News
PSU proposal to restrict student-union access troubles homeless advocates
For someone living on the street and looking for a place indoors to get a little shelter, things are getting more restrictive and complicated. Like other parts of society, public spaces, such as libraries, are grappling with how to deal with people experiencing homelessness, many of whom suffer from mental health and addiction issues. Officials…
Life on the Streets: Laundry
The scarcity of laundry, shower and public toilet facilities in downtown Portland stems, perhaps in part, from a historical view of homelessness as a temporary, emergency situation rather than the chronic, long-term reality it often becomes. For many, lack of housing can stretch into a multi-year endurance test, and all the normal, everyday human needs…
Housing
Between high school and homelessness
During the 2018-19 school year, more than 22,000 Oregon students, grades K-12, were homeless. They slept on couches with extended family or friends, they lived in motels, tents, trailers and emergency shelters. Some lived in cars, like 16-year-old Mattie, the protagonist of Connie King Leonard’s young adult novel, “Sleeping in My Jeans.” Last fall, the…
Metro steps up and puts hope on the ballot
The green and yellow tent backs up to a concrete piling on Naito Parkway. Behind the piling, more tents are equally spaced, an archipelago of brightly colored dwellings, all positioned under a bridge — a dry space in a frequently wet city. Cars rush by on either side. Above the tent someone has painted the word…
Opinion
Between high school and homelessness
During the 2018-19 school year, more than 22,000 Oregon students, grades K-12, were homeless. They slept on couches with extended family or friends, they lived in motels, tents, trailers and emergency shelters. Some lived in cars, like 16-year-old Mattie, the protagonist of Connie King Leonard’s young adult novel, “Sleeping in My Jeans.” Last fall, the…
Metro steps up and puts hope on the ballot
The green and yellow tent backs up to a concrete piling on Naito Parkway. Behind the piling, more tents are equally spaced, an archipelago of brightly colored dwellings, all positioned under a bridge — a dry space in a frequently wet city. Cars rush by on either side. Above the tent someone has painted the word…
Culture
Robbie Robertson and his improbable rise to stardom
Robbie Robertson, perhaps best known as musician in The Band, reflects on his younger self in this series for The Big Issue, Street Roots’ sister paper in the United Kingdom. Not long ago I wrote a song called Dead End Kid. It’s about when I was 16 and I had this ambition, this musical dream. I was…
Environment
The man winning the war on toxic waste
Rob Bilott is not a man who’s quick to anger — even after more than 20 years fighting. Bilott’s fight has been to get justice for a small community exposed to deadly chemicals, against a system that wouldn’t listen. Calm and deliberate when he speaks to us, he is clearly accustomed to stating his case…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Adapting and persevering
It was during the real estate bubble in the mid-2000s that Melissa Bogolubov and her husband decided to buy a house. Rent prices in Spokane, Wash., where they lived, were outpacing her disability checks. They really wanted something of their own. They found a tiny converted garage, about 700 square feet. They got a subprime…
