Opinion
Dr. StrangeWeather
Is our weather getting funny? Some bushes and flowers started to bloom near the end of January this year, and in the spring cherry blossoms were blooming weeks early. This capped a winter with extremely low snowfall in the mountains. The abnormal heat, plus the drought now covering 80 percent of the state, recently raised…
Editorial: Federal plan has promise, but needs more to deliver
This month, a seldom-quoted document called the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness got a bit of a makeover. It’s only five years old, but the nation’s only comprehensive policy for addressing homelessness was falling behind the times. One of the most notable is the realization that it’s a lot tougher than just…
Director’s Desk: Gentrification a sweet tune for the privileged
The latest 2015 Multnomah County Homeless Count was released in early June. If homelessness, housing and wages are any indicator of how much Black Lives Matter in Portland — then we are failing, badly. Homelessness in the black community is skyrocketing. “African Americans have the highest rates of over-representation among communities of color, making up…
News
New president brings local perspective to Urban League of Portland
Nkenge Harmon Johnson’s legal and political career has taken her from her Pacific Northwest home across the United States and back again. A graduate of the Trinity University School of Business and the Howard University School of Law, Harmon Johnson has served as a deputy assistant trade representative under Barack Obama and has worked in…
Creating a vision for equity in Oregon
June 2015: Last month, the Urban League of Portland released the State of Black Oregon 2015, the second iteration in its series of reports released roughly every five years. Through data, case studies, essays, profiles and portraits, these studies detail the economic and social realities of life for black Oregonians. The latest report tells the…
Of image and art
Rex Hohlbein built a nonprofit on the back of a simple Facebook page on homelessness called “Homeless in Seattle.” Hohlbein’s more than 16,000 followers see beautiful black-and-white portraits of homeless people or someone working around homelessness with a small story or an inspirational quote. Sometimes the posts include a request. On April 24, Homeless in…
Writing saved her: Lidia Yuknavitch
The first time I saw Lidia Yuknavitch speak, it was at Powell’s Books. Of the speakers that night, only Yuknavitch was unknown to me. As the last syllables of the first sentence she spoke filtered through the air, I thought, “Who is this magnificent creature?” I don’t remember what she said, but I bought one…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: Edward Allen
On June 8, 2015, Street Roots vendor Edward Allen moved into his new apartment with the help of Central City Concern’s BEST Team and Community Engagement Program. “I think the best thing about it is feeling a sense of ‘I can do this,’ you know? It gives me hope. I was hopeless for a while,…
