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This open letter from the General Assembly of Occupy Portland affirms our solidarity with the homeless people in our city. We ask that City ordinances currently used to criminalize homeless people be suspended until new solutions are found. This request is in accordance with the official Bill of Rights for Children and Youth as adopted by Portland and Multnomah County: “Shelter: We have the inherent right to shelter. The City of Portland and Multnomah County should continue their efforts to provide adequate shelter to those who need it.”
The number of unhoused people living on the streets of Portland has steadily increased over the past ten years in spite of good intentions to reduce homelessness to zero. Instead, Portland city officials are now cracking down on the efforts of a nonprofit homeless organization, “Right to Dream Too” (R2DToo) to open their self-help site, a rest area for those forced to live outdoors (located next to the Chinatown gate on Burnside Street). Their goals are modest and very basic: “The right to rest, the right to sleep, and the right to dream, too.”
The Occupy Wall Street movement is calling attention to the increasing inequality and economic injustice across the country. One frequent grievance is the rise of evictions due to home foreclosures, a trend which has been exposed as caused by banks’ irresponsible manipulation of loans. Many more Americans are now on the precarious edge of living one or two paychecks away from joining the homeless. This is a state of economic emergency which calls out for extraordinary action by governments.
We encourage you to open dialogue with alternative solutions — such as the R2DToo rest area, which is legally leased on private property, and is run by experienced volunteers with support from the community. Such efforts in self-determination and bootstrap self-help cost the City nothing, as they are funded by charity and managed by the hard work of volunteer organizers. Such projects are in the American vein of self-reliance and also strengthen community bonds. We invite you to help such grassroots solutions.
Finally, The Bill of Rights for Children and Youth can be found prominently displayed on the reception desk of Mayor Adams’ office, and is also online at the County website. It affirms what Occupy Portland also affirms: the inalienable right to survive, which requires shelter. Families and individuals who cannot live indoors, for whatever reason, should not be swept out of sight and mind. They deserve the human dignity to be seen and to exist in our city.
Thank you for considering this appeal, and we welcome your response.
Occupy Portland, General Assembly
How about our right to use our public parks?
We are using our public parks. You are us and we are them.
Nobody’s stopping you from using the park. You’ll just have a little company if you do!
Yeah, that totally trumps the right to shelter and to sleep without being arrested. Jesus.
Come on down and use them. There are no restrictions on who uses the parks. The whole idea of this open letter is that all citizens should be allowed to use public places rather than shoved out of them if they have no other place to go.
What about it? You can still use the park, you just have to share it with other Portland citizens. There are a ton of parks if you have an inherent fear of sharing and community.
How about an open letter to the city describing how you plan to pay for the massive damage you’re doing to Chapman and Lonsdale Parks?
[...] Occupy Portland has sent the following letter to city officials… This open letter from the General Assembly of Occupy Portland affirms our solidarity with the homeless people in our city. We ask that City ordinances currently used to criminalize homeless people be suspended until new solutions are found. This request is in accordance with the official Bill of Rights for Children and Youth as adopted by Portland and Multnomah County: “Shelter: We have the inherent right to shelter. The City of Portland and Multnomah County should continue their efforts to provide adequate shelter to those who need it.” [...]
Come on people lets stay focused on the original reason for this protest. The 1%. The homeless problem is a different issue. If we take on every issue that is wrong in society we will lose creditability and focus. This only plays into the hands of our critics.
Stay focused and dont get derailed.
We are the 99%
I definitely agree that the Occupy movement needs to focus on its key, core issues to stay powerful. However, in Portland the opening of the R2DToo camp happened (quite incidentally) with the opening of the Occupy Portland camp and to two very different reactions by the city’s leaders. This was unfair and exposed a level of class inequality that I’m glad Occupy Portland has addressed publicly. I don’t believe that drawing attention to the issue with this open letter to the mayor will cause an overall lack of focus or credibility.
Erich, how do you think the homeless people in Portland feel about some of their resting spaces being taken up by Occupy? Surely they must wonder why the mayor doesn’t give THEM their own park to camp in. If you’re worried about critics, keep in mind they’re on both sides.
March TODAY at 5:30 in solidarity with the homeless people of Portland, with the demand to the Mayor that the city repeal its ordinances which criminalize the homeless and deny them of their inherent right to shelter. These include people whose homes were foreclosed or whose debt or poor credit prevented them from obtaining a roof over their heads. Visit “Right to Dream Too” for more info (http://streetroots.wordpress.com/tag/right-to-dream-too/).
Marchers will meet at the North park of the occupation on 3rd and Main. Please come out and show your support for those who experience a hardship that could happen to any of us.
[...] An Open Letter to Mayor Adams and Portland City Officials Concerning Right 2 Dream Too (R2DToo) October 18th, 2011 · [...]
Yes! Thanks for supporting R2DToo!
Right on! Glad to see basic human rights stood up for.
The tone of this letter is one of grovelling. We need to demand, not ask!
It seems that you don’t know the difference between civil discourse and groveling.
Beautiful letter – well done! I stand with you.
Free Speech? Yes! It’s a right.
Pitching tents and camping out in the parks? No! Parks close at 10 or 11PM
Feel free to stand and say your piece, then move along so I can live & sleep in peace and quiet.
You’ve made your point.
“In Portland, Austin, and Philadelphia, the Occupy Wall Street movement is taking up the cause of the homeless as its own, which of course it is. Homelessness is not a side issue unconnected to plutocracy and greed. It’s where we’re all eventually headed — the 99%, or at least the 70%, of us, every debt-loaded college grad, out-of-work school teacher, and impoverished senior — unless this revolution succeeds.” –Barbara Ehrenreich
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175457/tomgram%3A_barbara_ehrenreich%2C_homeless_in_america
October 24, 2011
“Throw Them Out With the Trash: Homeless in America”
by BARBARA EHRENREICH
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/24/homeless-in-america/
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