BikePortland Publisher and Editor Jonathan Maus has been reporting on a growing concern that some homeless camps in Portland have become “chop shops” for stolen bicycles. One recent headline stated, “ Police search suspected Springwater chop shop, find st ...
9 Jan 2015 - Israel Bayer
Street Roots vendors work hard in the summer. It’s not easy. Being homeless in the summertime isn’t any fun. Longer periods of daylight are a welcome sign for many Portlanders, but for many people on the streets it can mean going long stretches of time wi ...
10 Jul 2014 - Israel Bayer
Last week, on my way home to grab a bite to eat before an event, I noticed 15 or so older women bedding down together in Old Town. Their presence stopped me in my tracks. One elderly woman, homeless for less than a year, only received $700 from Social Sec ...
1 May 2014 - Israel Bayer
Imagine for a moment that you were faced with the experience of being homeless and had nowhere else to turn. Where should I go? You find a local shelter, but a woman half your age at the counter lets you know that the shelter tonight is full. She takes yo ...
28 Nov 2013 - Israel Bayer
The past month we have seen a media frenzy surrounding homelessness. That’s why I cringed a little bit when I read the Willamette Week’s cover story on homelessness titled, “The Real World: Portland.” The author interviewed ten people living on the street ...
5 Sep 2013 - Israel Bayer
I’ve been a fan of NBA basketball for a long, long time. I’ve also worked with people experiencing homelessness for more than 15 years on the streets of Portland and Seattle. When I read that Terrence Jones, Portland native and NBA player alledgedly stomp ...
31 Jul 2013 - Israel Bayer
The past two weeks have been chock full of tragic events, bad press and anxiety on the streets, specifically downtown. A group of kids, presumably homeless, attacked a 70-year old employee of the Portland Outdoor Store downtown. He was hospitalized after ...
21 Jul 2013 - Israel Bayer
What Portland needs is real leadership on the homeless and housing front to develop a permanent funding source to give people a safe place to call home. Many of us working in the trenches are working to make that dream a reality and looking at a variety o ...
10 Jul 2013 - Israel Bayer