Street Roots’ newspaper and Rose City Resource team up to produce a Multnomah County winter resource guide
Find the Winter Resource guide here.
Newspapers, at their best, provide readers with the information they need to live an informed life. The logic goes that the better informed a populace is, the better off a community will be. That logic inspired this week’s issue of the Street Roots newspaper, a collaboration with Street Roots’ Rose City Resource.
Winter is a resource-intensive season, particularly as climate change further alters the weather patterns of the Pacific Northwest and harsh winters become more common. Many people need help, many people want to give help. Either way, readers may wonder how and where to connect with opportunities. While this issue is far from an extensive list of those opportunities, it’s a good place to start.
If you enjoy cooking, there are volunteer opportunities. If you’re looking for a place to eat, there are locations throughout the city. If you have warm clothes to donate and you want them to be distributed for free to people in need, there are drop-off locations. If you need warm clothes, there are pick-up locations. If you want to help someone be warm and comfortable in a shelter, there are providers to contact. If you need a warm place to sleep on a frigid winter night, there are locations and phone numbers to try.
As you’ll read on pages eight and nine, vendors, like other homeless Portlanders, struggle to obtain warm clothes, blankets and sleeping bags. While it’s unfortunate so many of our neighbors will be without adequate shelter and gear for the winter, it highlights another opportunity for housed Portlanders to help out. Beyond the structure of city and county agencies, nonprofits and established mutual aid groups, you will find no shortage of people who will happily take your spare sleeping bag, blankets, hats, gloves and so on. And, even if each volunteer opportunity were filled and people regularly donated winter gear to organizations, not everyone is aware of available services or able to reach them, so there’s plenty of help needed in informal one-on-one settings.
This issue is a starting point, but remember that small acts of kindness can be life-saving throughout what’s already shaping up to be another cold winter.
K. Rambo
Editor in Chief
In recent weeks, I’ve experienced an uptick in calls from community members seeking information, support and ideas about how to sustain and maintain themselves during this season. Our once sunny skies have turned into clouds and rain. The dropping temperatures make it evident that winter is coming quickly. Our community needs nourishment, care and concern. This comes in the form of safe and warm places to stay and consistent hot meals to fill one's belly. This also looks like easy access to a warm shower paired with clean clothes. Universally, all humans have these basic needs, but the unfortunate truth is that not all humans have easy access to meet their needs.
As the Rose City Resource Manager at Street Roots, some of the most challenging times I have witnessed on the streets in the Street Roots office are during the winter months. The lack of clean, dry socks, a heavy coat to wear and a warm bed to rest in during 10-degree temperatures is a challenge I witnessed, which I fear many unhoused members of our community will face this season as they did the last. The lack of resources presents a physical and emotional hardship that can be too much to bear on the body, the mind and the spirit. The pandemic still isn’t over. This winter is going to be brutal for the most vulnerable people in society, and I'd be lying if I said this doesn't scare me.
In May, Multnomah County released a Point-in-Time Count recording 5,228 people in Multnomah County as experiencing homelessness. Now, 2022 is drawing to a close, this many people, if not more, are in need of support and resources. In this edition of the paper, we present a list outlining where to give help and where to receive help. I believe the resources folks are seeking are out there. I’m convinced that winter preparedness can circumvent suffering as a result of cold weather.
You may find yourself wondering, ‘how can I help?’ and this is where the Street Roots winter resource guide kicks in. If you’re looking to play a role in supporting the survival of our most vulnerable communities during this time, there are an abundant number of ways to do so. If you're an adult who is able to, consider calling up a shelter listed in the paper and asking about current volunteer opportunities. Do you have kids who want to provide assistance in a hands-on fashion? Consider reaching out to an organization such as Portland Backpack to be a part of a community lunch packing event which then gives those lunches to underserved youth in Oregon. Are you prepping your home for this seasonal change and finding new or gently used winter weather gear? There are several organizations in this edition that would be quite thankful to have the chance to redistribute the gear to those in need.
I’m thankful that this edition is centered around winter resources. I hope that our Street Roots vendors, unhoused folks and low-income communities can anticipate where to access vital resources. This initiative to keep people informed may be small, but I’m hopeful it will give people a sufficient number of options this winter so that dealing with the dangerous cold is not one of them.
Sophie Maziraga
Rose City Resource Manager
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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