Housing
A will and a way: Carolyn Will’s journey out of homelessness
Carolyn Will is wearing navy slacks and a blouse, office attire, on her day off. Her long brown hair is streaked with gray, her voice low. She is reserved, reflective and articulate as she describes her journey into and out of homelessness. Her story is a master class in managing the logistics of living in…
Rent stabilization: It’s Portland’s time
In the face of the housing crisis confronting Portland and much of the state, the Legislature should lift the 35-year ban on Oregon localities hoping to enact rent stabilization policies to put the brakes on astronomical rent increases. Rent stabilization laws in over 200 U.S. cities have slowed the displacement of families with children,…
Opinion
Rent stabilization: It’s Portland’s time
In the face of the housing crisis confronting Portland and much of the state, the Legislature should lift the 35-year ban on Oregon localities hoping to enact rent stabilization policies to put the brakes on astronomical rent increases. Rent stabilization laws in over 200 U.S. cities have slowed the displacement of families with children,…
Director’s Desk: With your support, we’ll continue to build bridges
Street Roots not only needs your support – we want your support. Street Roots fully understands the gravity of the current political climate. The question before us remains — how does a local street newspaper serving people experiencing homelessness and poverty make a difference in a changing political climate? The answer for Street Roots came…
Editorial cartoon: April 21, 2017
Elizabeth Considine — the creator of Street Roots' editorial cartoon, Sheeptoast — was born in Portland and has been drawing since she could hold a pen. She loves theater, poetry, chickens, growing food, and walking her three dogs in the park. “I find inspiration in the strangeness of life and the character of human nature.…
Culture
A view to a bipolar life: ‘Photography is part of my escape’
Chazzi Davis lives with bipolar disorder. Twenty years ago, he lost everything due to his mental health issues. He can never have his old life back but has found that taking abstract photos has become like therapy. Chazzi is also a street paper vendor, selling The Curbside Chronicle in Oklahoma City, where he lives. But his…
Rachel Griffiths: A path rooted in social justice
When I was 16, I was drinking too much and killing far too many brain cells. It’s so frightening as your own children approach that age, knowing what you got up to – the self-destructive behavior, the self-loathing and the risk-taking behavior. I think we understand now that at that age there are even more…
‘Writing to Save a Life’: The Louis Till file
The tragic story of Emmett Till still shocks the conscience of our nation. It was the summer of 1955. Fourteen years of age, Emmett was a good natured black adolescent from Chicago. He traveled by train to visit family in rural Mississippi. It was his first time in the Deep South, a far cry from…
The mysterious street artist Gats: A glimpse behind the mask
It isn’t every day that a phantom comes to Portland. Gats, or Graffiti Against the System, is a mysterious street artist known for the ubiquitous mask he paints across the country – especially in the mossy underbelly of the West Coast. Gats says the mask represents anonymity – the only way to survive in a…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: A life of compassion
Compassion is a basic value for Loretta H. And now that Loretta is facing struggles herself, some of that compassion is returning to her through friends, her sister and Street Roots. “We’ve had people live with us for months when they were in a difficult situation,” Loretta said. “That was a value growing up and…
News
The mysterious street artist Gats: A glimpse behind the mask
It isn’t every day that a phantom comes to Portland. Gats, or Graffiti Against the System, is a mysterious street artist known for the ubiquitous mask he paints across the country – especially in the mossy underbelly of the West Coast. Gats says the mask represents anonymity – the only way to survive in a…
Director’s Desk: With your support, we’ll continue to build bridges
Street Roots not only needs your support – we want your support. Street Roots fully understands the gravity of the current political climate. The question before us remains — how does a local street newspaper serving people experiencing homelessness and poverty make a difference in a changing political climate? The answer for Street Roots came…
