Search results | Street Roots

Results

Kaia Sand | Access to hygiene is a human right, and Portland is stepping up

OPINION | The city deserves praise for placing portable toilets around town, but it's drawn ire — with one police officer reportedly assisting in a sabotage effort Hand washing and hygiene are essential to preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Bo ...

4 Nov 2020 - Kaia Sand
As police increase Old Town presence, Street Roots vendors focus on learning their rights

DIRECTOR’S DESK | ACLU of Oregon provided Know Your Rights training in response to concerns from unhoused people Street Roots vendors were spaced around the office wearing masks, some jotting notes. They were participating in a Know Your Rights seminar co ...

29 May 2020 - Kaia Sand
A democracy that reaches the unhoused

DIRECTOR’S DESK | It’s only appropriate that the people who have a key stake in the new Portland Street Response are asked to participate in the process of designing it Clipboards in hand, the teams dispatched to survey people on the streets about their e ...

26 Jul 2019 - Kaia Sand
Oh, the places we could go!

DIRECTOR’S DESK | Proposed portable toilets would shift funds used to clean up homeless camps toward facilities that foster dignity and public health If you soon see plaid- and PDX-carpet patterned portable toilets around the city, see, too, the promise o ...

17 May 2019 - Kaia Sand
Camp sweep comes as city takes over on ODOT land

Two Street Roots vendors had been living in the camp for months without hassle On Wednesday, Jan. 10, David Samson called the Street Roots office for his fiancé, Bettyjo Griffiths. His message: Come quickly, their camp was being swept. Before Bettyjo left ...

11 Jan 2019 - Kaia Sand
Court decision on sleeping outdoors lays bare our deep inequalities

DIRECTOR’S DESK | Criminalizing people for being homeless is cruel and inhumane, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled A lot gets written in a day, and on Tuesday, Sept. 4, Donald Trump managed to punch out 16 wild and furious tweets. But among this frenzy, it’s ...

7 Sep 2018 - Kaia Sand
Director's Desk: Homeless arrest investigation should focus on real solutions

Portland needs to be all-in as a national leader Calling a city a cesspool certainly grabs attention. That’s how Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner started his public Facebook statement on July 16, decrying the new Independent Police Revi ...

20 Jul 2018 - Kaia Sand
Director's Desk: Police profiling based on housing status is against state law

City receives hundreds of camp complaints weekly, we should send demands for compassion instead Sometimes it feels like we’ve been given different maps to the same city. When your map has no residence that you rent or own, your city looks dystopian, one w ...

13 Jul 2018 - Kaia Sand
Director’s Desk: Portland has criminalized poverty and mental illness

Policing the poor just means there’s so much more work to do Now we know: More than half of the people arrested in Portland last year were homeless. Rebecca Woolington and Melissa Lewis reported in The Oregonian on June 27 that unhoused people comprised ...

6 Jul 2018 - Kaia Sand
Director's Desk: Legislature makes housing gains, but sweeps still plague homeless

An emphasis on sweeps is an emphasis on making life more difficult for our neighbors who live outside Mark jotted a letter on a sheet of amber-green colored paper that he tucked into a Street Roots newspaper. He did this over and over, writing letters to ...

9 Mar 2018 - Kaia Sand