Sunday, April 10, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, January 01, 2011
2011 in Jail For Sitting on a Sidewalk in SF California
Police State: "Lefty" San Francisco Can Throw People in Jail For Sitting on a Sidewalk
Propelled by wealthy donors and business interests, a new sit-lie ordinance in San Francisco gives police the power to fine and arrest people for resting on the sidewalk.
December 20, 2010 |
Photo Credit: AFP
http://www.alternet.org/story/149266/police_state:_cops_can_throw_people_in_jail_for_sitting_on_a_sidewalk?page=entire
When Jon Paul, a 69-year-old who's been homeless for 39 years, pulls off his cowboy hat and bows his head, I think he's being chivalrous. Instead he knocks on his forehead to show me his steel plate. He got it in Vietnam about 39 years ago. He says that when he came back from that war he had to live on the street because he "couldn't stand to be inside anymore."
In addition to the metal in his forehead, Paul's stint in Vietnam earned him a whopping $400 a month, or just enough to pay for about two weeks in a SRO (single residence occupancy). So partly through choice ("I like being out here because I can help people") and partly through necessity, he sleeps on the street in San Francisco's Mission District.
Starting last Friday, Paul and the rest of the city's homeless (numbering between 7,000 and 10,000) won't legally be allowed to do that anymore, a development that leaves him shaking his head in bewilderment, saying “fuck that.” On November 2, as the GOP swept into a majority in the House on Teabagger juice, voters in freewheeling San Francisco -- one of the haloed liberal utopias bookending dreaded "flyover country" -- passed Proposition L, a sit-lie ordinance that outlaws sleeping (or resting or sitting) on a public sidewalk between 7am and 11pm.
Police are supposed to give a warning, but after that they can issue a citation that carries a $50-$100 dollar fine. A repeat offense within 24 hours earns the unrepentant sitter a $300-$500 ticket, and/or up to 10 days in jail. If caught sitting or reclining again within 120 days of the original conviction, the individual can be fined $400-$500 dollars and end up in jail for 30 days.
So what does the city of San Francisco have against sitting down in public? Nothing, obviously, as long as you don't look like you're prone to criminal behavior (e.g., homeless).
“If the law were enforced the way it is on the books," the ACLU of Northern California's legal director Allan Schlosser tells AlterNet, “We'd be living in a police state." But as Schlosser explains, the sit-lie ordinance is unlikely to be enforced against, say, the millions of tourists who flood the city with billions of dollars in annual revenues.
Police officials have basically admitted as much. At a March public safety hearing in which the measure was discussed, public defender Jeff Adachi presented a series of slides showing people engaged in the offensive behavior: an attractive (white) woman sitting on a nice suitcase, a (white) kid holding his skateboard on the curb, and a couple of tourists. But the shots were interspersed with pictures of homeless people. Adachi wondered if they'd all be criminals under the new law.
In his rebuttal, assistant police chief Kevin Cashman assured the board that the “good” people depicted in the slides would be warned first and were unlikely to end up getting citations, saying, "Obviously, common sense is going to be part of the training with enforcement of this statute." An earlier PowerPoint presentation by Cashman also contained the creepy promise that the law "Enables Preventative Intervention, Before Accident or Crime Occurs." As Greg Kamin noted on Fog City Journal, Cashman emphasized the law's Minority Report aspect further by adding that sit-lie would "prevent a criminal act from occurring in the first place.”
Actually, what the law is most likely to do is exacerbate the city's horrific homelessness problem. As Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of Coalition on Homelessness pointed out in a phone interview with AlterNet, homeless people are not eligible for housing programs if they have a criminal record. "People wait for years to get housing and then they get knocked out. It's depressing as hell." Since sit-lie carries criminal penalties, a measure designed in part to manage the city's homeless actually plants obstacles to getting them off the streets.
Clearly aware of the optics of a law that fights pre-crime and targets people for the way they look, the city is being mindful of how the ordinance is rolled out. Sgt. Michael Andraychak told AlterNet that although the measure took effect last Friday, the SFPD is still formulating an enforcement policy. Once a game plan is drafted, the department will train officers in the proper use of the ordinance. Andraychak says the law will likely not be enforced until February 1 of next year.
But Bob Offer-Westort of the Coalition on Homelessness says there have already been incidences of individual police officers wielding the rule to hassle the city's homeless -- even before the ordinance became law. As early as election night, Offer-Westort claims there were multiple reports from the Haight and the Castro of police telling homeless youth they weren't allowed to sit on the sidewalk anymore. Offer-Westort says he witnessed a police officer tell a young guy he'd better "move along" because of the new law. Was the guy doing anything to attract police attention? "No. He was sitting cross-legged, hands tucked into his sleeves, because it was a cold day."
Over the course of the campaign, proponents of the measure -- which included Mayor Gavin Newsom, police chief George Gascon (who'd spearheaded a similar campaign targeted at Los Angeles' Skid Row) and other high-level police department representatives -- insisted the law would not be used to harass the city's poorest residents. As homeless advocates raised concerns over the impact of the discriminatory measure on San Francisco's most vulnerable, the Yes on L campaign spokespeople claimed police needed the law to curb aggressive and dangerous behavior by the city's homeless (even though San Francisco has plenty of laws that target people living on the street -- Jennifer Freidenbach says there are about 34 laws aimed at the homeless population).
In fact, the campaign for sit-lie allegedly grew out of efforts to manage a small population of homeless that mass around the Haight. As the story goes, Mayor Gavin Newsom was taking a walk with his daughter down Haight Street last February when he saw someone smoking crack on the sidewalk. The scandalized Newsom announced soon after that he would put a sit-lie measure to the board (but neglected to submit a police report).
Newsom's sudden realization that some homeless people use hard drugs was not the beginning of the push for sit-lie though; a well-oiled PR operation had already been cranking out reports of dangerous, aggressive street culture overtaking the Haight. In the six months leading up to the vote for Prop L, C.W. Nevius, a conservative columnist and former Republican fundraiser, wrote 20 fearmongering op-eds pushing for a sit-lie law. In Nevius' overheated columns, crazed thugs terrorized the neighborhood's law-abiding citizens, and the police were powerless to stop them. "The problem is that in the last year or so, the Haight has gone through an unpleasant transformation," he wrote. “Instead of the usual drowsy drunks and affable stoners, a new group has taken over the sidewalks. They're young, aggressive bullies who confront residents, sit on the sidewalks with pit bulls, and even prey on small-time marijuana dealers." So intimidating were the Haight's street kids, wrote Nevius, that residents were too scared to report crimes to the police.
Teresa Barrett, then police chief of Park Station, which oversees the Haight, held a series of community meetings with Haight residents in which she drummed up fears about rising crime in the neighborhood. (During the course of the campaign Barrett ran afoul of ethics rules when she appeared in an ad for the measure in her police uniform.) Like Nevius, Barrett claimed the police did not have enough authority to curb violent behavior in the area.
But despite dire reports of assault and aggressive behavior, crime stats in the area hadn't increased. At least one of the stories promoted by Nevius turned out to be bogus -- he wrote about a man who was jumped by a homeless man, but the district attorney found that the fight was mutual and ended up dismissing the charges.
Of course, jumping peaceful residents already tends to be illegal. So are many of the other behaviors cited by Nevius, Barrett, Gascon, and others campaigning for sit-lie. Aggressive panhandling and sidewalk obstruction are against the law. The city has strict laws against loitering. In fact, San Francisco was named the seventh "Meanest" city in its treatment of the homeless in a report by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless. The SFPD issues around 10,000 citations each year for "quality of life" crimes such camping and blocking the sidewalk. Religious Witness for the Homeless found that the city used up $9,847,027 on 56,567 such citations between 2004-2008. (That money, they determined, could be used to house "492 people, put 300 people in a three-month detox center, or pay the salaries of 113 psychiatric outreach workers.)
