Kaia Sand | How Street Roots found its new space

Opinion | Spurred by need and creativity, Street Roots' growth demands more space

by Kaia Sand | 17 Aug 2022

Jason found Street Roots its new organizational home.

It was February of 2021, and I was biking around Old Town, a map of properties printed from Portland Maps clutched in my hand.


        Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. This column represents her views.

“You had rolled up, and I said hi,” Street Roots vendor Jason Scheer recollected. He was standing near Northwest Third Avenue and Couch Street. “You were telling me about finding a new building for us.”

Street Roots has operated out of a too-small space for a while. Beginning in late 1998, Street Roots first operated out of a storefront on Southwest 12th Avenue and Morrison Street, taking it over from its predecessor street paper, the Burnside Cadillac. The organization then moved into its current rented space on Northwest Second Avenue and Davis Street in 2004, first renting about 800 square feet and then doubling that. It was there where Joanne Zuhl edited the paper, Israel Bayer directed the enterprise and the late Art Garcia ran the vendor office.

While Street Roots has seen steady growth over its history, there are two dramatic spikes that pushed the need for a bigger space.

In 2015, Street Roots switched from a bi-weekly to a weekly newspaper in order to better support Street Roots vendors.

Previously, when the paper came out every two weeks, sales tapered off so much in the second week that vendors were struggling. They needed a steady source of income. Street Roots doubled staff, doubled vendors — and kept squeezing into the same space.

Then, in 2020. The pandemic.

I’ve written extensively about this time — how our work expanded out of necessity. We developed three new programs. First, it was the COVID-19 Action Team, which we transformed into the ambassador program. Then, we launched both the mobile journalism program and Gratitude Brigade. All these are enhancements to our vendor program, creating new ways for vendors to gain skills, earn income and connect to new jobs.

The needs on the streets multiplied. More people moved into homelessness as rent rose at record levels while mental health struggles increased under the conditions of the pandemic, including less access to therapeutic supports.

There was simply no going back. By January 2021, around the time I ran into Jason, I knew we absolutely needed to find a new space.

I had just discussed the need to find a new space with now-board member Stephen Gomez and Tom Cody, Project PDX managing partner, who recommended that I simply map out the properties in Old Town — where we knew we wanted to remain — that had the right square footage for us. Then, I had to make some phone calls.

Jason remembers how, when I told him the footage that we’d need — somewhere around 6,000 square feet — he looked at the building on Northwest Third Avenue and Burnside Street and said, “Oh, it’s right there.”

He pointed out that we’d go back to our roots — Burnside Cadillac — by landing on Burnside. It was a highly visible space, and it was important to us that a prominent and visible Portland building support people who are marginalized.

So I called the owner, Siamak Shirazi, who ran an acupuncture clinic called 2BWell there until he moved to the Pearl District, and the Old Town location was boarded up. Only a few months later, Representatives Lisa Reynolds, Rob Nosse and Barbara Smith-Warner allotted American Rescue Plan money so our organization could purchase the building.

It’s the perfect home for Street Roots, and Jason found it. It’s a nice full-circle: He credits Street Roots for helping stabilize his life so he could be housed for eight years, living with his girlfriend and his black and white cat, Pierre. Jason sells Street Roots each week outside REI in the Pearl District, and his badge number is 282.

Now we are raising money to renovate the building. Visit our website at streetroots.org/hope to learn more, and contact Cody McGraw at cody@streetroots.org if you want to help.

Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.

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