Street Roots vendor Kat Black always reads the last page of a book first before choosing it to try to figure out how the author gets to the end.
It is similar to how Kat, who has been on the streets for seven years, approaches life.
“Every day you wake up and you don’t know how it is going to go or how it is going to end,” Kat said.
When Kat isn’t selling papers at New Seasons Market on Southeast Hawthorne Street, she is an avid reader and writer of poetry. Currently, she is hooked on coming-of-age books such as The Little Prince and A Wrinkle in Time.
Her work at Street Roots keeps her going.
“It makes me feel better about going out,” Kat said. “By selling papers people know I don’t want a handout, that I am trying to improve my situation.”
The customers at New Seasons become her friends. They exchanged phone numbers, brought her warm clothes and purchased food for her from the store.
“The regulars brighten your day, you meet their family and dogs,” Kat said. “It makes you feel part of something. The fact that they will stop and talk to me, give me a dollar or something, give me some support, means the world to me.”
The money she receives from selling Street Roots provides the basics for Kat to survive. Sometimes she needs medicine or gas to heat the car where she currently sleeps at night with a friend. Other times she uses the money to take her two young children who live with her parents in Oregon City on outings. If she has extra money she occasionally will spend a night at a motel.
“Street Roots is my backbone right now,” Kat said. Sometimes the choices are tough.
“If you have 10 bucks and a bag full of dirty clothes, do you use it for laundry for clean jeans or go to Subway where the turkey and bacon sandwich sounds much better?” Kat said.
Kat is an example of how obstacles pile up with extended life on the streets and make it harder to find housing. A former barber, she had all her equipment stolen several years ago and it is expensive to replace. Her RV was taken in a sweep, and demolished with all her belongings.
“It seems like once you have fallen down to one level of poverty, that there is no way out of it,” Kat said. “I got in trouble several years ago and have something on my record, so it is hard to get someone to accept me for a job.”
For Kat, it seems sweeps are now more intense. She has been swept six times in the past four months. She tries to find spots to sleep where she can avoid sweeps, many of which currently involve the police. Since she is always on the move, Kat finds it is hard to connect with outreach workers and find housing. Shelter lists are full and when she calls 211 she is told she needs to be in hospice to receive housing. Her current bedroom is makeshift in her friend’s car.
“It is like being on the longest road trip with always 1,000 more miles to go,” she said.
For Kat, the hardest part of street life is not having a stable base. Her goal is not a house with a yard or pool, just the basics, a door that locks, electricity and running water, where she doesn’t have to worry about her belongings being stolen or someone starting a fire, she said.
“Every day I wake up and I don’t know how it is going to end,” Kat said. I try to be like water, go with the flow, take the path of the least resistance. Water eventually made the Grand Canyon.”
Kat's post is the New Seasons at 4034 SE Hawthorne St. She's there most days from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. You can also support Kat via
@Streetroots Venmo by entering her name and badge number (339) in the notes.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. 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.
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