One of the main arguments for sit-lie was that current laws were inadequate because they required a third party to report threatening behavior. But in a review of local and state laws, the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco and the Bay Area found that a third party was not necessary for police to get involved. "As this report makes clear, these laws can be enforced by police officers without requiring citizens to complain of violations prior to their enforcement," they concluded.
Many of these questions were raised by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which voted overwhelmingly (8-3) against the measure on June 8. "I've got to believe that we can do better than this law and do something that's more meaningful for the public," said Supervisor Bevan Dufty.
Undeterred by the board's vote, Newsom put sit-lie on the ballot as Proposition L, optimistically termed "Civil Sidewalks" by advocates. While some Haight Street business owners and residents who voiced complaints about aggressive street behavior supported the measure, the Prop L campaign was, for the most part, promoted not by the community but by high-level figures in the police department and government, the city's financial interests and its wealthiest residents.
The SF Chamber of Commerce lobbied for the measure and pushed businesses to give money, including the owners of the San Francisco 49ers. Other business interests, few of which have a direct presence in the allegedly dangerous streets of the Haight, followed suit, including the Building Owners and Managers Association of SF, Coalition for SF Neighborhoods, Cole Valley Improvement Association, Mission Merchants Association, Polk District Merchants, and the San Francisco Apartment Association.
The campaign was flush with cash from the city's wealthiest residents. Investor Ron Conway, beloved in Silicon Valley for bankrolling pretty much every big startup to come over the last 20 years, donated a total of $55,000 to the Civil Sidewalks campaign. Conway even lobbied for the measure in a speech at the Bay Area Council Dinner. Other generous donations came from Charles Schwab ($25,000), 49ers President Jed York ($10,000), Kevin Lynch, of Adobe Systems ($1,000) and Jeff Fluhr, the CEO of StubHub ($500). Overall the Yes on L campaign amassed about $280,000 -- cash that went to slick consultants and TV advertising, with ads running during the heavily viewed Giants playoffs.
"It was a classic 'buy the election' campaign," says Friedenbach. The opposition had only $7,802.
The results of the election were also telling. In an analysis of votes by precinct, Chris Roberts of the SF Appeal found that the city's wealthiest neighborhoods were instrumental in passing the legislation, while less affluent areas mostly voted against. "Sit/Lie fared poorly in most voting precincts where one can actually find homeless people sitting on the street," wrote Roberts. The measure failed in the precinct that includes the Haight.
Beyond the many non-Haight business interests and wealthy conservatives that propelled the measure in San Francisco, sit-lie advocates also got help from as far away as New York. The right-wing Manhattan Institute's Heather MacDonald penned an almost 7,000-word screed in favor of a measure in a city across the country, painting the homeless in the Haight as spoiled, violent vagrants and denouncing homeless advocates and progressives as weaklings whose inaction would sink the city (when tourists suddenly decide to stop coming to San Francisco because of the mean homeless people, an argument that would later crop up in Nevius' columns).
The Manhattan Institute has promoted laws targeting the homeless before. In the early 2000s senior fellow George L. Kelling got $500,000 to consult on the campaign for L.A.'s Skid Row sit-lie law, which was spearheaded by current San Francisco police chief Gascon. Over the years, the conservative think-tank has been instrumental in promoting the "broken windows" theory of local governance, which calls on police to patrol poor neighborhoods for low-level "quality of life" crimes. Scrubbing the bad elements is supposed to trigger magical neighborhood rejuvenation; tax dollars go to police, not all those pesky social programs.
In sit-lie measures, which have cropped up all over the country, including Seattle, L.A., Miami and Chicago, that theory reaches perfection -- criminalizing the poor without the bother of waiting for them to commit a crime.
"We have to look at this in the big-picture context," said Friedenbach. "When the federal government created the homelessness crisis, local governments did not have the means of addressing the issue. So they use the police to manage homeless people's presence." Fueling this is the standard conservative mindset that paints people who have fallen on hard times as weak, criminal and subhuman. "They have to set up a framework to understand homelessness that it's not about systemic causes, but about the person."
An older guy who calls himself Birdman, who resides near Valencia Street in the Mission, articulated the humiliating dehumanization inherent in laws like sit-lie in a self-published flyer: "What if ur homeless and broke and have nowhere to go? Are u forced to stand like in Abu prison? While a DOG is free to sit or lie?
Tana Ganeva is an AlterNet editor. Follow her on Twitter. You can email her at tanaalternet@gmail.com.
Propelled by wealthy donors and business interests, a new sit-lie ordinance in San Francisco gives police the power to fine and arrest people for resting on the sidewalk.
December 20, 2010 |
Photo Credit: AFP
http://www.alternet.org/story/149266/police_state:_cops_can_throw_people_in_jail_for_sitting_on_a_sidewalk?page=entire
When Jon Paul, a 69-year-old who's been homeless for 39 years, pulls off his cowboy hat and bows his head, I think he's being chivalrous. Instead he knocks on his forehead to show me his steel plate. He got it in Vietnam about 39 years ago. He says that when he came back from that war he had to live on the street because he "couldn't stand to be inside anymore."
In addition to the metal in his forehead, Paul's stint in Vietnam earned him a whopping $400 a month, or just enough to pay for about two weeks in a SRO (single residence occupancy). So partly through choice ("I like being out here because I can help people") and partly through necessity, he sleeps on the street in San Francisco's Mission District.
Starting last Friday, Paul and the rest of the city's homeless (numbering between 7,000 and 10,000) won't legally be allowed to do that anymore, a development that leaves him shaking his head in bewilderment, saying “fuck that.” On November 2, as the GOP swept into a majority in the House on Teabagger juice, voters in freewheeling San Francisco -- one of the haloed liberal utopias bookending dreaded "flyover country" -- passed Proposition L, a sit-lie ordinance that outlaws sleeping (or resting or sitting) on a public sidewalk between 7am and 11pm.
Police are supposed to give a warning, but after that they can issue a citation that carries a $50-$100 dollar fine. A repeat offense within 24 hours earns the unrepentant sitter a $300-$500 ticket, and/or up to 10 days in jail. If caught sitting or reclining again within 120 days of the original conviction, the individual can be fined $400-$500 dollars and end up in jail for 30 days.
So what does the city of San Francisco have against sitting down in public? Nothing, obviously, as long as you don't look like you're prone to criminal behavior (e.g., homeless).
“If the law were enforced the way it is on the books," the ACLU of Northern California's legal director Allan Schlosser tells AlterNet, “We'd be living in a police state." But as Schlosser explains, the sit-lie ordinance is unlikely to be enforced against, say, the millions of tourists who flood the city with billions of dollars in annual revenues.
Police officials have basically admitted as much. At a March public safety hearing in which the measure was discussed, public defender Jeff Adachi presented a series of slides showing people engaged in the offensive behavior: an attractive (white) woman sitting on a nice suitcase, a (white) kid holding his skateboard on the curb, and a couple of tourists. But the shots were interspersed with pictures of homeless people. Adachi wondered if they'd all be criminals under the new law.
In his rebuttal, assistant police chief Kevin Cashman assured the board that the “good” people depicted in the slides would be warned first and were unlikely to end up getting citations, saying, "Obviously, common sense is going to be part of the training with enforcement of this statute." An earlier PowerPoint presentation by Cashman also contained the creepy promise that the law "Enables Preventative Intervention, Before Accident or Crime Occurs." As Greg Kamin noted on Fog City Journal, Cashman emphasized the law's Minority Report aspect further by adding that sit-lie would "prevent a criminal act from occurring in the first place.”
Actually, what the law is most likely to do is exacerbate the city's horrific homelessness problem. As Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of Coalition on Homelessness pointed out in a phone interview with AlterNet, homeless people are not eligible for housing programs if they have a criminal record. "People wait for years to get housing and then they get knocked out. It's depressing as hell." Since sit-lie carries criminal penalties, a measure designed in part to manage the city's homeless actually plants obstacles to getting them off the streets.
