Longtime Street Roots Vendor and talented poet Eileen Vizenor hasn’t been around the office as much lately. And that’s a good thing, Eileen explained.
“I love Street Roots and I am so happy to have them in my life. I was distraught when I was first homeless and I found help with Street Roots. It helped me so many times through the years. And now, because I’m on disability, it gives me the opportunity to take a break from selling papers. I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Eileen said.
Eileen has stable housing now — and has since mid-2019. She loves the location, which is walking distance to two grocery stores, and is a good home for her and her best friend, Vicky, a Pembroke Corgi who rarely leaves her side.
“I call Vicky a German Shepherd with short legs. She’s very protective of me and she’s the love of my life,” she said. “She’s a big hit in my apartment too. She’s so friendly.”
Eileen is also a great neighbor to the small community in her apartment building. “I have a countertop oven so I make a lot of cookies. I give them away to my neighbors — they are always asking me when I’ll be baking next,” she said.
Having stable housing is something she appreciates everyday. “When you’re houseless, you don’t know if you’ll eat, and you don’t always get to eat well. And lots of lines for meals. Lots of lines for everything. Now I have two crockpots,” she said.
Her specialty? Pot roast, with lots of onions, potatoes and carrots–she just lets it cook for six hours or more in the crockpot for a meal that feels like home.
She does miss coming into the Street Roots office more regularly and she really misses the weekly writing class.
“I miss being around people and group writing. Poetry is my therapy. I still write at home but it’s a lot more fun to do it as a group — you read it to others which always gives you something else to think about,” she said.
Eileen paused, and took a deep breath. “I can see the difference in what I was writing about a few years ago and when I was staying in shelters versus now. When you live in the shelters, there is a lot to write about. Now I write about having a home where Vicky and I are safe,” she said.
“I don’t know if I’d be here now without Street Roots,” she added. “Right now I’m loving life. I have a lot of joy coming to the Street Roots office and catching up, and I love that I have a home to go back to when I’m done. Having my own space is something I appreciate after living in a shelter,” Eileen said.
Homeless on and off since 2013, Eileen’s tenacity paid off. She offered encouragement to others having a hard time.
“Don’t give up. Never give up. It’s a lot of work, but I didn’t take no for an answer,” she said.
And to those in a position to support the work of Street Roots? “It’s the best darn paper in Portland. It helps support the people who need financial help.”
Eileen and Vicky can be found selling Street Roots, usually towards the end of the month, outside the Multnomah County Central Library on Southwest 10th Avenue, or at the diner behind the library at Southwest 11th Avenue and Taylor Street.