By Becky Mullins
Contributing writer
Kim Etherton came to Street Roots one month ago and she has already established a permanent vendor location at The Common Ground Coffee House at 4321 SE Hawthorne. She sells Street Roots newspapers there from 8 a.m. until noon, sometimes later.
“The paper helps me provide my own transportation, heart medication, and sometimes even a treat at Taco Bell.” Kim says. She and her partner Alan have been saving money earned from Street Roots to get into an apartment.
“If you have not read the paper yet, please check it out, just once and then give me your opinion because I enjoy taking the information to the vendor meetings and sharing them with other vendors and the editor. If you want a great challenge, check out our crossword!”
When she’s not selling the paper, you can often find Kim at the new JOIN offices, where Street Roots is located, which has become a social center and, for now, home through the Homeless Family Warming Center, operated in the same building by Human Solutions.
“I like to get to meet new people and take a shower. I like the activities, nutrition class and game night,” she said. “It is nice to have some place to go besides (being out in) the rain.” But the warming center will soon close for the season, and then it is likely that Kim will be back sleeping on the street.
Kim wants to be treated like a “normal” person because she is. She’s the proud mother of two grown children. Her daughter recently moved to Fort Hood, Texas, to help her older brother’s wife with their two children while he serves in Afghanistan.
Kim grew up in a broken home and her family would go camping often for weeks at a time. Kim knew that her family was homeless, and like many families who are poor, a few weeks of camping could stretch the money between apartments.
Kim had worked fulltime as a quality tech for a couple of years for Labor Ready before she lost her temporary job and was unable to keep herself in housing.
She says she feels that people do not understand that she has some limitations that keep her from some work, but they are not severe enough to qualify for state help. Sometimes she feels like people view her as though she were invisible. But Kim is full of hope and determination to once again become self sufficient. And she enjoys the community of other vendors, including her partner Alan, and customers.
“I get excited when customers greet me or ask me questions about being a vendor and what they can do to help the homeless,” she says. “I feel like a little kid in a candy store when someone actually greets me.” Kim says that the homeless population of Portland needs more help with getting assistance in obtaining medications and medical needs.
Kim has already overcome many barriers in her life. “Life is about choices… good or bad… I made some choices that are both good and bad,” she says.
Kim spoke of growing up in an abusive home, running away and becoming a ward of the state. She found herself falling behind in school and not feeling connected to her community after being in group homes for a few years. She left school after the 7th grade, but later went back to her studies and earned her GED. She tried both cocaine and methamphetamines, and came to realize they were not the best choices she could have made at the time.
One day, Kim said, she “woke up,” as she puts it. Everyone will experience one of these days in their lives, she says. On that day Kim woke up, in an abusive relationship, with her children removed from her, she decided to work toward breaking that cycle of instability and dysfunction. Kim stopped seeing old friends who shared her bad choices and began to focus on getting clean and maintaining sobriety.
She’s proud that she’s been clean since 1998, but she doesn’t judge those who are unable to do the same. “Once I am stable I want to share my story with others in hopes that they will be able to prevent themselves from ending up in a similar situation to mine.”