Clearly aware of the optics of a law that fights pre-crime and targets people for the way they look, the city is being mindful of how the ordinance is rolled out. Sgt. Michael Andraychak told AlterNet that although the measure took effect last Friday, the SFPD is still formulating an enforcement policy. Once a game plan is drafted, the department will train officers in the proper use of the ordinance. Andraychak says the law will likely not be enforced until February 1 of next year.
But Bob Offer-Westort of the Coalition on Homelessness says there have already been incidences of individual police officers wielding the rule to hassle the city's homeless -- even before the ordinance became law. As early as election night, Offer-Westort claims there were multiple reports from the Haight and the Castro of police telling homeless youth they weren't allowed to sit on the sidewalk anymore. Offer-Westort says he witnessed a police officer tell a young guy he'd better "move along" because of the new law. Was the guy doing anything to attract police attention? "No. He was sitting cross-legged, hands tucked into his sleeves, because it was a cold day."
Over the course of the campaign, proponents of the measure -- which included Mayor Gavin Newsom, police chief George Gascon (who'd spearheaded a similar campaign targeted at Los Angeles' Skid Row) and other high-level police department representatives -- insisted the law would not be used to harass the city's poorest residents. As homeless advocates raised concerns over the impact of the discriminatory measure on San Francisco's most vulnerable, the Yes on L campaign spokespeople claimed police needed the law to curb aggressive and dangerous behavior by the city's homeless (even though San Francisco has plenty of laws that target people living on the street -- Jennifer Freidenbach says there are about 34 laws aimed at the homeless population).
In fact, the campaign for sit-lie allegedly grew out of efforts to manage a small population of homeless that mass around the Haight. As the story goes, Mayor Gavin Newsom was taking a walk with his daughter down Haight Street last February when he saw someone smoking crack on the sidewalk. The scandalized Newsom announced soon after that he would put a sit-lie measure to the board (but neglected to submit a police report).
Newsom's sudden realization that some homeless people use hard drugs was not the beginning of the push for sit-lie though; a well-oiled PR operation had already been cranking out reports of dangerous, aggressive street culture overtaking the Haight. In the six months leading up to the vote for Prop L, C.W. Nevius, a conservative columnist and former Republican fundraiser, wrote 20 fearmongering op-eds pushing for a sit-lie law. In Nevius' overheated columns, crazed thugs terrorized the neighborhood's law-abiding citizens, and the police were powerless to stop them. "The problem is that in the last year or so, the Haight has gone through an unpleasant transformation," he wrote. “Instead of the usual drowsy drunks and affable stoners, a new group has taken over the sidewalks. They're young, aggressive bullies who confront residents, sit on the sidewalks with pit bulls, and even prey on small-time marijuana dealers." So intimidating were the Haight's street kids, wrote Nevius, that residents were too scared to report crimes to the police.
Teresa Barrett, then police chief of Park Station, which oversees the Haight, held a series of community meetings with Haight residents in which she drummed up fears about rising crime in the neighborhood. (During the course of the campaign Barrett ran afoul of ethics rules when she appeared in an ad for the measure in her police uniform.) Like Nevius, Barrett claimed the police did not have enough authority to curb violent behavior in the area.
But despite dire reports of assault and aggressive behavior, crime stats in the area hadn't increased. At least one of the stories promoted by Nevius turned out to be bogus -- he wrote about a man who was jumped by a homeless man, but the district attorney found that the fight was mutual and ended up dismissing the charges.
Of course, jumping peaceful residents already tends to be illegal. So are many of the other behaviors cited by Nevius, Barrett, Gascon, and others campaigning for sit-lie. Aggressive panhandling and sidewalk obstruction are against the law. The city has strict laws against loitering. In fact, San Francisco was named the seventh "Meanest" city in its treatment of the homeless in a report by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless. The SFPD issues around 10,000 citations each year for "quality of life" crimes such camping and blocking the sidewalk. Religious Witness for the Homeless found that the city used up $9,847,027 on 56,567 such citations between 2004-2008. (That money, they determined, could be used to house "492 people, put 300 people in a three-month detox center, or pay the salaries of 113 psychiatric outreach workers.)
One of the main arguments for sit-lie was that current laws were inadequate because they required a third party to report threatening behavior. But in a review of local and state laws, the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco and the Bay Area found that a third party was not necessary for police to get involved. "As this report makes clear, these laws can be enforced by police officers without requiring citizens to complain of violations prior to their enforcement," they concluded.
Many of these questions were raised by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which voted overwhelmingly (8-3) against the measure on June 8. "I've got to believe that we can do better than this law and do something that's more meaningful for the public," said Supervisor Bevan Dufty.
Undeterred by the board's vote, Newsom put sit-lie on the ballot as Proposition L, optimistically termed "Civil Sidewalks" by advocates. While some Haight Street business owners and residents who voiced complaints about aggressive street behavior supported the measure, the Prop L campaign was, for the most part, promoted not by the community but by high-level figures in the police department and government, the city's financial interests and its wealthiest residents.
The SF Chamber of Commerce lobbied for the measure and pushed businesses to give money, including the owners of the San Francisco 49ers. Other business interests, few of which have a direct presence in the allegedly dangerous streets of the Haight, followed suit, including the Building Owners and Managers Association of SF, Coalition for SF Neighborhoods, Cole Valley Improvement Association, Mission Merchants Association, Polk District Merchants, and the San Francisco Apartment Association.
The campaign was flush with cash from the city's wealthiest residents. Investor Ron Conway, beloved in Silicon Valley for bankrolling pretty much every big startup to come over the last 20 years, donated a total of $55,000 to the Civil Sidewalks campaign. Conway even lobbied for the measure in a speech at the Bay Area Council Dinner. Other generous donations came from Charles Schwab ($25,000), 49ers President Jed York ($10,000), Kevin Lynch, of Adobe Systems ($1,000) and Jeff Fluhr, the CEO of StubHub ($500). Overall the Yes on L campaign amassed about $280,000 -- cash that went to slick consultants and TV advertising, with ads running during the heavily viewed Giants playoffs.
"It was a classic 'buy the election' campaign," says Friedenbach. The opposition had only $7,802.
The results of the election were also telling. In an analysis of votes by precinct, Chris Roberts of the SF Appeal found that the city's wealthiest neighborhoods were instrumental in passing the legislation, while less affluent areas mostly voted against. "Sit/Lie fared poorly in most voting precincts where one can actually find homeless people sitting on the street," wrote Roberts. The measure failed in the precinct that includes the Haight.
Beyond the many non-Haight business interests and wealthy conservatives that propelled the measure in San Francisco, sit-lie advocates also got help from as far away as New York. The right-wing Manhattan Institute's Heather MacDonald penned an almost 7,000-word screed in favor of a measure in a city across the country, painting the homeless in the Haight as spoiled, violent vagrants and denouncing homeless advocates and progressives as weaklings whose inaction would sink the city (when tourists suddenly decide to stop coming to San Francisco because of the mean homeless people, an argument that would later crop up in Nevius' columns).
The Manhattan Institute has promoted laws targeting the homeless before. In the early 2000s senior fellow George L. Kelling got $500,000 to consult on the campaign for L.A.'s Skid Row sit-lie law, which was spearheaded by current San Francisco police chief Gascon. Over the years, the conservative think-tank has been instrumental in promoting the "broken windows" theory of local governance, which calls on police to patrol poor neighborhoods for low-level "quality of life" crimes. Scrubbing the bad elements is supposed to trigger magical neighborhood rejuvenation; tax dollars go to police, not all those pesky social programs.
In sit-lie measures, which have cropped up all over the country, including Seattle, L.A., Miami and Chicago, that theory reaches perfection -- criminalizing the poor without the bother of waiting for them to commit a crime.
"We have to look at this in the big-picture context," said Friedenbach. "When the federal government created the homelessness crisis, local governments did not have the means of addressing the issue. So they use the police to manage homeless people's presence." Fueling this is the standard conservative mindset that paints people who have fallen on hard times as weak, criminal and subhuman. "They have to set up a framework to understand homelessness that it's not about systemic causes, but about the person."
