Street Roots editorial
The City has signaled that many community organizations and
others serving Portland citizens are in for some hard times. From neighborhood
groups to cycling and walking advocates, to homeless and housing services and
after-school programs — there’s an anxiety spreading through the cities ranks
knowing that there’s a $25 million dollar budget hole.
It’s unclear what the mayor will do concerning a public
process and how new leadership at City Hall would like to understand and
determine priorities in the community. The idea of managing 27 bureaus with 14
staff, six months before the forthcoming budget with a deficit of $25 million
seems more than overwhelming to Street Roots.
Saying all of that, it’s important that we move forward as a
city and find a way to stick together and support one another across different
issues and programs. It’s no time to watch larger organizations simply get
bigger, leaving the smaller, grassroots organizations to fend for themselves.
Sometimes it’s the larger organizations and programs in this city that allow
for a centralized infrastructure and delivery system around a specific issue.
Other times, it’s small investments in smaller community programs that go a
long way.
Street Roots and others are eager to find a path forward and
to be innovative and help maintain the basic safety net that makes our city
strong. With the right coordination between local government agencies and
partners — we think we can weather this storm. If we’re talking a wholesale cut
to our city’s core values and the programs that make Portland unique — than we
run the risk of having our safety net disintegrate and all hell breaking loose.
We know how complex the issue of housing and homelessness
is. We also know that for years the city government has held these issues
harmless due hard economic times for its citizens. The city may not have been
able to add to the ongoing revenue for housing and homeless services, but it
has held the line and in many ways supplemented the lack of resources coming
from the state and federal government. Without strong support for these core
programs the city would be facing a much worse reality, including an even more
visible homeless population and more people dying on the streets.
While it may be difficult, we know that a unified vision and
common cause that we can create real change in our community, even during
difficult times.
We’re looking to the mayor and city council along with the
leadership at Multnomah County to show us the way. We also hope there’s a
healthy dialogue in Street Roots and in the public about the priorities of the
city, knowing that $25 million is at stake. The time is short. Let your voices
be heard.
This article appears in 2013-02-01.