Thread: Mondays at @StreetRoots are intense. People struggle more than ever in Old Town. With humanity. With grace. First, I want to share with you this beautiful tent festooned with a wreath above its front door.
Services are shut down & changing (that’s why @StreetRoots launched a digital COVID-19 edition: rosecityresource.streetroots.org ... to try to keep up with the changes and communicate them)
Some organizations are working harder than ever. I walk down the street and see @blanchethouse overrun with need. @RoseHavenPDX is working so hard. There are many others. Please support them.
I describe it as feeling like we are running two organizations, not one, @StreetRoots. We are just doing so many things. It feels breathless.
Today people picked up their ballots to vote. They zoomed with @sselora to file for their stimulus money and low income tax credit. They told us they relapsed. They told us they recovered.
One man relapsed — and many unhoused people rallied around him, determined to watch over him until he can get back into treatment. A woman made the call to schedule that for him.
All of this is a happening among unhoused people.
Some people talked about being grateful for training in administering naloxone from the heroic Haven Wheelock @OutsideInPDX. Folks in recovery risk overdosing if they use — and without the usual supports, relapse is a risk.
A man who was in the life-threatening throes of addiction last time I saw him (I feared he would die) showed up today, just out of treatment. His face was smoother, his voice calm. He smiled. That promise is what’s at stake with voting yes on Measure 26-210.
A man had a seizure outside our door and hit the pavement hard. Other unhoused people took care of him while the ambulance arrived. They put on gloves to clean the blood to protect other people. People on the streets are on the frontlines of public health.
People on the streets deal with so many healh struggles. @MKushel shows how people age medically — a middle-aged person might need geriatric medicine. Put another way, if a housed person is more at-risk in this pandemic at 70, an unhoused person might at-risk at 45.
One @StreetRoots vendor reversed an overdose with naloxone last week — saved a life. Another tried to give CPR to a dying man in an adjacent he could not, ultimately, save. He carries that with him. The grief overtakes his face.
What do I want to communicate? That it’s harder than ever for unhoused people. This is why I hope you all will fight for unhoused people. Vote yes on Measure 26-210 news.streetroots.org/2020/05/01/sr-…
Support our call to open hotels and motels for unhoused people to shelter in place: news.streetroots.org/2020/04/26/sr-…
Support grassroots organizations changing operations on a dime. There are many worthy ones. Including @StreetRoots. streetroots.org/donate
Recognize the heroic work unhoused people do. Including saving lives. They are on the frontlines of this pandemic — exposed, at-risk, of service. ❤️
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