Housing
Portland, Multnomah County seek to avoid ‘messy divorce’ on homelessness approach
Multnomah County and the city of Portland have a new agreement on joint efforts to address homelessness — almost. Top elected officials touted the new intergovernmental agreement governing the Homelessness Response Action Plan, or HRAP, as an encouraging step toward a collaborative approach, despite a long and sometimes arduous process. However, a handful of city…
News
Portland, Multnomah County seek to avoid ‘messy divorce’ on homelessness approach
Multnomah County and the city of Portland have a new agreement on joint efforts to address homelessness — almost. Top elected officials touted the new intergovernmental agreement governing the Homelessness Response Action Plan, or HRAP, as an encouraging step toward a collaborative approach, despite a long and sometimes arduous process. However, a handful of city…
Banned ex-cops patrol Oregon university campuses
A legal loophole allows former law enforcement officers with a lifetime ban from Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, or DPSST, to work as campus officers with many of the same legal rights and responsibilities as police, a Street Roots investigation found. An indirect result of a 2015 law changing university governance structure,…
Oregon Historical Society multimedia exhibition shares stories of refugees
Saron Khut remembers the five years in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge before his family escaped and moved to the United States. From the time he was 5 to about 10 years old, he and other children ran around looking for food, picking berries and plants, spearfishing and chasing birds. Khut said they were hungry…
New Milwaukie shelter narrows gap in shelter services for Native families
Arusha Dittmer, a Ho-Chunk Nation member, spent weeks carefully painting a mural of salmon, lilies and hummingbirds — illustrating Indigenous peoples' first foods and medicines. The artist’s work will live on the walls of a new Native American Youth and Family Center, or NAYA, shelter in Milwaukie opening June 26. To some, having art in…
Culture
Oregon Historical Society multimedia exhibition shares stories of refugees
Saron Khut remembers the five years in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge before his family escaped and moved to the United States. From the time he was 5 to about 10 years old, he and other children ran around looking for food, picking berries and plants, spearfishing and chasing birds. Khut said they were hungry…
Opinion
Kaia Sand | Media portrayals sloppily conflate homelessness with crime
If a housed person commits a crime, media reports do not mention their housing status. If a person is experiencing homelessness, the media often presents it as their core identity. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. This column represents her views. It’s worth pausing to notice this and how reverting to stereotypes…