An older guy who calls himself Birdman, who resides near Valencia Street in the Mission, articulated the humiliating dehumanization inherent in laws like sit-lie in a self-published flyer: "What if ur homeless and broke and have nowhere to go? Are u forced to stand like in Abu prison? While a DOG is free to sit or lie?
Tana Ganeva is an AlterNet editor. Follow her on Twitter. You can email her at tanaalternet@gmail.com.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Women’s Warming Center opens at TPI
Portland Oregon Women’s Warming Center opens at TPI
Posted on November 17, 2010
by rocketpoetry
http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/womens-warming-center-opens-at-tpi/#more-4338
On the one of the worst nights of the year to date, the Women’s Warming Center will be opening tonight with a capacity of 70 women.
Women can reserve a space at the warming center by contacting Transition Projects. Women can stop by 475 NW Glisan Mon – Fri, 8:30 -7:30 PM. They can also call 503-823-4930 24 hours a day (after hours, press 5 to reach the shelter staff).
The Women’s Warming Shelter is made possible by a $180,000 grant from the Portland Housing Bureau.[ http://www.portlandoregon.gov/PHB ]
In partnership with other City departments, Multnomah County and community partners, the Portland Housing Bureau coordinates Winter and Severe Weather shelter and day services for homeless individuals in our community.
For the most up-to-date information on shelter or assistance, call 211info by dialing 2-1-1. [ http://www.211info.org/ ] In Multnomah County, the call line is open from 8am and 10pm, Monday through Friday; and between 8am to 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
For more information on severe weather shelter go here: http://tinyurl.com/32mtkkt
Posted on November 17, 2010
by rocketpoetry
http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/womens-warming-center-opens-at-tpi/#more-4338
On the one of the worst nights of the year to date, the Women’s Warming Center will be opening tonight with a capacity of 70 women.
Women can reserve a space at the warming center by contacting Transition Projects. Women can stop by 475 NW Glisan Mon – Fri, 8:30 -7:30 PM. They can also call 503-823-4930 24 hours a day (after hours, press 5 to reach the shelter staff).
The Women’s Warming Shelter is made possible by a $180,000 grant from the Portland Housing Bureau.[ http://www.portlandoregon.gov/PHB ]
In partnership with other City departments, Multnomah County and community partners, the Portland Housing Bureau coordinates Winter and Severe Weather shelter and day services for homeless individuals in our community.
For the most up-to-date information on shelter or assistance, call 211info by dialing 2-1-1. [ http://www.211info.org/ ] In Multnomah County, the call line is open from 8am and 10pm, Monday through Friday; and between 8am to 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
For more information on severe weather shelter go here: http://tinyurl.com/32mtkkt
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
CALIFORNIA: When Home Has No Place to Park
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/us/04rv.html?_r=1
LOS ANGELES 10.5.10
Every day, Diane Butler and her husband park their two hand-painted R.V.’s in a lot at the edge of Venice Beach here, alongside dozens of other rickety, rusted campers from the 1970s and ’80s. During the day, she sells her artwork on the boardwalk. When the parking lot closes at sunset, she and the other R.V.-dwellers drive a quarter-mile inland to find somewhere on the street to park for the night.
Their nomadic existence might be ending, though. The Venice section of Los Angeles has become the latest California community to enact strict new regulations limiting street parking and banning R.V.’s from beach lots — regulations that could soon force Ms. Butler, 58, to leave the community where she has lived for four decades.
“They’re making it hard for people in vehicles to remain in Venice,” she said.
Southern California, with its forgiving weather, has long been a popular destination for those living in vehicles and other homeless people. And for decades, people living in R.V.’s, vans and cars have settled in Venice, the beachfront Los Angeles community once known as the “Slum by the Sea” and famous for its offbeat, artistic culture.
Yet even as the economic downturn has forced more people out of their homes and into their cars, vehicle-dwellers are facing fewer options, with more communities trying to push them out.
As nearby neighborhoods and municipalities passed laws restricting overnight parking in recent years, Venice became the center of vehicle dwelling in the region. More than 250 vehicles now serve as shelter on Venice streets, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
“The only place between Santa Barbara and San Diego where campers can park seven blocks from the beach is this little piece of land,” said City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice. “Over the years, it’s only gotten worse, as every other community along the coast has adopted restrictions.”
In the past, bohemian Venice was tolerant of vehicle-dwellers, but, increasingly, the proliferation of R.V.’s in this gentrifying neighborhood has prompted efforts to remove them.
“The status quo is unacceptable,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, a group of residents devoted to removing R.V.’s from the area. “It’s time to give us some relief from R.V.’s parking on our doorsteps.”
A bitter debate has raged between residents who want to get rid of R.V.’s and those who want to combat the problems of homelessness in the community by offering safe places to park and access to public bathrooms. Last year, residents voted to establish overnight parking restrictions, but the California Coastal Commission twice vetoed the plan.
However, a recent incident involving an R.V. owner’s arrest on charges of dumping sewage into the street has accelerated efforts to remove vehicle-dwellers. Starting this week, oversize vehicles will be banned from the beach parking lots; an ordinance banning them from parking on the street overnight could take effect within a month.
While Mr. Rosendahl supported parking restrictions, he has also secured $750,000 from the city to pay for a pilot program to house R.V.-dwellers. Modeled after efforts in Santa Barbara and Eugene, Ore., the Vehicles to Homes program will offer overnight parking for vehicle-dwellers who agree to meet certain conditions, with the goal of moving participants into permanent housing.
“For people who want help, we’ll support them,” Mr. Rosendahl said. “The others can take their wheels and go up the coast or somewhere else, God bless them. It’s not our responsibility to be the only spot where near-homelessness is dealt with in the state of California.”
While some have expressed interest in the program, many said they did not want to subject themselves to curfews and oversight or had no means or desire to return to renting. Mr. Ryavec believes few will participate.
“I will not debate that some people are mentally ill, indigent or drugged out,” Mr. Ryavec said. “But my stance is that the bulk of these people are making a lifestyle choice.”
Still, according to Gary L. Blasi, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an activist on homeless issues, most people choose to live in vehicles only when the alternative is sleeping in a shelter or on the street.
“The idea of carefree vagabonds is statistically false,” Professor Blasi said. “More often, these are people who lived in apartments in Venice before they lived in R.V.’s. The reason for losing housing is usually the loss of a job or some health care crisis.”
Even if all the vehicle-dwellers in Venice wanted to participate, the pilot program will accommodate only a small fraction of them. In Southern California, though, there may not be anywhere else R.V.’s can legally park. According to Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, ordinances banning R.V.’s have spread from metropolitan areas into the suburbs as vehicle-dwellers venture farther afield in search of somewhere to sleep.
“Communities are now forming a patchwork of ordinances, which virtually prohibits a geographic cure to the situation,” Mr. Donovan said. “If you’re in a community and they tell you to leave, you can’t just go to the next community, because they establish similar ordinances, especially in California.”
Mr. Donovan said vehicle-dwellers often end up on the street after their vehicles are towed or become inoperable. When his organization surveyed tent camps in California, they found that many residents had come from R.V.’s.
Vehicle-dwellers in Venice are now considering their options, but few expressed any intention of leaving.
“They can keep throwing more laws at us, but we’re not just going to go away,” said Mario Manti-Gualtiero, who lost his job as an audio engineer and now lives in an R.V. “We can’t just evaporate.”
Their nomadic existence might be ending, though. The Venice section of Los Angeles has become the latest California community to enact strict new regulations limiting street parking and banning R.V.’s from beach lots — regulations that could soon force Ms. Butler, 58, to leave the community where she has lived for four decades.
“They’re making it hard for people in vehicles to remain in Venice,” she said.
Southern California, with its forgiving weather, has long been a popular destination for those living in vehicles and other homeless people. And for decades, people living in R.V.’s, vans and cars have settled in Venice, the beachfront Los Angeles community once known as the “Slum by the Sea” and famous for its offbeat, artistic culture.
Yet even as the economic downturn has forced more people out of their homes and into their cars, vehicle-dwellers are facing fewer options, with more communities trying to push them out.
