News
Blumenauer criticizes Postal Service changes, plans public forum in Portland
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) will hold a Portland forum Jan. 25 to hear constituents’ stories about how they’ve been affected by a pilot project to change mail delivery in North Portland. On Dec. 13, Street Roots reported that the United States Postal Service had unrolled a pilot project, called “consolidated casing,” to completely separate mail…
Street Roots 2019 annual report: Big year in the books, big year ahead
PDF: Read the full 2019 Annual Report Dear Street Roots readers, 2019 was a monumental year at Street Roots. We marked 20 years of our organization, took stock of our past and clarified our vision for the years ahead. We’ve grown a great deal over the past two decades — from a handful of vendors…
Portland a battleground over immigration and health care
On Thursday, Jan. 9, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments for a landmark lawsuit to halt the implementation of the Trump administration’s health care ban for immigrants. The ban, which was announced via presidential proclamation on Oct. 4, would require legal immigrants to prove they held an approved health…
Oregon joins lawsuit over SNAP changes
Oregon is joining 13 other states, as well as New York City and the District of Columbia, in suing the Trump administration over a proposed rule change to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Asssitance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The suit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It…
Opinion
Dreaming of getting back home
Monarch butterflies lit the tall grass with the heatless flames of altar candles. A choir of cicadas sang an ancient call and response. Dragonflies rested their gossamer wings, careless of my secret admiration. It was the end of August in Hiawatha, Kan., and I was fishing with my father and Uncle Malcolm. The late summer…
Yes to declaring a statewide emergency on homelessness
It is too easy to live in Portland and view homelessness as Portland’s problem. But here’s a startling perspective. Despite the fact that the Point in Time Count measured a slight decrease in homelessness in Portland between 2017 and 2019, homelessness actually rose 13.8% in the entire state during that same time period. That’s how…
Vendor Profiles
Street Roots vendor profile: A published author, thanks to this job
Steven Venus is a Street Roots vendor and newly published author. He saved his Street Roots earnings the past year and used them to pay the publishing costs for a philosophy book he’s been working on for five years. “It took me two years to write it and three to edit it,” he said. Saving…
Housing
Yes to declaring a statewide emergency on homelessness
It is too easy to live in Portland and view homelessness as Portland’s problem. But here’s a startling perspective. Despite the fact that the Point in Time Count measured a slight decrease in homelessness in Portland between 2017 and 2019, homelessness actually rose 13.8% in the entire state during that same time period. That’s how…
