Photographs by Denis C. Theriault Mayor Charlie Hales. At left, the back of Lars Larson’s head. Mayor Charlie Hales this morning redoubled his attempts to publicize a plan announced over the weekend that would use power-washers, cops, and citations to disperse—maybe tomorrow, but “sometime this week”—the nearly two-year-old camping protest that’s taken root outside the […]
Homeless
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Meet the Members of Mayor Charlie Hales’ “Homeless Task Force”
Following last night’s private inaugural meeting of Mayor Charlie Hales’ “Homeless Task Force”—an otherwise little-noticed item on the mayor’s calendar—Hales’ office has supplied the names of those invited to the meeting in response to a Mercury request. The basic list comes from Hales’ spokesman, Dana Haynes. I’ve added the descriptors for clarity’s sake. Internal • […]
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In Private Meeting, Hales Starts Work on Homelessness Front
Turning his gaze toward a post-budget priority laid out in his State of the City address—tackling the separate-but-related concepts of “homelessness” and “panhandling”—Mayor Charlie Hales is meeting right now with a group of advocates and others he hopes will guide his work on the issue. The 90-minute meeting is listed on his weekly calendar only […]
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Street Count Shows Spike in Portland’s Homeless Population
Two years ago, in the waning months of a terrible recession, Portland and Multnomah County released a snapshot count of the region’s homeless population that’s been cited as gospel by politicians and service providers and advocates ever since—revealing some 1,700 people living on the streets, with hundreds more in transitional housing or emergency shelters. It […]
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“Domicile Unknown”: Report Shows Increase in Deaths of Homeless
Last year, for the first time, Multnomah County and the Portland Housing Bureau and, especially, Street Roots worked hard to produce something we’d never seen before: an attempt to tally, over the course of 12 months, deaths among those among us living on the street. That first report showed 47 people died while homeless last […]
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Unpaid Fines for Right 2 Dream Too Now Top $17,000
Right 2 Dream Too—the thriving Old Town tent refuge for the homeless currently waging a legal battle against Portland over code violation fines—has posted its latest bill from the city’s Bureau of Development Services. The city, you’ll recall, is treating the place like an unpermitted “recreational” campground—a characterization organizers, clients, and their attorneys vehemently dispute. […]
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Council Majority Now Backs Campaign for Safety Net Cash
No one really likes doing business this way, but here’s the fundamental truth about Portland City Council: Count to three, and you can probably get what you want. So now it’s budget season, and some $2.3 million worth of housing and social-services programs are on the chopping block. And though it’s weeks before council really […]
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Bad Budget Year? Time to Fire Up the Ol’ Safety Net Campaign
Last spring, despite what seemed like an awful city budget gap, a grass-roots campaign nurtured by Street Roots and a panoply of other providers and activists managed to not only fend off proposed cuts to safety net programs but also win a huge victory for future funding. The campaign was called “I Support the Portland […]
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KATU: Vet Killed By Cops Was at City Hall Camping Protest
Denis C. Theriault In case you missed it over the weekend, KATU had a notable update in the story of Santiago A. Cisneros III—the Army vet killed by police last Monday after, cops say, he fired at two officers with a shotgun atop Metro’s Lloyd District parking garage. “Just hours” before Cisneros was shot, the […]
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Pay Attention! Portland Business Alliance’s Sit-Lie Bill Scheduled for Work Session Tomorrow
The Portland Business Alliance’s legislative push for a return to harsher sidewalk rules apparently has a bit of wind at its back. And if that matters to you, and civil rights really should, you ought to pay attention and start speaking out. The group’s specially written bill, HB 2963, has been sent from the House […]
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The Portland Business Alliance Wants Salem to Help Clear Homeless People from City Sidewalks
The Portland Business Alliance is asking Salem for permission to return to the bad old days of Portland’s judiciary-rejected sit-lie law—an unconstitutional ordinance that banned otherwise law-abiding people from sitting and lying down or generally not-shopping on the city’s sidewalks. A bill introduced under the auspices of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week would […]
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An Important Lesson on Stereotypes from Street Roots
Israel Bayer, director of Street Roots and a friend of anybody in Portland looking for a hand up and a little bit of dignity, has written an important essay in the paper’s online edition about homelessness and the power of perception and the shitty, dehumanizing myths people all too often indulge. The piece starts with […]