REPORT | Portland Street Response survey, conducted with and for unhoused people
There’s plenty of Trumpian cruelty toward the poorest people in our nation in the news. While it is tempting to challenge that wrong-headedness head-on, I will challenge it instead by emphasizing policy ideas from the very people he is demonizing. Because in Portland, that’s exactly what we are able to do. Today Street Roots publishes “Believe Our Stories & Listen,” a report from surveying 184 people experiencing homelessness to inform the design of the Portland Street Response.
When our senior staff reporter Emily Green presented the Portland Street Response plan in our March 15 edition, we knew at Street Roots how important it was to untangle police interactions from homelessness because of the many stories we hear in our office. But once the city moved forward by budgeting for a Portland Street Response pilot — with a budget note that a plan needs to come before City Council this November — it became clear that we needed a large-scale way to bring unhoused voices into the plan development.
The offices of Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and Mayor Ted Wheeler convened a number of workgroups to look into the pilot design. I began to work in a community outreach workgroup to support the Portland Street Response pilot design with the hope was that somehow the voices of people who live outside — who are indeed disproportionately arrested — could reach City Hall. This isn't always easy. But one thing we know at Street Roots is how to try harder to overcome obstacles. That’s what people struggling with homelessness and housing insecurity teach daily. Some people try harder by taking the bus an hour from Dignity Village to Street Roots every morning just to pick up papers. Some try harder by packing up one’s home every morning — every single morning — and walking those possessions to a storage facility, only to return each night, and rebuild camp again. Some try harder by somehow persevering with a wet sleeping bag, wet body and nowhere to get dry. Realizing these challenges that people face, we had to figure out how to make sure to go to them, rather than just expect them to show up at City Hall.
So an effort to include unhoused voices couldn’t be passive. We needed to launch a big effort led by unhoused people. In the words of Street Roots vendor Sean Sheffield, who surveyed his neighbors in his camp, “It is important to get the word from the streets. The homeless community has more trust with other members of the homeless community than with the housed community.”
We brought together survey takers with food and training and payment for labor. The camaraderie of a common goal raised everyone's spirits. Participants formed teams of two or three to go out to camps, trails and shelters, each led by a Street Roots vendor or someone else who had experienced homelessness. It was a joint effort of Street Roots, Sisters Of The Road, Right 2 Survive, Street Books, the Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, the Mapping Action Collective, Yellow Brick Road and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s office.
The teams interviewed 184 unhoused people, and the results were analyzed by researchers at PSU Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, led by the Research Director Greg Townley, an associate professor of community psychology.
I’m eager for you to read this survey, published today through Street Roots. Here are the eight recommendations that emerge from the survey findings.
Portland Street Response needs to be separate from the police. Some respondents would prefer no contact with police. Some want police responses for criminal matters. But the findings show consensus that police should not be responding in non-criminal situations that could be better served by a new system.
Prioritize training in mental health, de-escalation, trauma and listening. As one might expect from a multiplicity of people, there were many suggestions of who should serve on the response teams, and the kind of training they should have. But throughout, people emphasized skills in mental health. Portland Street Response needs to be built from people who can calm a situation, not amplify it, and who can recognize how trauma affects behavior. Many people emphasized listening, a desire that first responders learn from them what they need, rather than assume the answers. We titled the report based on what one person said: “Believe our stories and listen.”
Portland Street Response should not be armed or run warrant checks. A badge and a gun can raise stress for someone who is in crisis. And, because people who are unhoused are already tangled up in the legal system — remember, that exposure is part of what we are trying to solve — they don’t need to be even more entangled with warrant checks when the matter at hand isn't criminal.
Uniforms should be recognizable and distinct from other first responders. Many people expressed that they were ready for Portland Street Response, but they'd want to easily recognize the teams, suggesting colored shirts.
Referrals and transportation services would help the teams be effective. Many respondents wanted Portland Street Responders to know about other services so that when people requested that help, they would more likely receive it. Likewise, transportation is too often the missing link. If Portland Street Response, like Eugene's CAHOOTS program, can transport people, they can sometimes alleviate the source of stress.
Connect PSR with places where people can go. When housed people call 911 on unhoused people for trespassing, they often need help getting somewhere else.That “somewhere else” is a challenge. People don’t have enough places to exist. Often hostile architecture — like the ODOT boulders — fill in public spaces. Portland Street Response doesn’t solve this. From a kind of “living room”’ space that the Bushong Building could provide to opening more places for organized camping, people just need places to be legal and safe.
Educate community members about emergency calls. Unhoused respondents point out that non-emergency calls clog the system, making it harder to receive services where police are needed.
Treat people with compassion and dignity. In the words of one survey respondent, “I would like to see street response be the city’s first response in dealing with the homeless crisis. I want street response to be the city’s compassion.”
That’s the message that should drive forward Portland Street Response. That is a message that should reverberate nationwide.
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand.
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2019 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404.
