We wouldn’t be here without you sharing our belief that we hold the future in our hands, that we don’t have to accept the status quo, that the paradigm can be shifted and tomorrow doesn’t have to be the same as today. [READ MORE]
Vendor reflections: Roger Cavitt
Street Roots has changed Portland a lot. It’s given people hope, people who are down and out. If they can’t get a job, Street Roots gives them an opportunity to make money so they can kind of come up in the world. Just yesterday I was talking to a former vendor; she’s doing really well. She tipped me a great deal of money because she was so glad Street Roots helped her out and was there for her when she needed help.
Street Roots has always been a leg up, plus they give out good information. Other organizations get together and work with Street Roots. They collaborate. Everybody knows about Street Roots, everybody that’s downtown or has lived downtown for any length of time, they know that it helps a lot of people.
It keeps the general public informed. A lot of businesspeople are busy, but they get a paper, read it over lunch, and it keeps them on top of some of the real things happening out here.
From Dignity Village to Portland Street Response, advocacy is a vital part of Street Roots.
The organization has successfully stood up for the civil rights of people in our community.
Vendor reflections: Alex Leon
I’ve been with Street Roots off and on since 2006. Portland is definitely better off with Street Roots.
There’s a lot of people who aren’t in touch with what’s going on. It’s not that they don’t want to be; it’s because papers like The Oregonian have bigger stories to cover; KGW, KOIN, they are busy with other things. But Streets Roots brings the situations on the streets straight into the hands of the people. It talks about things we don’t know are happening, the grassroots issues, issues about the homeless situation, what happens when you bring police to an attempted suicide or to people who are already far past being de-escalated. These things matter.
The police care, but they don’t understand what they are doing wrong. If they read an issue about what’s happening on the streets, or someone else reads it and tells them about it, and they check it out, then they are like, you know, that could be something I need to know more about.
If you don’t bring things to people’s attention, they don’t know.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Street Roots has stood strong in its coverage of the resistance.
From sit-lie laws to the housing crisis in rural Oregon, here are highlights of Street Roots' coverage over the past two decades.
The International Network of Street Papers represents more than 100 street papers in 35 countries.
Vendor reflections: Robert Waters
When I have a lengthy conversation with a customer about Street Roots, I tell them it sprung up after the Berlin Wall came down. That’s what I read somewhere. There’s a huge conglomeration of street papers in Germany, in all their large cities. The Germans are pretty productive people.
Their spirit rose up after the wall came down, and there was a rebirth, a revolution. And that led to all these street papers. Now they are all over the world.
So with all these papers, there are less panhandlers on the streets of Portland now and more Street Roots people. They have dignity, and there’s community. Panhandlers come and go. Street Roots people are anchors, as Israel Bayer used to say; they are the lights of the city.
I sell outside Banana Republic (on Southwest Yamhill Street). I have a friend who works at the Apple Store nearby, so I’m the banana; he’s the apple.
Portland without Street Roots? I can’t even imagine.
The best part of my day is seeing people smile as they greet me.
Why it's important to have a creative writing class at Street Roots – plus vendor poetry celebrating Street Roots' 20th anniversary.
Vendor reflections: Gary Barker
Street Roots, this place right here, it’s a small miracle. It’s given the homeless like myself an opportunity, a purpose in life. It’s people helping people. I say we have to have that. Street Roots gave me a chance to help other people, and I’m helping myself at the same time.
In the 2 1/2 weeks since I’ve been selling the paper, it’s been remarkable because people are smiling at me. They smile so bright. Just a simple smile, it illuminates me, gives me energy. I didn’t know it was going to affect me this way.
This month has been a hard month. I didn’t receive my disability check. I get my disability on the 3rd, but it wasn’t there, and I had to have faith that it would come. You know how angry you get when you’ve taken care of something, and they say it will be on time? But it’s late, over a month late. But I still can go out and sell papers.
That’s when I realized how important a smile is. I tell my customers, “Hey thank you for your smile, even if you haven’t smiled yet!” And then they smile. And that smile gives me energy to do more. That’s my faith working. I didn’t know all this before. Do the work and believe it’s going to work. You have to believe in yourself.
"When a mental health issue or an addiction are compounded by homelessness, they are exacerbated," says Cole Merkel, Street Roots' former vendor program director.
When a Street Roots vendor dies, we take the time to honor them.
Vendor reflections: Vern Hannigan
Portland would be a sad place without Street Roots. It’s a safe haven for a lot of people. It’s a source of money. Some people, if they didn’t have this, they wouldn’t have anything. I would hate to think of that. It’s like a part of Portland. It’s hard to explain, but it’s been growing with Portland. It grows with the sports teams. The teams get behind Street Roots; Street Roots gets behind the pro teams.
Also, the things Street Roots is starting to do in the community, like the expungement clinics, the Street Response, the classes Street Roots has given for overdoses, things to train you to do something that might save a life. I’m not going to get that training anywhere else because someone is going to charge me for it.
The culture of Portland is reflected here. I don’t think there’s a single city in the whole world that’s like Portland. I’m really glad to be part of it. I have this shell, and it’s helping me break that shell. Before, I couldn’t handle being out. Now, coming here to the office every day, seeing the same people, it’s been good for my psyche. It gets me out of my room and out of my shell.
Each week, about 170 Street Roots vendors purchase copies of our award-winning newspaper from our office in Old Town for 25 cents each, then sell them on the streets of Portland for $1. They keep the profit from each sale of the newspaper as a means of earning an income with dignity. More than 700 vendors sell the newspaper during the course of a year. [READ MORE]
Support Street Roots by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
*Illustrations by Helen Hill
© 2019 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404.
