It’s that love that carries us through Nearly 18 months ago, Street Roots set out to go from a biweekly to a weekly publication schedule. No easy task. The goal was twofold: One was to give vendors selling the newspaper a stable income to support their q ...
19 May 2016 - Israel Bayer
There's no good reason a minor business tax hike should stir controversy Each of the proposed budgets by Multnomah County and Portland invests heavily in housing and homeless services, pledging more than $50 million in additional support toward the h ...
5 May 2016 - Israel Bayer
Many people on the streets are good, common folk, caught out on the wire The stories of people experiencing homelessness are many. Starting Friday, April 29, readers will be able to get a 32-page zine of stories about people’s experience of sleeping outs ...
28 Apr 2016 - Israel Bayer
Dignity Village co-founder Jack Tafari led a fight that continues 16 years later Call it irony, or possibly a simple twist of fate, that Jack Tafari, an iconic leader who helped co-found Dignity Village and fight against Portland’s camping ban, passed awa ...
21 Apr 2016 - Israel Bayer
In the wake of recent gun violence, it's time we stop pointing fingers and start working together The gun violence that occurred on the streets last week was a tragic affair. A homeless man was shot March 31 near a preschool in Southeast Portland, pr ...
8 Apr 2016 - Israel Bayer
The progress in Multnomah County and Portland is great. But it's not enough. People ask me if the homeless and housing emergency in Multnomah County is working. The short answer is, yes. The long answer is, we’ve got a long way to go. The most visib ...
2 Apr 2016 - Israel Bayer
Drug users need a safe place to inject Last week, Street Roots, along with the NAACP of Oregon and the Mental Health Association of Portland, hosted a social justice mayoral forum on police accountability, mental health and homelessness. Street Roots ask ...
17 Mar 2016 - Israel Bayer
From the Legislature to the Portland mayor's office to you It’s a question I get a lot: Israel, can you explain to me what’s going on out there? Let’s start with Salem. Housing legislation is moving forward on important eviction protections, inclusio ...
25 Feb 2016 - Israel Bayer
It’s not easy being homeless. Just imagine. A student asked me this week why some of the homeless camps are so hard to keep clean. I asked the student to imagine: The entire world stepped inside your home at this very moment. Not just anyone, but every ...
11 Feb 2016 - Israel Bayer
People ask: Does my voice matter? Yes, it does. It’s hard to put into words the trauma we see on the streets every day, much less how it has affected my peers and me over the years. It pales in comparison to how it actually affects the people that go thro ...
28 Jan 2016 - Israel Bayer