Homelessness is anything but normal Standing in line waiting for dinner after a long day, a day after returning from vacation, I checked my email. It was a hospital social worker. Simon was in the emergency room again. The fourth time this week. It was a ...
14 Jul 2016 - Israel Bayer
A $258 million city bond will provide housing for thousands of people With the endorsement of the City Council, Portland will see a $258 million affordable housing bond on the ballot in November. It’s a historic moment. The campaign is called Yes for Affo ...
30 Jun 2016 - Israel Bayer
The narrative in some circles that the business community is against the homeless is false Street Roots was honored to receive the Portland Pearl Rotary Club’s Community Vision Award last week. Speaking to a room full of business representatives and Pearl ...
16 Jun 2016 - Israel Bayer
No. 4: Blast out Street Roots on social media 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 stre ...
2 Jun 2016 - Israel Bayer
Community is limited by debating why things can’t be achieved instead of how they can I have witnessed people suffering on the streets every day — all day, year after year, for the past 15 years. They are traumatized. I am traumatized. People tell me on ...
26 May 2016 - Israel Bayer
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
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