From its earliest days, Street Roots challenged sit-lie ordinances and camp sweeps, fighting the criminalization of homelessness and the legal entanglements that create barriers to housing and employment.
Street Roots, said co-founder Bryan Pollard, “was born in advocacy."
This is why we proposed a plan for the Portland Street Response, and why we so doggedly campaign for its just implementation. Street Roots was a founding member of the Western Regional Advocacy Coalition, working locally with Sisters of the Road and Right 2 Survive. Street Roots supports efforts by unhoused people to organize safe and stable living spaces, two decades ago working on Dignity Village and most recently, the launch the C3PO camp villages.
The health and well-being of unhoused and poor people drives advocacy. Street Roots partners with Multnomah County and the Medical Examiner’s Office to create an annual reports on the deaths of people on the streets. We consistently push for a public health response to substance use.
We focus our sights on the resources needed for housing and homeless services, working with the Oregon Housing Alliance to advocate for statewide legislation. Street Roots helped found the Welcome Home Coaltion to push forward the 2016 Portland Housing Bond and the 2018 Metro Housing Bond, and in coalition with Here Together, campaigned for the Metro tax that supports services and rent assistance for unhoused people starting in 2021.
