Matthew Frizzelle, who friends call Matty, is a born-and-raised Portland local. He grew up in Southeast Portland, where he spent a lot of time playing outside with other neighborhood kids he called his brothers.
“I had a great childhood here in Portland, even though my family didn’t have a lot of money or anything,” he said. “I had a lot of friends, and that was great.”
Frizzelle graduated from Franklin High School in 2000 and has since worked jobs all over town, including at a newspaper printer, a museum and a Greyhound station.
As a local, and as someone who spends a lot of time outside, Frizzelle said he’s seen the city gradually change over the past 20-or-so years.
“It seemed like there were half as many people here in the ’80s and ’90s when I was growing up,” he said. “Now I feel like we’re kind of packed in like sardines. But Portland is still a great little city.”
However, change has come faster since the COVID-19 pandemic, and those growing pains are evident now more than ever. Portland’s most visible and most talked-about issue, homelessness, is complicated, Frizzelle said.
“There’s a lot of human suffering out here, and it’s really sad,” he said. “It’s very complicated how to approach, because there’s the mental illness factor, there’s the drug addiction factor, there’s a lot of issues.”
Two organizations that make a difference in Frizzelle’s day-to-day life are Blanchet House and Street Roots.
“(Blanchet House) can help you out with clothing, shoes, emergency blankets or a tarp, things that you might need outside,” he said. “(Street Roots) brings light to the housing crisis here … they focus on things that street people deal with, like homelessness and trying to get into housing.”
Frizzelle is a newer vendor with Street Roots. He began selling the paper just a few months ago. He said the help he gets from Street Roots with his bus fare makes a big difference. Like any job, there are good days and bad days, but he always tries to stay positive.
“It’s a job for a positive person,” he said. “You know, you might go an afternoon without even selling a paper, and I’ve gone two afternoons without even selling a paper. You’ve just got to stay positive and try to find a spot where there’s a lot of foot traffic.”
Frizzelle sells Street Roots in the mornings on Southeast 37th and Hawthorne, and sometimes near Pioneer Square. You can support him through @StreetRoots Venmo by entering his name and badge number (1260) in the memo.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. 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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This article appears in August 13, 2025.