As nearby neighborhoods and municipalities passed laws restricting overnight parking in recent years, Venice became the center of vehicle dwelling in the region. More than 250 vehicles now serve as shelter on Venice streets, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
“The only place between Santa Barbara and San Diego where campers can park seven blocks from the beach is this little piece of land,” said City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice. “Over the years, it’s only gotten worse, as every other community along the coast has adopted restrictions.”
In the past, bohemian Venice was tolerant of vehicle-dwellers, but, increasingly, the proliferation of R.V.’s in this gentrifying neighborhood has prompted efforts to remove them.
“The status quo is unacceptable,” said Mark Ryavec, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association, a group of residents devoted to removing R.V.’s from the area. “It’s time to give us some relief from R.V.’s parking on our doorsteps.”
A bitter debate has raged between residents who want to get rid of R.V.’s and those who want to combat the problems of homelessness in the community by offering safe places to park and access to public bathrooms. Last year, residents voted to establish overnight parking restrictions, but the California Coastal Commission twice vetoed the plan.
However, a recent incident involving an R.V. owner’s arrest on charges of dumping sewage into the street has accelerated efforts to remove vehicle-dwellers. Starting this week, oversize vehicles will be banned from the beach parking lots; an ordinance banning them from parking on the street overnight could take effect within a month.
While Mr. Rosendahl supported parking restrictions, he has also secured $750,000 from the city to pay for a pilot program to house R.V.-dwellers. Modeled after efforts in Santa Barbara and Eugene, Ore., the Vehicles to Homes program will offer overnight parking for vehicle-dwellers who agree to meet certain conditions, with the goal of moving participants into permanent housing.
“For people who want help, we’ll support them,” Mr. Rosendahl said. “The others can take their wheels and go up the coast or somewhere else, God bless them. It’s not our responsibility to be the only spot where near-homelessness is dealt with in the state of California.”
While some have expressed interest in the program, many said they did not want to subject themselves to curfews and oversight or had no means or desire to return to renting. Mr. Ryavec believes few will participate.
“I will not debate that some people are mentally ill, indigent or drugged out,” Mr. Ryavec said. “But my stance is that the bulk of these people are making a lifestyle choice.”
Still, according to Gary L. Blasi, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an activist on homeless issues, most people choose to live in vehicles only when the alternative is sleeping in a shelter or on the street.
“The idea of carefree vagabonds is statistically false,” Professor Blasi said. “More often, these are people who lived in apartments in Venice before they lived in R.V.’s. The reason for losing housing is usually the loss of a job or some health care crisis.”
Even if all the vehicle-dwellers in Venice wanted to participate, the pilot program will accommodate only a small fraction of them. In Southern California, though, there may not be anywhere else R.V.’s can legally park. According to Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, ordinances banning R.V.’s have spread from metropolitan areas into the suburbs as vehicle-dwellers venture farther afield in search of somewhere to sleep.
“Communities are now forming a patchwork of ordinances, which virtually prohibits a geographic cure to the situation,” Mr. Donovan said. “If you’re in a community and they tell you to leave, you can’t just go to the next community, because they establish similar ordinances, especially in California.”
Mr. Donovan said vehicle-dwellers often end up on the street after their vehicles are towed or become inoperable. When his organization surveyed tent camps in California, they found that many residents had come from R.V.’s.
Vehicle-dwellers in Venice are now considering their options, but few expressed any intention of leaving.
“They can keep throwing more laws at us, but we’re not just going to go away,” said Mario Manti-Gualtiero, who lost his job as an audio engineer and now lives in an R.V. “We can’t just evaporate.”
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Poor Magazine/PNN
Poor Magazine/PNN:
"POOR NEWS NETWORK"
http://www.poormagazine.com/
PNN is a multi-media access project of POOR Magazine, dedicated to reframing the news, issues and solutions from low and no income communities, as well as providing society with a perspective usually not heard or seen within the mainstream media.
PNN news is generated in the Community Newsroom, and is published each week on Wednesday. If you would like to participate; email deeandtiny@poormagazine.org.
POOR needs your help. subscription/donation
Read how to Save Co-editors Dee and Tiny"
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Houseless Resting - Portland at 3 PM
I love to take a nap in the afternoon
Those that are house-less ...."cant just take a nap"
Those with no home "cant rest"
Lets work for solutions together
Monday, September 06, 2010
World Homeless Day Sept 10
Overview
The purpose of World Homeless Day is to draw attention to homeless people’s needs locally and provide opportunities for the community to get involved in responding to homelessness, while taking advantage of the stage an ‘international day’ provides.
The Official World Homeless Day website exists to resource local groups to take the concept of World Homeless Day and run with it to benefit homeless people locally in their area.
Note: This is an annual event on the 10th of the 10th every year.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Homeles children in Russia
Seen this page with pictres of homeles children in Russia. It was dated 2009
http://theoriens.com/homeless-kids-in-russia/
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
10-10-10 World Homeless Day - Portland Oregon
World Homeless Day Countdown Website
http://www.101pdx.org/
What can you do?
You may not have much to offer. But you do have something that can help.
You probably have...
• Influence in your workplace or organization.
• Friends and family you can gather.
• A skill to work with your hands.
• The ability to think creatively.
• Some time to volunteer.
• A few dollars to share.
• A smile and conversation.
Get started.
• Subscribe to our blog for new ideas and resources each week.
• Check out the Top 10 lists -- something to spark conversation.
• Spread the word by sharing this page on Twitter and Facebook.
• Share some ideas of what you could do to participate
http://www.101pdx.org/
What can you do?
You may not have much to offer. But you do have something that can help.
You probably have...
• Influence in your workplace or organization.
• Friends and family you can gather.
• A skill to work with your hands.
• The ability to think creatively.
• Some time to volunteer.
• A few dollars to share.
• A smile and conversation.
Get started.
• Subscribe to our blog for new ideas and resources each week.
• Check out the Top 10 lists -- something to spark conversation.
• Spread the word by sharing this page on Twitter and Facebook.
• Share some ideas of what you could do to participate
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the streets of Portland - Demotix News
On the streets of Portland
Life on the streets for a young woman struggling with homelessness and an addiction to heroin in Portland, Oregon, USA.
13/06/2010
NORTH AMERICA United States Portland in Society, on the 13th of June 2010
By: Jeff Brandt
(original article is here)
After leaving her home near Toronto at age 15 due to family strife Niki has been living on the streets for 10 years. She came to Portland after meeting her 42 year old boyfriend Christian on the Internet. She says that even if they hadn’t met she probably would have still ended up in Portland. Niki goes on to explain that the pleasant climate and easy access to heroin are just a few of the things that make the area attractive to her. As she sits down to claim her usual spot outside of Michelle's on 5th , store employee Hasib Haider comes out to greet her. Hasib says he doesn’t like most of the people that set up outside of the store but Niki keeps to herself and doesn’t bother the customers.
Within a few minutes of placing an empty hat out on the sidewalk to collect change in a young lady walks by and directs insults her way, shrugging it off She tells me “ ya gotta take the good with the bad". as we spend the afternoon chatting I notice the hat she put on the sidewalk is almost full. I tell her I’m impressed With the amount of money she has in the hat, she retorts "I’m not proud of that, I’m living this way because I have to, I’m just doing what It takes to survive". She turns to me and asks what I would have done if I was put into her situation? I don’t respond because we both know the answer.
As the afternoon goes on she rolls up her sleeve to reveal the tell tale signs of a heroin addiction.
Niki see’s me looking at her track marks, she says that she has been clean for about 3 weeks. I can tell from the dried crusty blood in the crook of her arm and the fresh track marks that this is not true.This would be the last time I see her. After almost a week of searching and asking around I run into her boyfriend Christian, he tells me that in an attempt to get clean Niki has returned to her home near Toronto.
