1. Bring out the sun (and smoke) gear. Sun hats, ballcaps, water bottles, sunscreen, spray bottles. These make great care packages for people on the streets, or you can donate them to nonprofits. We will pass these items out at Street Roots (drop off or ship supplies to 211 NW Davis St, 97209). When it’s really hot, it’s helpful to directly distribute cups or buckets of ice. And do you have extra N95 masks? Street Roots and other nonprofits can stockpile high-quality masks for unhoused people to survive the poor quality of forest fire air.
2. Say hello. It’s a lift to simply acknowledge each other. Many unhoused people report how dehumanizing it is to have housed people look through them or by them. Of course, you might encounter someone who simply doesn’t want to engage, and that makes sense too. Or maybe they are grumpy at you one day, but slowly, begin to recognize that your goodwill is predictable and safe, and you might build an acquaintance, neighbor to neighbor.
3. Eschew the knee-jerk ideas. Speaking of heat, there's enough heated rhetoric to create another kind of rage-filled heat dome. Before you engage in knee-jerk ideas that skid across the surface, take a breath and question whether it might make things worse. This is not to say we don’t need ideas, but take note if the proposal seems more about removal than about folks getting the housing or services they might need. The truth is homelessness is a problem of historic injustices and federal disinvestments compounded by high housing costs that outpace incomes. And now we are two years into a pandemic, of which some of the impacts are destabilized housing, suppressed health services for people in recovery and more. It’s not easy. Fortunately, the Metro voters took a big step in passing a housing services tax measure that can do a lot of good, and we are only six months in …
4. Pursue adjacent solutions. Homelessness isn’t a societal ill suffered in isolation. There are many areas to work on. Are you more interested in delving into urban zoning issues? Portland: Neighbors Welcome is an all-volunteer organization of people putting their brains to work on such issues. Interested in issues around policing and prison reform? The criminal legal system both dumps people into homelessness and creates barriers to housing. Unhoused people are on the front lines of the climate crisis — the fires, the freezes, the severe heat. Some communities have been more severely impacted by homelessness, such as Black and Indigenous people, so the health of these communities is imperative. Support foster youth, renters’ rights and any public health boosts for communities struggling with mental health as well as substance use. You can work to solve homelessness without directly working to solve homelessness. Just remember unhoused people in all the work you do.
5. Center people experiencing homelessness in other civic issues. In fact, whatever civic issue you are working on, bear in mind how unhoused people can be uplifted. Working on transit issues? Planning a public space? Working with your neighborhood association? Talking about downtown revitalization? Neighborhood economic development? Include the best interests of unhoused people alongside the larger community.
6. Support homeless services in your neighborhood. Find out what services are in your neighborhood — shelters, food pantries, drop-in services — and find out what else organizations need to feel a part of your neighborhood. Do they need help gaining the goodwill of other neighbors? Supply drives? Volunteers? Weekly flowers for their counter? A table at the neighborhood street fair? Tickets for their residents for local events? You can figure out where a lot of services are by mapping them on our digital Rose City Resource guide. And you can come by Street Roots to pick up boxes of paper Rose City Resource guides to hand out to people who need them. Some neighbors even find out what’s not available locally, and start it themselves (Sunnyside neighbors started a shower program in a local church, for example).
7. Read Street Roots and … psssst … pass it on. Every week our editor in chief, reporters and editorial producer work diligently to bring you in-depth coverage of systemic inequities. Additionally, Street Roots vendors are studying journalism through our 30-week Mobile Journalism program (Bronwyn Carver, a student in the program, writes an eye-opening column in this issue). In everything we do, we aim for our community to be better informed. Read Street Roots, read our archives online, buy extra copies and pass it on. It’s not for nothing the Society of Professional Journalists gave Street Roots top honors for journalistic excellence among small newsrooms in the Pacific Northwest.
8. Support our engagement journalism. The newsroom is developing innovative ways to engage sources in stories, breaking free from the tried-and-true methods that prioritize powerful voices. The Orange Fence Project, for example, includes a crowd-sourced Sweep Tracker to add a layer of transparency to the city-enforced camp sweeps.
9. Give money. If donating money is a way you can help, nonprofits need it. At Street Roots, about half of our yearly budget is built by individual donations. I visualize many hands lifting us up: The very foundation of Street Roots is all of you. We. Never. Forget. This. Whether it’s Street Roots or another nonprofit you care about, donations are deeply important.
10. Support your Street Roots vendor. It’s their livelihood. And while vendors won’t ask for tips (that’s part of their professionalism) they sure do appreciate them. Remember, these days, you don’t need cash. You can pay vendors, tips and all, via venmo (@StreetRoots) — just remember to include their badge number.
Thank you! We’re so grateful at Street Roots that we have our community.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2022 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404