We want to change the criminal justice system – and we want you to design a logo
Street Roots’ office bustles with the leadership and talents of people on the streets. On one recent day, Street Roots vendors circled around Haven Wheelock of Outside In to learn how to administer naloxone. Every month, Haven equips another group at Street Roots with these skills that could save lives by reversing opiate overdoses. As that session wrapped up, more vendors and volunteers gathered to resume editing the annual holiday zine (watch for it to hit the streets the day after Thanksgiving).
On another day, vendors continued their work on the Portland Street Response campaign, decorating boxes for the logo contest that launches today (more on that in a moment). And on another, vendor Kerry Anderson screened the movie “The Public” on an office computer for a small group of vendors. Kerry was preparing to participate on a panel hosted by Multnomah County Library to discuss the movie after a public screening at the Hollywood Theater.
“The Public,” set in the Cincinnati Central Library, centers on the lives of unhoused people who find refuge in the public library – a daily reality for many libraries. Without a home and without expendable income, there are few legal places for a person to exist. When so much is private and commercial, libraries, parks and plazas are precious.
Kerry relished the movie, screening it two straight times to make sure more friends could view it before he watched it a third time that night at the Hollywood Theater.
MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Public' is a hot topic that examines the friction created by homelessness
I know no one who reads more than Kerry — three books a week, he manages. He loves the library, calls it a cocoon, and can describe the different floors of Central Library by memory – his favorite is the literature floor. Indeed, the movie depicted characters reading books, some playing chess, many sharing wild stories and teasing, emotions rising. This all reads very true to our experience at Street Roots. Street Books recently set up a bookshelf in our office and is now planning a book club. Conversations are an art among many vendors: Ideas spin in creatively as people weigh in, leaning on the counter, perched at the table. There is a character named Cesar in “The Public”; every time he states another fact based on his research preoccupations, his friends shout out, “Hail Cesar.” Indeed, I have learned sundry facts about polar bears, otters in Norse mythology, Isadora Duncan's dramatic death, and much more in the lively office conversations.
There was another moment in “The Public” that rang very true in another way. When one character, George, mentioned he had never been to jail, another character, Jackson, responded, “That’s because you haven’t been on the street long enough. Give it time.”
“But I’m not a criminal,” said George.
“None of us are, brother. Never broken God’s law in my life. Always did right. … But if you lose that J-O-B,” he gestures, getting tossed aside with his thumb.
Then they began to recount the number of times they had been arrested:
“I’ve been arrested 19 times. Ten for jaywalking.”
“26 for me.”
“32, give or take,” said Jackson. “You know who’s been to jail more times than any man I know. Cesar. 55 times. One time, they arrested him for singing in the street.”
Emilio Estevez, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in the movie, captured something very true in this moment. In fact, two days later, a Street Roots vendor leaned toward me at the counter and, exhausted, said a criminal record stood in the way of too much. I haven’t hurt anyone, he told me. My arrests, at this point, I don’t really know what they were for, he said. They’ve just been about being homeless.
At Street Roots, we are passionate about changing a system that drives people further into poverty and trauma.
But it’s one thing to say that homelessness shouldn’t be criminalized, and it’s another thing to change what’s happening on our streets. And not a small adjustment here and a small adjustment there: really change it. Not every crisis is a crime, and we need to match the right first responder to the right street crisis.
That’s why since March 15, our organization launched the Portland Street Response campaign – first through our newspaper coverage, then by putting pressure on City Hall, then by leading efforts to involve unhoused people in the pilot design.
Now, City Council will convene on Nov. 21 to discuss the formation of a pilot based on information gathered by workgroups over the summer.
City Council needs to know all this matters to all of you. There’s still time to endorse the plan at portlandstreetresponse.org. We’ll make sure that the Council receives a list of all the endorsements.
And between today and Nov. 11, you’ll have a chance to design a logo for Portland Street Response. In “Believe Our Stories and Listen,” our survey of 184 unhoused people this past summer that we administered with many community partners, respondents emphasized a desire for Portland Street Response to turn out in colored shirts – not badged uniforms.
As a community, let’s think about those shirts and vans should look like, starting with a logo.
If you could design your hopes for this new system, if you could design a hope for a system in which poor people are not overpoliced, if you could design that hope for a world where people get exactly the help they need and want — what would you design?
What images come to mind? Create it!
An entry form is on the back page of the Oct. 25-31 issue of Street Roots. Draw your logo idea there, and drop it off at Street Roots. Since libraries play such an important role for unhoused people, other drop off places are Multnomah County libraries (Central, Belmont, Midland and St. Johns), as well as the Portland State University library. You can also bring your submission to Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s office in City Hall or email it to logo.contest@portlandstreetresponse.org.
We’ll announce logo contest winners in the Friday, Nov. 15, edition of Street Roots.
Endorse the plan, submit a logo, keep talking about Portland Street Response and a more compassionate, more effective approach to street crises. If we are going to persuade the city to change an entire system, it’s going to take all of us.
Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. You can reach her at kaia@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @mkaiasand.
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2019 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404.
