Opinion
Director’s Desk: Without housing, we shouldn’t be shocked that someone froze to death on our streets
For people experiencing homelessness, 2017 started just like 2016 ended. Survival. On Jan. 2, Mark Elliot Johnson was found dead of hypothermia in East Portland after temperatures dipped below freezing. According to police, they found the Johnson in a doorway with a pillow and blanket. He died cold and alone, without a safe place to…
Border diary: A moral imperative to save lives
The first time I came across vandalized humanitarian supplies in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert, I felt devastated. We’d been hiking all day to place lifesaving caches of water and beans in a corridor along the Arizona-Mexico border where hundreds of migrants die of dehydration and exposure each year. The gallons of water…
Notable and quotable: Our favorites from 2016
Jan. 22 David Rogers Executive director of ACLU Oregon The politics of fear is being used to divide our communities. We need to remind ourselves of the strengths of being a country where diverse cultures have come together. There’s no contradiction between a nation where we speak a common language and a nation where many…
News
TriMet fare jumpers won’t be charged with Class A misdemeanors
All three district attorneys in Portland’s tri-county area signed an agreement Tuesday stating their offices will no longer prosecute TriMet fare evasions or exclusions for “interfering with public transit,” or IPT. The agreement comes after district attorney offices in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties all found that among transit riders who didn’t pay their fare,…
Raising the Red Lodge: lowering recidivism among Native Americans
On March 15, 2017, the state’s Emergency Board is set to consider a $3.8 million proposal to prepare a second women’s prison in Oregon. Jackie Whitt isn’t warm to the idea. Whitt, an advisory committee member for the Women in Prison Project, said a second prison would not address the social crises that are sending…
Oregon offers 2nd chance at funds to build housing for mentally ill residents
There is hardly a population of people who face more barriers to securing affordable housing than those who live with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression and psychosis. So in 2015, when the Oregon Legislature created the first fund solely dedicated to building affordable housing for people who live with severe…
Culture
Raising the Red Lodge: lowering recidivism among Native Americans
On March 15, 2017, the state’s Emergency Board is set to consider a $3.8 million proposal to prepare a second women’s prison in Oregon. Jackie Whitt isn’t warm to the idea. Whitt, an advisory committee member for the Women in Prison Project, said a second prison would not address the social crises that are sending…
Housing
Oregon offers 2nd chance at funds to build housing for mentally ill residents
There is hardly a population of people who face more barriers to securing affordable housing than those who live with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression and psychosis. So in 2015, when the Oregon Legislature created the first fund solely dedicated to building affordable housing for people who live with severe…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots editorial: Let’s make 2017 a year of progress
For many of us, both individually and collectively, 2016 was a year to forget. Ironically, for Street Roots, it was a banner year. Last year, Street Roots won several awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for our reporting on crime and justice issues and the environment and for our commentaries on homelessness and housing. We…