Tags addict, addiction, Drugs, heroin, heroin addict, homeless, homelessness, poverty, Street life, Streets, Homelesness, Drugs, Society
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Commissioner Deborah Kafoury | District I > News & Events > Previously Homeless Families Find Homes, Now Seek Employment
Previously Homeless Families Find Homes, Now Seek Employment
April 19, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to the local housing crisis for families, Multnomah County’s Board of County Commissioners approved funding in January for immediate rent assistance for 30 families to be housed in 30 days. The effort, a partnership with non-profit organizations Human Solutions and JOIN, successfully housed 34 families who were homeless. Now, these families are seeking employment.
“Securing housing for these families was the first step,” said Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, who brought this initiative to the Board of Commissioners. “Now that they have housing and their children have settled in school, a second yet critical step for the long-term stability of these families is to find a job.”
Program participants seeking employment hold a wide range of skill sets, including teaching, food service, handyman, housekeeping, construction, swim instruction, medical reception, child care, forklift driver, hairdresser, flagger, landscaper, and more. The common thread is the desire to work and care for their families.
“So many people in our community have been struggling. A simple suggestion that leads to a stable job can be the foundation for longer term success,” said Jean DeMaster, Executive Director of Human Solutions. “We hope that employers will call us with opportunities so these individuals can apply and offer their skills and experience for consideration along with other applicants. Ending homelessness in our community is a huge task, but it can be accomplished by giving homeless people the opportunities they need to become self sufficient.”
If you know of employment opportunities, please call Amie Diffenauer at Human Solutions
(503) 548-0224, email adiffenauer@humansolutions.org or Commissioner Kafoury’s office at (503) 988-5220.
April 19, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to the local housing crisis for families, Multnomah County’s Board of County Commissioners approved funding in January for immediate rent assistance for 30 families to be housed in 30 days. The effort, a partnership with non-profit organizations Human Solutions and JOIN, successfully housed 34 families who were homeless. Now, these families are seeking employment.
“Securing housing for these families was the first step,” said Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, who brought this initiative to the Board of Commissioners. “Now that they have housing and their children have settled in school, a second yet critical step for the long-term stability of these families is to find a job.”
Program participants seeking employment hold a wide range of skill sets, including teaching, food service, handyman, housekeeping, construction, swim instruction, medical reception, child care, forklift driver, hairdresser, flagger, landscaper, and more. The common thread is the desire to work and care for their families.
“So many people in our community have been struggling. A simple suggestion that leads to a stable job can be the foundation for longer term success,” said Jean DeMaster, Executive Director of Human Solutions. “We hope that employers will call us with opportunities so these individuals can apply and offer their skills and experience for consideration along with other applicants. Ending homelessness in our community is a huge task, but it can be accomplished by giving homeless people the opportunities they need to become self sufficient.”
If you know of employment opportunities, please call Amie Diffenauer at Human Solutions
(503) 548-0224, email adiffenauer@humansolutions.org or Commissioner Kafoury’s office at (503) 988-5220.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Dignity & Dining
Dignity & Dining: "Restaurants are very often the first industry to jump to the aid of those in need. Nine out of ten restaurants are involved in some kind of charity; most donate food to shelters and food banks.
Dignity & Dining was inspired by Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles. They have been serving quality food at affordable prices, as well as free meals to those in great need, for over 70 years.
The goal of the Dignity & Dining program is to find restaurants willing to provide free, no-questions asked meals and to make this information available to the public."
Dignity & Dining was inspired by Clifton’s Cafeteria in Los Angeles. They have been serving quality food at affordable prices, as well as free meals to those in great need, for over 70 years.
The goal of the Dignity & Dining program is to find restaurants willing to provide free, no-questions asked meals and to make this information available to the public."
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Heather Lyons talks homelessness - (reposted)
Heather Lyons talks homelessness
(reposted from STREET ROOTS)
link --> http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/heather-lyons-talks-homelessness/#more-3124
March 9, 2010
Ending homelessness starts at home. And, my most consistent home this month has been an airplane. As I write this, I am on a 5-hour and 17-minute flight from D.C. to Phoenix, where I get to sit in the airport for an hour and a half. Then, I get to sit on another “bus in the sky” from Phoenix to Portland.
I was eyeing the empty row next to me when I saw the last couple came on, with a baby in tow. I am positive their ages combined do not equal my age. Their baby, who I learn is named Bryson and is fourteen months, is very cute. Before we took off, he was flirtatious and full of smiles. But unlike a lot of kids that I see on airplanes, Bryson has an old baby t-shirt and pants that are dirty and stained, and not just little fruit juice stains. The parents, barely adults themselves, look worn, weary, and reek of cigarette smoke. The father has acne that goes on for days; the mother looks like she hasn’t been able to wash her hair in over a week. As they struggle to figure out how to use the seatbelts and ask me if they can use their cell phone after the plane takes off, it’s clear this is the first time they’ve flown.
I have a strong feeling that my petty little problems of not having extra elbowroom and travelling for nine hours paled in comparison with whatever Bryson’s family faced.
Coincidentally, I happened to be reading an article in the Atlantic about the jobless recovery, and the reason I was travelling from DC was because of a meeting to help shape the national strategic plan for ending and preventing chronic homelessness. While it may not be obvious, particularly the chronic homeless part, I believe the two are inextricably part of Bryson’s family future.
Later in the flight, I strike up a conversation with Bryson’s dad, who talks about his life very openly. I have a feeling that he has talked about his situation so many times it seems normal to share so much to a complete stranger. Turns out that he isn’t Bryson’s “real” dad, and that he was in foster care for 10 years. Because of that, he wants to “do right” by the kid because he was left on his own too much. Sadly, this means when Bryson gets just a little cranky he says even louder to him to STOP and pats him hard on his rear because, as he tells him, “he is almost two and needs to stop being coddled.” I ask if they want a break, and take Bryson for a walk, and they say no. I realize they probably don’t want a stranger holding their kid. Though, I’m almost positive that 90 percent of the women around them wanted to grab Bryson and do the same.
And then the dad tells me they are going to Anchorage because that’s where his mom is and when I ask where, he says he doesn’t know but that it’s about four hours from the city and he is looking forward to it because at least he hears there are jobs there. He had dropped out of school, so he needs to make money, and he says again, “to do right by my family.”
The Atlantic article on the jobless recovery has this to say about chronic unemployment in young families – “… the stresses and distractions that afflict unemployed parents also afflict their kids, who are more likely to repeat a grade in school, and who on average earn less as adults. Children with unemployed fathers seem particularly vulnerable to psychological problems.” And this – “By the time the average out-of-wedlock child has reached the age of 5, his or her mother will have had two or three significant relationships with men other than the father. … This kind of churning is terrible for children — heightening the risks of mental-health problems, troubles at school, teenage delinquency, and so on – and we’re likely to see more and more of it, the longer this malaise stretches on.”
At the meeting in D.C., a group of us, when asked what we thought it would take to end chronic homelessness, responded resoundingly — supportive housing. It’s a no-brainer. Then we were asked what prevents chronic homelessness, a little more difficult. One answer resounds with me as I think of Bryson. Norm Suchar from the National Alliance to End Homelessness said, “If we want to prevent homelessness, then we need to make sure that every person who exits the foster care system is guaranteed not to be homeless.” Exactly. Though, clearly not easy to implement, it’s a good starting point. The foster care system is the best intervention point we have for preventing homelessness, including and especially chronic homelessness.
Bryson’s dad takes him to change his diaper, and I look over and see his mom who has a few minutes alone for the first time and who has said maybe five words this whole trip. She’s put her head in her hands and she is crying.
It’s hard to hold hope when faced, head on, with one of the overall contributing factors of homelessness, poverty. Not just poverty of money, but poverty of people’s promise, and children’s promise like Bryson’s, and earlier, Bryson’s dad, and probably Bryson’s mom, too.
The 10-year plans to end homelessness that so many communities embraced, including Portland, focused on ending chronic and street homelessness. While there were many provisions to open the door for ending family homelessness, the solutions, save for a few, generally did not, and do not, get to the heart of the problem.
