Man, what a dick! It wasn't about how homeless Patrick is, it was about life on the streets, the lack of resources that are supposed to be available and the danger of sleeping on the streets. If he's going to talk smack then he should also be willing to one up you Matt and find a "real" homeless person and spend the night with them on the streets of Portland.

What qualifies as a "real" homeless person anyway? I guess that I've never thought to quantify just how homeless someone really is.

It's an interesting issue. Even among homeless people there's a culture of one-upmanship. "He's hardcore," that kind of thing.

Nolen slept outside the Keller Auditorium for five years. That's real.

But the "deserving poor" argument is often used to deny people like Nolen the reality of their experience.

"You could have had a house if you wanted," people say.

Nolen would say differently.

Being on the street absolutely sucks. There is no way Nolen would have ended up where he was for five years if he'd have had other options.

If you want to get into why that was, I suggest you ask Patrick. But I don't see that we should start quizzing all homeless people before we give them access to services.

"Ah, you're dutch. Well, you could have sold tulips! No soup for you!"

"The purpose of the article was to draw attention to the issue of homelessness by personalizing it."

Homelessness has been drawing attention in Portland for decades.

We already have a newspaper that personlizes homelessness? It's called Street Roots.

So the homeless should expect their needs to be met by one radical publication and ignored by the mainstream media?

"nobody," talk about depersonalizing the issue.

Since when is the Mercury mainstream media? Street Roots is just as legitimate, perhaps moreso, than the Merc.

"I am a supporter of the Portland Mercury, especially Matt Davis…Look - I like the reporter and the Mercury. Much good works come the Mercury."

What does this sound like? I mean, the last sentence sounds like a Bush press conference but that first sentence sounds so firmiliar... what does that sound like...? OH I KNOW...

a 'one man/one woman' homophobe that says...
"...Not that I'm anti-gay, I have several gay friends..."

He's a davisophobe. That's practically illegal.

That dude sounds bitter and strange - http://blog.oregonlive.com/oldtown/ .
Not very hopeful in the scheme of things.

Interesting retort. Rather than address the issues I raised, Matt Davis attempts to misdirect the issue to Patrick Nolan.

Instead of talking about homelessness it is an attack on Patrick Nolan. Now Matt that is the way to get a discussion going - personalizing it on a third party.

I guess I should be apologizing for having an opinion. Very Portland like. Ain’t going to happen.

Notice too that Matt Davis didn’t share the link to the post.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/oldtown/2008/02/experience_on_the_street.html

I have written more than one post on homelessness. Go to my blog and click on “Homelessness” under Categories. It is on the right side of the page.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/oldtown/

It has nothing to do with any expectation of the homeless. It is about defining who they are and how best it is to help.

E.g., I oppose the broad category of homeless that includes such a wide range of people that share virtually no similar characteristics.

It is difficult to solve problems without further refining the definition. Doesn’t the mentality disabled require different assistance than the guy who lost his job and is sleeping in his car?

A real discussion of homelessness might start with determining who are the ‘homeless.’

I suggest that Matt Davis read more of my posts. I stand by my last sentence in the ‘attack’ post - “But - complex issues need more than a sleep out.”

Damn man, I just read that tool's post and he sounds like he's reviewing a movie or something like Roger Ebert. Actually more like Antonin Scalia on the subject of what is torture.

Mr. Norton, dilettante extraordinaire, seems to be afflicted with a bad case of "Elvis has entered the building" Syndrome. Common symptoms of the syndrome include; a belief that the world revolves around oneself, an expectation that others wait with baited breath while one's magical edicts are pronounced and, yes, a denial of the humanity of these so-called homeless people. Extreme cases of the syndrome may also involve a ruby-studded jumpsuit.
I rather enjoyed your piece on a night on the street with Mr. Nolen, Matt.
There are many stories out there to tell. Perhaps Mr. Norton will have a story to share that may cast him in a light, other than as the BoJack of Old Town.

A little despair is in order here.

The point, as someone else noticed, isn't Nolen or what you thought of him. The point was to give everyone who's still lucky enough to have a roof over their heads and some regular hot meals an idea of what it would be like for them, if they didn't know.

Sure, you don't have any job to go to. But to me it looks like a constant grim stutter-step existence, of having to be on time for a long wait (and if you miss it, you'll go absolutely hungry) and hanging on to the edge the rest of the time.

