Opinion | Sign the Friends of Portland Street Response petition. Volunteer. Lend your logo to the effort. “Not every crisis is a crime,” a Street Roots vendor jotted on a scrap of paper four years ago to hold up at a city council budget meeting. Kaia Sand ...
24 Jul 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | Deaths due to fentanyl use are rising. We can, and should, use harm reduction techniques to mitigate risks. Vendor program director DeVon Pouncey and I walked through Old Town nearly every week for the past six years, but these walks changed the ...
19 Jul 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | The collective strength of Old Town is a force to be reckoned with. How do we continue a campaign of hope for our neighborhood? Hope is on the rise in Old Town. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street Roots. This column represents her view ...
12 Jul 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | PSU researchers release 2-year evaluation, find police-alternative works, needs investment, support Portland Street Response is achieving what it set out to do. Portland Street Response is in danger of being dismantled. Both are true. Kaia Sand ...
27 Jun 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | A tribute to Daniel Ellsberg’s tireless work in the name of truth He first gave the documents to The New York Times, then The Washington Post. Next came The Boston Globe — his hometown at the time — followed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 11 ...
20 Jun 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | Street Roots’ West Burnside building, currently under construction, will be a space for civic engagement “For those who can’t afford free speech.” That’s been the Street Roots tagline since the first issue was published in December 1999 — a tip ...
14 Jun 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | Just like everyone else, unhoused individuals are trying to fulfill their basic human needs, but they are often out of reach. Food, water, respite and a restroom. Why make it harder? Imagine you have to carry everything you own — bedding, the fo ...
8 Jun 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | Human connection, despite housing status, makes us stronger “When I moved to Portland, I didn’t know anyone,” Stacey Heath, Street Roots board chair, told me. Then she met Bruce Heino. It was 2009. Kaia Sand is the executive director of Street R ...
31 May 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | The May 16 fire at the May Apartments displaced Street Roots vendor James Hammond and many others When the fire alarm went off, James Hammond was preparing to head out for the day to sell Street Roots. He looked out of his second-floor apartment ...
19 May 2023 - Kaia Sand
Opinion | Sociologist Matthew Desmond estimates $140 billion a year in benefits to low-income people go unclaimed Determined to file his taxes, a man I know labored to find an accountant to help him, as he does every year. This year is the first year he h ...
17 May 2023 - Kaia Sand