efficient, as well as installing and maintaining renewable energy systems. Education and on-the-job training are combined to make sure that people are supported in the first steps in an industry that is growing, providing living wage jobs. This effort will require the combined efforts of business, labor unions, community organizations and educational institutions to provide the opportunities for these new green collar workers.

    S.R.: What can you do for Portland that the other candidates running for this position cannot?

    J.B.: While every candidate in this race offers something to the people of Portland, I offer two things that others do not: 1) a long history of being the lead organizer of numerous diverse coalitions focused around common agendas and goals and 2) the ability, demonstrated repeatedly, to have those coalitions be able to move their agendas through a political process successfully emerging with an adopted law or policy. It is one thing to be involved in issues; it is another to consistently be the lead in keeping diverse interests together, coordinated and focused until the objective is achieved. That ability to get results and build relationships for “the next issue” is my stock-in-trade and something that I believe is unique in this race.

    S.R.: How are you going to keep Portland affordable and livable for all citizens?

    J.B.: Portlanders are rightfully concerned that our city is growing less affordable. Housing prices, while lower than other parts of the country, have been rising rapidly. Even with the recent cool-down, prices for both home purchases and rents are quite high.

    Additionally, resources are not keeping pace with populations trends responding to changing neighborhoods. More and more, people are moving to East Portland neighborhoods in search of more affordable homes and business space and all too often, needed resources do not follow. I will work to better align neighborhood goals and needs with development efforts because improving an area should not mean that long-time residents should be required to move.

    S.R.: How will you make a difference in the lives of the people living on the streets?

    J.B.: The biggest difference that needs to be made in the lives of people living on the streets is to ensure that they do not have to live on the streets. We need to continue and expand our commitment to increase decent affordable housing. To do this, I will work with community development corporations (CDCs) to identify sites for rehabilitation and new housing projects. I will enforce the new requirement to have 30 percent of urban renewal funds to be set aside to fund affordable housing projects. I will also continue to work with the Affordable Housing NOW! Coalition to have the city meet and maintain a commitment of at least $30 million for Housing Investment. Lastly, I will work with housing advocates at the state level to encourage the state to increase its commitment to affordable housing funding to add to city housing funds.

    S.R.: What is your opinion of the way the city does business and what would you change?

    J.B.: As a community organizer by profession, grassroots involvement has been a cornerstone of any effort with which I’ve ever been involved. I think that the City Council needs to get out of City Hall more often and into the community.

    Here’s how I plan to do that: First, I do not believe that Portlanders who live in outlying neighborhoods should be required to make a pilgrimage to City Hall to get help from a city official or have input into city issues. To that end, I will establish a series of field offices for my commission office in various neighborhoods throughout the city. To start, I will open two offices east of I-205 and one in St. Johns.

    Second, it is often discussed that the City Council should occasionally have its meetings in places other than City Hall. This needs to move beyond the “nice-to-do” stage and to the “must-do” list. At least every other month, the City Council should meet in a school or community center or union hall or homeless shelter in various neighborhoods throughout the city.

    Third, while the City Council schedules meetings for late Wednesday afternoons or evenings, these sessions are often canceled. The City Council must make a concerted effort to meet in the evenings so that people wanting to come testify on an issue or simply watch can do so without taking time off work.

    Lastly, I will support the expansion of the neighborhood association concept to include non-geographic representation of communities of color. I believe the geographic-based neighborhood association system continues to have a role to play but that those associations cannot be everything to everyone. I believe there has to be a broader array of options for representation and involvement and we can start that expansion by discussing and adopting recommendations that are being developed by numerous groups throughout the city.

    For more great news and street culture pick up a Street Roots. Support a vendor and get a great read.