Of course, such dismissiveness is typical. When we hear of someone dying young, what do we do? We find out what they died of and if we figure out that we aren't at risk for what killed them, we relax. All is well. When we see someone that makes us face up to what it might be like to be homeless, some tend to work overtime with "if only"s and "they threw it all away"s to desperately convince ourselves that if we just Lived Right™ this sort of stuff won't happen to us.

The end effect is a group of people who, however barely making it, broad-brush all poor people into 'victims of thier own folly' for just not Living Right™. Since poverty is the poor's own fault, we can dispise them for what we think we are, and if we don't try to solve the problem of poverty - hey, what can ya do? They wanted to be poor anyway!

That's the slope we go down that allows us as a culture to hate the poor without remorse.

Nice.

Interesting. I posted a response - yet it doesn't exist.

Maybe this one will slip through.
He is my response/post.
https://edit-blog.advance.net/cgi-bin/mte/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=767114&blog_id=698

So much for listening to the other side.

Larry Norton

Larry,
speaking as the "Guide" I feel I must comment. First, I felt stunned by your comments about my being a "guide" and your allegation that I was not homeless... We have never met, but I have seen you in meetings. I feel that 1,200 words by Matt are not enough to get the whole story about me. If you would like, I can introduce you to several people who knew me while I was homeless and even the guy that slept down the block from me for a few years.
Sisters Of The Road means a lot to me. I am not homeless anymore at least in part to the organization and its employees. So your comment about Sisters Of The Road is probalby what hurt the most.
"Sisters of the Road - a great organization - does not address the issue of homelessness, but the symptoms of homelessness."
Sisters Of The Road has put a lot of effort towards trying to do just that, addressing the issue of homelessness. Around the office we call that "Systemic Change" ie, going to the root of the problem and not addressing the symptoms. I may be wrong, but I think Sisters is the only "homeless advocacy" group in Portland that has a full time community organizer. That, coupled with a company wide program of work that works for both customer input and constantly striving torwards bringing the ideal of systemic change in to everything we do and a whole program devoted to addressing "root causes" of homelessness makes me feel that we at Sisters do address more than just the symptoms. Possibly the most important piece of Sisters' Systemic Change puzzle is the Civic Action Group (CAG). CAG is made up entirely of people who have had the experience of living without housing. Our campaign this year is around education and empowerment. Educating both ourselves and the greater community about how and why homelessness has become such a institution, and empowering ourselves thru voter registration and representation at local meetings, speaking about homelessness. so far we have about 240 people registered to vote! Art, Dale, Duke, Julio, Lyn, Neil, Richard, Steve (sorry for all I cant name)and many, many others have put a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears for no pay, simply because they recognize what homelessness has done, and want to do what they can to help work torwards the answers.
Sisters is a founding member of the Western Regional Advocacy Project which put out a great book last year titled "Without Housing", you can download it at www.wraphome.org . WRAP's book is great for delving in to how we have a low income housing shortage, I would recomend it to anyone who works in the media.
as for the Republic's spicy beef, I would suggest you try it and Sisters as well, we would be glad to have you come in for a meal sometime. I can explain our Systemic Change efforts to you if you like, just give me a call and I can set up a lunch with you.

Larry: We do not censor or delete comments on Blogtown. I can categorically assure you we haven't done so in this case.

If you tried to post a comment here and it hasn't appeared, all I can suggest is that you try posting it again.

If it had more than two links in it, it will have got caught in our spam filter and will get posted on Monday when our spam clean-up gets started.

But I don't view your opinions as attacks. I view them as opportunities for education.

Larry, having known Patrick aka "the guide" for over a year, I'd like to respond to your callous disregard for reality. First, I know from first hand experience that Patrick really cares about and understands the reality of what and who homeless folk really are. Second, Sisters is a big part of helping us find our own voice. From a hot meal at a reasonable price to helping give us the tools to change the perception of people who want to Simplify a complex problem, Sisters is there. They do their best to fill ALL needs of this community. They realize that there are a lot of causes of homelessness. Larry, can you name three besides what the general public perceives as the cause? The easy ones don't count.Also as recently homeless myself, I can state two things. Sisters was a great deal of help in my struggles to end this cycle. Also, I DARE you to try it yourself.

It's Amerika!

If your poor you die, that's normal for Amerika.

(and most of the world except some Western European countries)