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Kaia Sand

Executive Director 

Kaia Sand
Motoya Nakamura

she/her

Kaia Sand became executive director of Street Roots in late 2017, two decades after she worked as a staff reporter for the Burnside Cadillac, the predecessor to Street Roots. In those subsequent 20 years, Sand worked as a poet, artist, community organizer, and university professor, focusing particularly on economic injustice and homelessness — from a magic show she created about the financial collapse to the Right 2 Survive Ambassador Program she co-founded for housed people to learn from people experiencing homelessness. She taught at Portland State University, Pacific University, Willamette University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland; co-founded Vignettes & Verses, a writing and personal history institute; and performed and taught internationally, including in England, Ireland and Brazil. She has widely exhibited her artwork and served in residencies, from a public art commision at the City of Portland Archives and Records Center to the Despina International Artist Residency in Rio de Janeiro. A  member of PEN America, she is author of three books of poetry — interval (a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year in 2004), Remember to Wave and A Tale of Magicians Who Puffed Up Money that Lost its Puff — and the co-author of Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space. Two books in Jim Dine's Hot Dreams series are comprised of her text. In 2019 she was awarded a Spirit of Portland award by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty; and in 2019, the regional Society of Professional Journalists small newsroom first prize for Best Column.

Articles by Kaia Sand

  • Street Roots
    A photo shows a tent and several people from the Rapid Resonse workers and Portland police conducting a sweep on West Burnside.

    Kaia Sand | Sweeps are traumatic, expensive and a facade of progress

    OPINION | Sweeps force people out of sight, but do nothing for long term housing options
    By
    Kaia Sand
    May 18, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A photo shows a street sign that says "W. Burnside" and below it a tarp-covered tent with a daffodil propped up on the tent. In the background the sun is shining and a barren tree is on the left side.

    Kaia Sand | We are responsible for giving our unhoused neighbors good options

    OPINION | People need agency in their own lives, and options when it comes to housing and shelter
    By
    Kaia Sand
    April 13, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Jo Ann Hardesty speaks to a group of people. There are two people in the background. One person looks to her as she speaks and the other person is looking at their laptop.

    Kaia Sand | How Portland Street Response became a reality

    OPINION | It took a lot of ‘yes, and’ to build a brand-new first responder system
    By
    Kaia Sand
    April 6, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Elizabeth Bodenstab smiles for a photo outside of Street Roots’ office. She is outdoors and you can see cherry blossoms in the background.

    Kaia Sand | People for Portland’s proposed ballot measure is wrongheaded

    OPINION | The measure worsens homelessness, diverting funds away from solutions
    By
    Kaia Sand
    March 30, 2022
  • Street Roots
    An older smaller house sits in front of a new looking apartment building.

    Kaia Sand | Wealthy, white Oregonians reap the state’s largest housing subsidy

    OPINION | An audit of the state’s Home Mortgage Interest Deduction reveals the tax policy’s inequities
    By
    Kaia Sand
    March 23, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A view of the blue mixed-use building, "Jolene's First Cousin." An A-Board sign sits on the sidewalk next to a street sign. Tassels hang over a door of the building and the door is open.

    Kaia Sand | Endorse the ‘3000 Challenge’

    OPINION | We need to look throughout our region and make use of what’s available to house 3,000 people this year
    By
    Kaia Sand
    March 16, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A photo inside the Oregon senate. Kayse Jama stands at the center of the photo while others sit at desks in rows around him.

    Kaia Sand | Addressing homelessness through the legislature and what we can learn from it

    Opinion | The $400 million legislative housing package protects human rights; no city can use the funding for sweeps
    By
    Kaia Sand
    March 2, 2022
  • Street Roots
    A white door with balloons attached to it stands among trees on a dirt path.

    Kaia Sand | How do we create 3,000 liveable spaces for people without criminalizing them?

    Opinion | We can go bigger — and kinder
    By
    Kaia Sand
    February 23, 2022
  • Street Roots
    "Hope" is displayed above a tent

    Kaia Sand | Mayor’s emergency order displaces unhoused people

    Opinion | The order lacks constructive measures. Where are people expected to go?
    By
    Kaia Sand
    February 9, 2022
  • Street Roots
    Raven Drake speaks with ambassadors outside the Street Roots office.

    Kaia Sand | Unhoused people must have a voice in policy

    Opinion | Knowledge from the unhoused provides critical insight
    By
    Kaia Sand
    February 2, 2022

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Support Capital Campaign

future Street Roots headquarters

$2.1 million. The building.
An investment in Old Town. 

Major Renovations

$1 million. Major renovations.

$1 million. Operating and programming cost reserves

 

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