I'm not ashamed. Israel Bayer should be ashamed.

Tolerance of homelessness is from my perspective accepting that standard of life for your fellow man or woman.

Israel Bayer and people like him only perpetuate the problem. Gross tolerance and enabling of a pathetic way of life... for example, giving money (spare change) directly only enables that kind of living and it is not a way of living I endorse in any way whatsoever.

Our homeless charites in Portland are also part of the problem and I would also suggest Street Roots is a pathetic form of charity.

I believe in charites but only so far that they encourage the people they intend to "help" to become independant of the charity.

I flat-out disagree with you, atlas. But thanks for posting.

Did you read Israel's post? He's not advocating that people be homeless, or that others enable people to be homeless. In fact, he praises the new model of "housing first," but points out that until people living on the streets get into stable housing, it's not fair to kick them around.

First off, the half a million dollars or more we spend on private security for poor people in downtown would be better spent by hiring outreach workers and providing housing. We don’t need armed guards patrolling our streets. We need community organizers, and mental health workers - people that can speak the language and individuals that can police themselves working with the poor.

That doesn't strike me as someone out to "perpetuate the problem."

Atlas,

It's true that many charities fall somewhere in between enabling people and empowering people to move on from homelessness.

Street Roots is not a charity, nor a solution for everyone, but an alternative.

We work with people dealing with mental health issues, elderly people who sell the paper for socialization reasons, individuals that have a place to call home but live on a fixed income and can't afford medical care or simply want to have some duckets to go to the movies. We also work directly with people in recovery and people dealing with addiction issues - it's a hard and fine line. We don't look at people for the problems they have, but instead work with people because they are human beings.

In one swoop individuals go from their own personal experience to working directly with a business owner, hundreds of customers and thousands of community members. Individuals go from being without a face to having people in the community know there name, where they're from, interests, etc. It builds self-worth and self-esteem and anyone that can believe in themselves can shoot for the moon. Problems come when we don't have living wage jobs, health care, etc.

"In one swoop individuals go from their own personal experience to working directly with a business owner, hundreds of customers and thousands of community members. Individuals go from being without a face to having people in the community know there name, where they're from, interests, etc. It builds self-worth and self-esteem and anyone that can believe in themselves can shoot for the moon. Problems come when we don't have living wage jobs, health care, etc."

Israel: How much do you pay your writers?

Writers receive 5-10 free copies of the newspaper for articles, op-ed's and poetry that appear in the newspaper.

We are a community newspaper and I'm not aware of many community newspapers that pay writers - saying that, we just finished the organizations strategic plan and in the future we are working on developing a pay-scale for writers that appear in Street Roots.

I've been pretty clear about how much I hate the hordes of professional beggars downtown, and how much I would love to see this literal army of beggars put to work cleaning up trash or something in exchange for the bare minimum of food and lodging. Still, "sit/lie" laws are grossly unconstitutional, and the courts will eventually strike them down here, as they have elsewhere. One of the main problems is that you cannot make it illegal for anyone to simply sit down and rest for a minute. That person could be riding their bike home from work, the grocery store, whatever, and most people will not stand for that.

The "Sit/Lie" law will eventually be overturned.

In the meantime, let me pose a few rhetorical questions.

Whatever happened to all of the compassion that was gonna come from the same gang that peddles acres and acres of state-of-the-art steel Condo towers, rail down the bus mall, the Burnside/Couch redesign, the Infill/Density doubletalk about "Affordable Housing," and so forth ?

Surely you good people weren't so naive as to think that all of that heavy-duty real estate speculation was gonna come in to "Little Beirut" and want to deal with winos pooping in the doorways in perpetuity ?

"The Pearl." From what I've learned anyway, that was a 125 year old skid row, where the term "skid row" was probably coined, even, from the logs skidding down the road. Burn Side. Remember the old "Civic" across from the Matador, way up that hill, where the skeezy dope addicts would peddle their wares out of the very windows of those fluorescent-lit studios, right on to the street ?

Funny part is, all of that new steel and glass, and all the huge construction equipment I navigate nightly, is just pulsating with countless amounts of our tax money. What do you think construction workers are paid at night like that, not to mention all day every day ?

Investors that have the money to invest in city-wide condominium tower block projects built for sale for many hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit have the money to hire Police, even private Police, to beat and remove the ugly reminders of the neighborhood's past, and to try to shape the Law as they please.

It's not rocket science.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong for these kind of heavy-duty investors to attempt to do this. You or I might not like it, but it simply faces us in the morning like the rising sun.

OK, Israel - I had heard that but it's good to have it straight from the source.

I don't think anyone is expecting you to pay your writers a fortune, but zero?

You print the words and use the work of people who live on the street, or people who "have a place to call home but live on a fixed income and can't afford medical care" and don't even give them $10 for their efforts?

Sheilah,

We don't use the work of people who live on the streets, we publish the words of people who live on the streets. Street Roots is a professional newspaper and being published in Street Roots is not a charity - you have to be able to either work with us to develop your writing skills or be able to convey yourself in a way that's worth publishing. People who are published - poor or not - are able to get the chance to be published in a publication that they can then use for getting more work in any number of fields.

And you are always welcome to give a donation to the organization with the money going directly to writers. And you can write it off on your taxes to boot.

I like what Israel just did there—turn criticism into an opportunity to engage potential donors. Smart.

Talking of fundraising, SISTERS OF THE ROAD is launching its new book at Powells tomorrow night (that's Thursday) at 7pm. If you're reading this, you should probably come along and buy a copy!

I don't see easy answers on this one. It seems to me that there four separate issues (and probably more).

1. There are many people who should be receiving mental health services, who are denied access to appropriate mental health services, who are currently on the streets. This is wrong and they should receive housing as part of appropriate treatment.

2. There are youth on the streets, for a variety of reasons. At one level this is a custody/care issue that must be addressed- also wrong and they should be in housing.

3. There are people with physical/mental addictions who should be in treatment. Housing might or might not be part of addressing that issue/s.

For all of the above I agree with the term inhumane.

There is another group, though, who do not fit within the above groups, who could have the option of employment and for whatever reasons do not seek that option. What rights do/should they have to public spaces (beyond anyone else?).

I think that by grouping everyone under the heading of "homeless" we both oversimplify the problem and the solution. It seems like both sides of this issue are subject to this. I'm not sure crying "inhumane" is any more right, effective or constructive than those who cry "sweep."

Lance,

You bring up some excellent points.

Israel, do I read you correctly? It sounds to me like you don't consider writing to be real work, when you say you don't "use the work" of the street people but "publish their words." Why don't you consider their efforts worth anything, especially if your organization supports helping the homeless out of their situations?

If they work to submit material for your publication, isn't it rather dismissive or hypocritical to not pay them for their work?

Give me a fucking break!

Yeah, that's what I'm saying I don't care about writing or homeless people writing.

We do amazing work on a small budget.

Again, want to send a check to pay our writers. Go for it!