I think of 10 years and sometimes think how arbitrary that seems now. Especially as Portland and other communities are looking at mid-term updates to plans to end homelessness. Then I think of Bryson’s dad, and imagine his 10 years in foster care. Then I wonder when people who lead, politically and bureaucratically, will make the connections and do the right thing and not the expedient thing. When will people start making systemic changes to give chronically poor, un- and underemployed, and unhealthy families opportunities so that Bryson does not have the same experience that his “now” dad had? If that doesn’t happen, no matter the greater economic issues of our time, we will never prevent future generations of homelessness and chronic homelessness.
(reposted from STREET ROOTS)
link --> http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/heather-lyons-talks-homelessness/#more-3124
March 9, 2010
Ending homelessness starts at home. And, my most consistent home this month has been an airplane. As I write this, I am on a 5-hour and 17-minute flight from D.C. to Phoenix, where I get to sit in the airport for an hour and a half. Then, I get to sit on another “bus in the sky” from Phoenix to Portland.
I was eyeing the empty row next to me when I saw the last couple came on, with a baby in tow. I am positive their ages combined do not equal my age. Their baby, who I learn is named Bryson and is fourteen months, is very cute. Before we took off, he was flirtatious and full of smiles. But unlike a lot of kids that I see on airplanes, Bryson has an old baby t-shirt and pants that are dirty and stained, and not just little fruit juice stains. The parents, barely adults themselves, look worn, weary, and reek of cigarette smoke. The father has acne that goes on for days; the mother looks like she hasn’t been able to wash her hair in over a week. As they struggle to figure out how to use the seatbelts and ask me if they can use their cell phone after the plane takes off, it’s clear this is the first time they’ve flown.
I have a strong feeling that my petty little problems of not having extra elbowroom and travelling for nine hours paled in comparison with whatever Bryson’s family faced.
Coincidentally, I happened to be reading an article in the Atlantic about the jobless recovery, and the reason I was travelling from DC was because of a meeting to help shape the national strategic plan for ending and preventing chronic homelessness. While it may not be obvious, particularly the chronic homeless part, I believe the two are inextricably part of Bryson’s family future.
Later in the flight, I strike up a conversation with Bryson’s dad, who talks about his life very openly. I have a feeling that he has talked about his situation so many times it seems normal to share so much to a complete stranger. Turns out that he isn’t Bryson’s “real” dad, and that he was in foster care for 10 years. Because of that, he wants to “do right” by the kid because he was left on his own too much. Sadly, this means when Bryson gets just a little cranky he says even louder to him to STOP and pats him hard on his rear because, as he tells him, “he is almost two and needs to stop being coddled.” I ask if they want a break, and take Bryson for a walk, and they say no. I realize they probably don’t want a stranger holding their kid. Though, I’m almost positive that 90 percent of the women around them wanted to grab Bryson and do the same.
And then the dad tells me they are going to Anchorage because that’s where his mom is and when I ask where, he says he doesn’t know but that it’s about four hours from the city and he is looking forward to it because at least he hears there are jobs there. He had dropped out of school, so he needs to make money, and he says again, “to do right by my family.”
The Atlantic article on the jobless recovery has this to say about chronic unemployment in young families – “… the stresses and distractions that afflict unemployed parents also afflict their kids, who are more likely to repeat a grade in school, and who on average earn less as adults. Children with unemployed fathers seem particularly vulnerable to psychological problems.” And this – “By the time the average out-of-wedlock child has reached the age of 5, his or her mother will have had two or three significant relationships with men other than the father. … This kind of churning is terrible for children — heightening the risks of mental-health problems, troubles at school, teenage delinquency, and so on – and we’re likely to see more and more of it, the longer this malaise stretches on.”
At the meeting in D.C., a group of us, when asked what we thought it would take to end chronic homelessness, responded resoundingly — supportive housing. It’s a no-brainer. Then we were asked what prevents chronic homelessness, a little more difficult. One answer resounds with me as I think of Bryson. Norm Suchar from the National Alliance to End Homelessness said, “If we want to prevent homelessness, then we need to make sure that every person who exits the foster care system is guaranteed not to be homeless.” Exactly. Though, clearly not easy to implement, it’s a good starting point. The foster care system is the best intervention point we have for preventing homelessness, including and especially chronic homelessness.
Bryson’s dad takes him to change his diaper, and I look over and see his mom who has a few minutes alone for the first time and who has said maybe five words this whole trip. She’s put her head in her hands and she is crying.
It’s hard to hold hope when faced, head on, with one of the overall contributing factors of homelessness, poverty. Not just poverty of money, but poverty of people’s promise, and children’s promise like Bryson’s, and earlier, Bryson’s dad, and probably Bryson’s mom, too.
The 10-year plans to end homelessness that so many communities embraced, including Portland, focused on ending chronic and street homelessness. While there were many provisions to open the door for ending family homelessness, the solutions, save for a few, generally did not, and do not, get to the heart of the problem.
I think of 10 years and sometimes think how arbitrary that seems now. Especially as Portland and other communities are looking at mid-term updates to plans to end homelessness. Then I think of Bryson’s dad, and imagine his 10 years in foster care. Then I wonder when people who lead, politically and bureaucratically, will make the connections and do the right thing and not the expedient thing. When will people start making systemic changes to give chronically poor, un- and underemployed, and unhealthy families opportunities so that Bryson does not have the same experience that his “now” dad had? If that doesn’t happen, no matter the greater economic issues of our time, we will never prevent future generations of homelessness and chronic homelessness.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
NASNA Street Newspaper National Meeting
In order to build power and strength in cities where local street newspapers operate, the North American Street Newspaper Association must build support from a broad and diverse community throughout North America.
We are asking individuals, non-profit organizations and businesses to sign on to the NASNA declaration to support local street papers to:
- Provide thousands of individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness to gain immediate income and dignity through the sales of street newspapers
- Provide an avenue of free speech and to give voice to people experiencing homelessness and poverty
- Build a movement that encourages independence and dignity among people experiencing homelessness and poverty
- To deliver journalism, commentary and unique perspectives on homelessness and poverty to build the political will necessary to fight poverty and homelessness in North America
- To build quality relationships with people experiencing homelessness and the housed community through grassroots media
Together, we can build a movement of lasting change through grassroots media and offering individuals on the streets a dignified manner to gain income. Together, we can make a difference. Show your support and sign on today!
Your Name (required / please sign the petition)
http://www.nasna.org/join-the-movement/
~joe anybody
Friday, March 05, 2010
Housing Discussion - Housing Protests and Displacement:
An Event on Housing Tonight!
author: Judy Fleming
e-mail: publicsocialuniversity@gmail.com
Portland Indy media Link: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2010/03/397678.shtml
Public Social University: The latest in a series of public education forums, Public Social University will explore HOUSING in its myriad forms and facets in a series consisting of several parts. Come to learn from Community Alliance of Tenants, Marc Lakeman and residents of Dignity Village, Brendan Phillips and Julio Vascuez from Sisters of the Road, and three speakers from NO Vacancy project.
Part 1: Approaching Space and Place
Friday March 5th, 2010
6-8pm
SEA Change Gallery
625 NW Everett #110 Portland, Oregon
A Free All Ages Event Featuring the Following Presentations and Discussions:
Housing Protests and Displacement:
Brendan Phillips and Julio Vasquez of Sisters of the Road will share their experiences during the WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project) protest, which took place in San Francisco, CA on January 20th. They marched for housing rights and against 'crimes of status' to Nancy Pelosi's office.
Know Your Rights:
With CAT (Community Alliance of Tenants) representative Erica Boreman. Erica will explore the history of CAT, renter's rights, and the legislative side of housing.
Utilizing Vacant Space:
NO Vacancy project presentation of the what, who, why and how of using vacant spaces in Portland, legally. Facilitating this discussion are Becky Dann, Brianna Meier and CEIC (Central Eastside Industrial Council) Executive Director Terry Taylor.
Drink Tea with City Repair:
Share stories with the folks from City Repair, who work lovingly to make our city better place, and have had a hand in founding Dignity Village.
