The fight against homelessness from D.C. talking heads

Street Sense in Washington D.C. talks to heads of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Catholic Charities, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, National Coalition to End Homelessness and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless about what's working and what's not in the fight against homelessness.

What's working and what's not

Shouldn't we be talking drug reform?

Real Change reports Ibogaine is the rumored “wonder drug” of addiction treatment. More effective than methadone at combating withdrawal symptoms, more potent than peyote. And very illegal.

Powerful psychedelic said to fight drug addiction

While Portlanders argue over street names, Seattlites are talking drug reform.

Spirited talk about drug reform

San Francisco ponders the first injection site for drug addicts in the U.S

Injection sites

Vancouver, B.C.'s health department already offers an injection site

Injection site Vancouver

Instead of locking addicts up in our county jails, advocating for failed drug-free zones and empowering police officers to work with addicts instead of health care providers in our neighborhoods - shouldn't we be talking drug reform in Portland?

Food, poverty and social justice

A new Street Roots Special Edition is on the streets. The new issue explores food, poverty and social justice.

Feature articles include a look at the future of community gardens and rooftop agriculture, the challenges non-profits face providing healthy meals day in and day out, and a look at the world of gleaning.

Other features include a Q & A with Brian Tokar, Program Director with the Vermont Institution of Social Ecology, and columns from Jay Thiemeyer and Daniel Denvir with the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, and much more...

Street Roots editorial: Time to get off the industrial food grid

We are what we eat. We are dependent on an agricultural industry steered by politics and profit. We are processed through conditioning and ignorance to crave what is bad for us. We are the pesticide-riddled consumers of the globalized, multi-billion-dollar commerce of “foodstuff.” We are the corporations' cash cows.

Of course, we don't have to be, and many of us with the means have gone retro toward escaping this government-induced sustenance stupor. Community gardens, organic options and local sources are the hallmarks of the new food movement, but until they become sustainable standards that are universally accessible to the poor, we'll have to think further outside the proverbial over-packaged box of artificial flavorings.

Because of government subsidies and mass processing, the cheapest food is often the worst food. Sugar, high fructose corn syrup (subsidized) and hydrogenated fat (cheap and long-lasting) reign supreme on poor families' plates, creating the perceived irony of obesity among the most food-vulnerable in our community. But abundance of food isn't the problem in this town. It's the accessibility and affordability of the right food that is.

To add real irony to the situation, the solution could be hatched from the same sustainable, empowering and mutually rewarding ideal people apply to ending poverty. Get a garden.

The city of Portland is looking at ways of expanding its community garden program to include more low-income individuals and families. It should be a standard pairing with the efforts to create more affordable housing and green construction in Portland. Today, the city's largest concentration of people living in poverty and homelessness, those in the downtown core, remain confined to a concrete jungle.

We are programmed to think the needs of the poor span the very short spectrum of food, clothing and shelter, when the most overlooked elements are that which we all treasure; to be able to take care of ourselves, to feel a part of a society. People working in the city's community garden programs report an increase in not only good food, but of hope and productivity, and even a reduction in juvenile crime. We're beyond talking just food here, we're talking about people restoring a basic need in their lives: control.

Seattle is a model in our own backyard. The city to the north has made growing your own food a priority for all citizens, with a cooperative system of sharing abundance in knowledge and crops. P-patches are common, and garden plots can be purchased and donated to low-income families. Organic food collected is distributed to people in need who cannot grow their own.

Portland is following the lead, but as it plans for higher density residential and commercial districts downtown, it needs to be pushing more garden options in the early stages of planning and development. As we continue to push for more green construction, with entire structures operating off the grid, we should be building in the infrastructure for people to live off the industrial food grid as well.

Help support Street Roots!

Dear friends of Street Roots,

Be a part of something special this year! You can help us raise $25,000 during the Winter Fund Drive!

Your donation will go towards lowering the cost vendors pay for the paper from 30 cents to 25 cents, giving vendors 75 percent profit from each paper sold.

Your donation will also go towards providing vendors with a sales training video this year, as well as providing fresh water, hot coffee, a warm place to congregate in the office 365 days a year, and a safe place for individuals on the streets to store artwork, poetry and journals.

Your donation also goes towards helping the expansion of the newspaper. We have added four more pages of local, national and international grassroots news — plus a page devoted to the unique stories of the people who sell Street Roots. Read an example of the new content:

Ride of his life

So, c'mon. What are you waiting for? Take five minutes to donate today!

Donate now!

From all of us at Street Roots, we thank you for the support. We couldn't do it without you!

Homeless vets

A new report from the National Alliance to End Homelessnes says approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night—an increase of 0.8 percent from 194,254 in 2005. More veterans experience homeless over the course of the year. We estimate that 336,627 were homeless in 2006.

The report says, 1.98% of veterans from Oregon in 2006 were homeless (5,891), while 2.9% of veterans (10,125) vets are experiencing severe housing cost burden. In Washington, 1.04% (6,800) of veterans are homeless, while 2.5% (15,713) are experiencing severe housing costs burdens.

Homeless vet report

The New York Times reports that more than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

Surge in homeless vets

Despite high rates of homelessness among U.S veterans, only one in four are receiving assistance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a situation a national advocacy organization blames on lack of awareness of federal support, according to Street Sense in Washington D.C.

Street Sense article

The VA estimates that 45% of homeless veterans suffer from mental-health issues, while more than 70% suffer from substance abuse. The most common mental illness found in homeless veterans is PTSD, which often leads to other mental illnesses related to trauma, as well as alcohol and drug abuse. Despite this, only half of all VA centers offer treatment and assistance for PTSD and other mental illnesses.

Help out!

If Portlanders and Oregonians are looking for an organization to support this Veteran's Day, Street Roots recommends the Central Oregon Veterans Outreach. The organization is one example of veterans helping veterans who are experiencing homelessness throughout the state. They're the real deal.

COVO

Numbers of women experiencing homelessness in Seattle on the rise

From Real Change in Seattle:

The numbers are still being crunched, but there are already several surprises in the first six months worth of data from Safe Harbors, a new countywide database that tracks the homeless.

One of them is that nearly 1,400 of the single adults who stayed in a publicly funded shelter in King County between January and June were women — or 25 percent of the 4,363 single adults who were sheltered. Add to that another 350 women that Seattle human services staff believe haven’t been identified and the countywide total of homeless women is 1,791, a number that’s “a lot higher than we would have anticipated,” Safe Harbors manager John Hoskins said in an Oct. 24 report to the board of King County’s Committee to End Homelessness.

Continue reading

Homeless women

Cops vs. private eyes

The new edition of SRs is on the streets. The cover story is a feature on videotaping alteracations between police and the public. Activists say it's the road to accountability, while law enforcement says it has concerns over privacy and creating inaccurate public perceptions.


Other features include a Q & A with Community Alliance of Tenants Ian Slingerland, a profile on artist/activist Dan Shea, and stories on what's happening on the ground in Chile and Indonesia from the Street News Service.

A ride of his life features the amazing story of vendor John Thompson who recently wrode to San Francisco on a bike donated from the Community Cycling Center. Did we mention John only has one arm and had no money.

Our editorial looks at the hype around Old Town/Chinatown, and what people on the streets are going through living on both sides of the gun.

All of this and much more in this issue of Street Roots. Go buy it from your local vendor! Now!