News
Unpaid fine? The poorer you are, the more you owe
This article is the first installment of a Street Roots investigation into the impact of criminal and traffic-related fines and fees on low-income Oregonians. ••• For Cindy Mendoza, a 28-year-old single mother of three, getting out from under a string of traffic tickets has become impossible. It began in 2010 when she was pulled over for…
Housing
Home, on hold: Long waitlists a symptom of Portland housing crisis
Patience is a virtue, so the saying goes. But if you’re poor and looking for affordable housing in the Portland area, patience is also a daunting necessity. Just glance at the estimated wait times to get an apartment through Home Forward, Multnomah County’s housing authority and Oregon’s largest provider of subsidized housing. At 41 properties…
Rural Oregon food pantries: Reflections from a photojournalist
While reporting on rural housing in Ontario, Street Roots reporter Emilly Prado and I visited two food pantries run by Next Chapter Food Pantry and Garden at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church and First Christian Church. Our goal was to interview guests about their housing issues and see how food pantries provide aid to communities in poverty,…
Mark Lakeman helps tackle the housing crisis with creativity, compassion
America is short some 7 million affordable apartments for those living in poverty, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2018 report. With conventional approaches falling behind the pace, artists and visionaries are stepping up to the plate, creating paradigm-busting solutions that challenge traditional ideas of housing. Portland has been the wellspring and incubator…
Veteran homelessness grows across Oregon
Homelessness among military veterans has increased 9 percent in Oregon since 2017, with 1,363 veterans experiencing homelessness across the state, according to data released from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this month. Oregon continues to have the third-highest percentage of homeless veterans that are unsheltered, with 55 percent sleeping outdoors in…
Opinion
Director’s Desk: We’re energized after election; help us keep fighting
Our Winter Fund Drive is on! Street Roots has become a leading media voice in our community, and we have big plans for the future. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand Our newspaper staff worked long hours leading up to the…