About Public Social University:
Public Social University began in 2008 as a collaborative project in Harrell Fletcher's Art & Social Practice class at Portland State University. The first three Public Social University events were loosely organized forums for idea and skill sharing at Portland Oregon's Central Public Library. In 2009, Public Social University organized free/all ages events in Portland art galleries: Food, Water, Apocalypse, Friendship, Healing, and Oral Histories, presenting attendees with the best array of workshops, discussions, presentations and activities on the respective themes as possible. Culled from Portland's diverse community, artists, experts, and academicians alike volunteered their time, knowledge and energy. Additionally, Public Social University Co-Directors Rozzell Medina and Judy Fleming installed exhibits in Portland's MK and White Galleries, organized a free/all ages community event in San Francisco's Dolores Park, and won November's STOCK Grant.
homepage: http://publicsocialuniversity.blogspot.com
author: Judy Fleming
e-mail: publicsocialuniversity@gmail.com
Portland Indy media Link: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2010/03/397678.shtml
Public Social University: The latest in a series of public education forums, Public Social University will explore HOUSING in its myriad forms and facets in a series consisting of several parts. Come to learn from Community Alliance of Tenants, Marc Lakeman and residents of Dignity Village, Brendan Phillips and Julio Vascuez from Sisters of the Road, and three speakers from NO Vacancy project.
Part 1: Approaching Space and Place
Friday March 5th, 2010
6-8pm
SEA Change Gallery
625 NW Everett #110 Portland, Oregon
A Free All Ages Event Featuring the Following Presentations and Discussions:
Housing Protests and Displacement:
Brendan Phillips and Julio Vasquez of Sisters of the Road will share their experiences during the WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project) protest, which took place in San Francisco, CA on January 20th. They marched for housing rights and against 'crimes of status' to Nancy Pelosi's office.
Know Your Rights:
With CAT (Community Alliance of Tenants) representative Erica Boreman. Erica will explore the history of CAT, renter's rights, and the legislative side of housing.
Utilizing Vacant Space:
NO Vacancy project presentation of the what, who, why and how of using vacant spaces in Portland, legally. Facilitating this discussion are Becky Dann, Brianna Meier and CEIC (Central Eastside Industrial Council) Executive Director Terry Taylor.
Drink Tea with City Repair:
Share stories with the folks from City Repair, who work lovingly to make our city better place, and have had a hand in founding Dignity Village.
About Public Social University:
Public Social University began in 2008 as a collaborative project in Harrell Fletcher's Art & Social Practice class at Portland State University. The first three Public Social University events were loosely organized forums for idea and skill sharing at Portland Oregon's Central Public Library. In 2009, Public Social University organized free/all ages events in Portland art galleries: Food, Water, Apocalypse, Friendship, Healing, and Oral Histories, presenting attendees with the best array of workshops, discussions, presentations and activities on the respective themes as possible. Culled from Portland's diverse community, artists, experts, and academicians alike volunteered their time, knowledge and energy. Additionally, Public Social University Co-Directors Rozzell Medina and Judy Fleming installed exhibits in Portland's MK and White Galleries, organized a free/all ages community event in San Francisco's Dolores Park, and won November's STOCK Grant.
homepage: http://publicsocialuniversity.blogspot.com
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Portland Business Alliance against homeless
-------- CLICK Here FOR ORIGINAL LINK ---------
Portland Business Alliance against homeless
These are the businesses that are against the homeless and support the police sweeps and the elimination of fareless square...
The Allison Inn and Spa
American Family Insurance
Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects
Ashforth Pacific
Ash Grove Cement Company
Associated Business Systems
Aurora Industrial Automation
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Avalon Hotel & Spa
Azumano Travel/
American Express
Ball Janik LLP
Benson Industries
Best Buy - Cascade Station
Best Buy - Jantzen Beach
Big Belly Solar
Bradwood Landing LLC
Brooks Brothers
Brooks Staffing
Capacity Commercial Group
Cintas Corporation
Coast Office Products, Inc.
Columbia State Bank
CommonWealth Properties Management Service
The Daily Grill
Davis Wright Tremaine
DeAngelo Brothers Incorporated
DePaul Industries
Dex R.H. Donnelley
Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue
Dynamic Consulting
El Hispanic News
Emerson Hardwood Group
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
EnviroMedia Social Marketing
Ferguson Wellman Capital Management
First Tech Credit Union
Franz Family Bakeries
Governor Hotel
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Hitachi Consulting
The Holland Inc.
Hotel deLuxe
Hotel Lucia
Inkwell Creative
InterWorks, LLC
Kalberer Company
KGW Northwest Newschannel 8
KPFF Consulting Engineers
LA Fitness
Lauro Kitchen
LinenTableCloth
M Financial Group
Maxim Integrated Products
Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission
Multonamah
Athletic Club
Nel Centro
Norris, Beggs & Simpson Companies
North Pacific
Northwest Boardroom, LLC
Northwest Pipe Co.
Opus Northwest LLC
Oregon Institute of Technology
Oregon LNG
The Parcel Place
Perkins Coie LLP
Platt
Portland Development Commission
Portland Marriott City Center
Portland Spirit River Cruises
RBC Wealth Management
REC Solar
S.D. Deacon Corp. of Oregon
Saks Fifth Avenue
Salishan Spa and Golf Resort
Sealy Mattress Co.
Shorenstein Realty Services
Signs Now Northwest
Sinju - Pearl District
Solberg/Adams
Southwest Airlines
TMT Development
Tonkon Torp LLP
TransCanada
Travel Vaccinations
United Pipe & Supply Co.
Vindalho
Warner Pacific College
WeClik
The Westin Portland
Wieden & Kennedy
Willamette Management Associates
Portland Business Alliance against homeless
These are the businesses that are against the homeless and support the police sweeps and the elimination of fareless square...
The Allison Inn and Spa
American Family Insurance
Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects
Ashforth Pacific
Ash Grove Cement Company
Associated Business Systems
Aurora Industrial Automation
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Avalon Hotel & Spa
Azumano Travel/
American Express
Ball Janik LLP
Benson Industries
Best Buy - Cascade Station
Best Buy - Jantzen Beach
Big Belly Solar
Bradwood Landing LLC
Brooks Brothers
Brooks Staffing
Capacity Commercial Group
Cintas Corporation
Coast Office Products, Inc.
Columbia State Bank
CommonWealth Properties Management Service
The Daily Grill
Davis Wright Tremaine
DeAngelo Brothers Incorporated
DePaul Industries
Dex R.H. Donnelley
Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue
Dynamic Consulting
El Hispanic News
Emerson Hardwood Group
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
EnviroMedia Social Marketing
Ferguson Wellman Capital Management
First Tech Credit Union
Franz Family Bakeries
Governor Hotel
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Hitachi Consulting
The Holland Inc.
Hotel deLuxe
Hotel Lucia
Inkwell Creative
InterWorks, LLC
Kalberer Company
KGW Northwest Newschannel 8
KPFF Consulting Engineers
LA Fitness
Lauro Kitchen
LinenTableCloth
M Financial Group
Maxim Integrated Products
Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission
Multonamah
Athletic Club
Nel Centro
Norris, Beggs & Simpson Companies
North Pacific
Northwest Boardroom, LLC
Northwest Pipe Co.
Opus Northwest LLC
Oregon Institute of Technology
Oregon LNG
The Parcel Place
Perkins Coie LLP
Platt
Portland Development Commission
Portland Marriott City Center
Portland Spirit River Cruises
RBC Wealth Management
REC Solar
S.D. Deacon Corp. of Oregon
Saks Fifth Avenue
Salishan Spa and Golf Resort
Sealy Mattress Co.
Shorenstein Realty Services
Signs Now Northwest
Sinju - Pearl District
Solberg/Adams
Southwest Airlines
TMT Development
Tonkon Torp LLP
TransCanada
Travel Vaccinations
United Pipe & Supply Co.
Vindalho
Warner Pacific College
WeClik
The Westin Portland
Wieden & Kennedy
Willamette Management Associates
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