Skip to main content
Street Roots Donate
Portland, Oregon's award-winning weekly street newspaper
For those who can't afford free speech
Twitter Facebook RSS Vimeo Instagram
▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • Advertise with Us
  • Contact
  • Job Openings
  • Donate
  • About
  • future home
  • Vendors
  • Rose City Resource
  • Advocacy
  • Support
News
  • News
  • Housing
  • Environment
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Orange Fence Project
  • Podcasts
  • Vendor Profiles
  • Archives

In the background is an image of an orange fence and text in the foreground reads, "The Orange Fence Project" and below that, "Homelessness policy, enforcement, and impact in Portland.

Homelessness policy, enforcement and impact in Portland

Street Roots

About the project:

The Orange Fence Project seeks to improve public understanding of the daily lives of homeless Portlanders and the systemic and personal circumstances through which people became homeless. By reporting on personal experiences, testimony, data and improving accountability for public officials, Street Roots will identify and report more feasible steps to address homelessness.

Homelessness and the enforcement of local laws on homeless people are almost entirely untracked by independent groups. As a result, the effects of these laws and enforcement — positive or negative — are largely unstudied and unknown. By engaging community members and implementing a solutions journalism framework, this project will address gaps in public knowledge while revealing potential solutions to systemic issues. 

Through rigorous reporting, public record gathering, crowdsourced information and continued observation, Street Roots will provide a comprehensive overview of homelessness policy, enforcement and impact in Portland.

  • Street Roots
    Photo shows Hope Dryden standing in front of her RV in McMinnville

    Right to rest? Not in Oregon.

    A bill to give homeless people the right to be left alone fails to move through OR House
    By
    Tom Henderson
    May 3, 2023
  • Street Roots
    A vial with a cork cap has a tent inside it.

    Urban Alchemy is coming to Portland

    City awards mass camp contract to nonprofit trailed by lawsuits
    By
    Piper McDaniel
    March 15, 2023
  • Street Roots
    The background is a wire fence. Above that is a large white circle with large. Inside a smaller circle is a picture of Portland City Hall.

    Details on Portland’s mass camp plans emerge from failed negotiation

    Emails reveal safety and planning concerns — city says 1,000-foot perimeters and weapons checks planned
    By
    Piper McDaniel
    March 8, 2023
  • Street Roots
    A large room with designated markers for people to reside during severe weather.

    County and advocates disagree on sufficiency of severe weather shelter guidelines

    By
    Jamie Arcelay
    January 25, 2023
  • Street Roots
    A garden area fenced off. Trees and planter boxes are in the enclosed garden area.

    How tenants around Portland fight back against landlords

    With help from mutual aid group Don’t Evict PDX, tenants receive rental assistance funds, guidance on eviction notices and support for tenant advocacy and organizing
    By
    Christine Menges
    January 4, 2023
  • Street Roots
    The outside of the New Avenues for Youth Portland building. It has a brick facade.

    New Avenues for Youth workers want a union

    Nonprofit workers assisting homeless youth await recognition from management
    By
    Aurora Biggers
    December 28, 2022
  • Street Roots
    An illustrative mock up rendering of an apartment building

    Housing for frontline social service workers addressing the homelessness crisis

    The Atomic Orchard Experiment aims to honor what people do as workers and as Portlanders
    By
    Ellen Clarke
    December 21, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Portland city council building in the background and a cutout of Dan Ryan smiling in the foreground.

    Dan Ryan yet to respond to June call for new tenant protections

    An attorney tasked with enforcing similar protections tells Street Roots why protections work and how they serve to level an uneven playing field
    By
    Piper McDaniel
    December 14, 2022
  • Street Roots
    An illustration of a conveyor belt with houses falling off the conveyor belt. Each house has a label that says, "eviction" on it. In the background are a pattern of scales filling the space.

    Eviction court favors landlords

    Oregon is in a housing crisis. Experts say eviction court is part of the problem.
    By
    Piper McDaniel
    December 7, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Lil B Raps is rapping into a mic on stage while Talilo Marfil raps into a microphone, standing to the left of him.

    New, innovative project offers lifeline to youths after foster care

    Ascending Flow uses music and mentorship to support youth aging out of Oregon’s foster care system
    By
    Libby Dowsett
    December 7, 2022

Pages

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • next »

1 of 4

▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • © 2021 Street Roots. All rights reserved. To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org.
  • Read Street Roots' commenting policy
  • Support Street Roots
  • Like what you're reading? Street Roots is made possible by readers like you! Your support fuels our in-depth reporting, and each week brings you original news you won't find anywhere else. Thank you for your support!

  • DONATE