Thread. Unhoused people should be sources in stories about them — not objects of disdain.
As services recede, unhoused people have been taking care of each other. With few places for recovery, one man set up tents for his neighbors trying to stay clean. Another feeds people all along his strip of tents.
The tents look more substantial because people don’t pack up during the day, able to go to the library or drop-in shelters or coffee shops. And they are sheltering in place.
Thank god COVID-19 has not spread among unhoused people in Portland. But this could turn in a dime. That’s why I wrote this: news.streetroots.org/2020/05/08/has…
I feel relief when I see the tents well constructed with tarps firmly in place in Old Town. People are sheltering in place.
Fight for more options for people to shelter in place. Opening motels and hotels, as @rachelanjenee and @kelseycpriest argue, are about public health: portlandmercury.com/authors/283176…
Campaign for motels and hotels to be opened to unhoused people: news.streetroots.org/users/sr-edito…
And the C3PO shelter-in-place camps are working. Yesterday a @StreetRoots vendor came by to report that his mental health is calmer now that he has the safety of the C3PO camp. Another vendor brought flowers a few days ago, happy that she’s safer to shelter in place.
Here’s a beautiful fence wrap that artist Dana Louis of Gather:Make:Shelter created for two of the C3PO camps. She’s an inspiration, helping with the success of good solutions.
What I’m saying is to lead with solutions. So while I’m at it, if people are concerned with open drug use, they could argue for safe consumption sites right now. Police enforcement doesn’t make people well when they are sick with chaotic addition. It’s a health issue.
If you target unhoused people, you need to be accountable for how the stakes are life & death. We are hyper-aware of this at @StreetRoots because we published the annual street death count, Domicile Unknown.
I’ll be damned if we have to include COVID deaths for 2020.
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