streetroots

People’s Depot aims to change the narrative on canners

Oregonians use thousands of single-use beverage containers every day. Recycling them is a low-barrier job for Portlanders known as ‘canners.’ Scott Atkins started collecting and recycling cans and ...
streetroots

Oregon lawmakers consider delaying penalties for insurers and hospitals who raise health care costs without justification

Insurers, hospitals want a break from a program to contain health care costs. The ask comes as federal policy is expected to wreak havoc on Oregon health care. The country’s largest health insurance ...
streetroots

Oregon’s wrongly imprisoned are exonerated, free — and still in court

The state is supposed to provide cash compensation to people sent to prison for crimes they didn’t commit. With many still waiting for payments, lawmakers will consider revising the program When ...
streetroots

‘If We Could Talk’ exhibit explores gentrification in Northeast Portland

The BLACK Gallery hosts storytelling exhibit created by Northeast Portland residents on reclaiming their neighborhood and the meaning of home As a child, Quentin Staples lived in Northeast Portland ...
streetroots

You are not welcome here: Anti-homeless architecture crops up nationwide

Anti-homeless policy has been a staple of cities the world over, whether those policies be forthright, like loitering laws and sit-lie ordinances, or peppered into a city’s infrastructure and public ...
streetroots

How technology is harming our ability to feel empathy

Dr. Helen Riess, author of 'The Empathy Effect,' says the way we communicate can influence how and what we feel for others Empathy can be learned, and it can be lost. Every time a person chooses to ...
streetroots

Feds’ closure of ICE building blocks immigrants’ access to critical legal aid

On the streets of downtown Portland on June 18, masked federal agents pulled over and arrested a Colombian man who had just left immigration court. The incident, caught on video and first reported by ...
streetroots

Sam Tsemberis has revolutionized the way we think about homelessness

The Housing First pioneer explains why the policy of housing a person before attempting to fix their underlying issues works best In the late 1980s and early ’90s, on both ends of the country, the ...
streetroots

Expanded North Portland Library boasts artwork from local Black artists

Multnomah County Library’s newly renovated North Portland branch includes a Black Cultural Center decorated with art from local artists Sadé DuBoise, Melanie Stevens and Kayin Talton Davis. The Black ...
streetroots

The trauma of incarceration: It’s ‘gladiator school’ inside

Please note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violent acts. American prisons are violent places, and while not every prisoner falls victim to violence, most are exposed to violence during ...
streetroots

Homeless people are more likely to be victims of violence than housed people

For many housed people, there is a tendency to conflate unhoused populations with violent crime and danger, but crime rates tell a different story. Editor's note: This story contains graphic ...