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No Place to Call Home: Tent City
Dignity Village started in 2001 as an illegal encampment underneath Portland's bridges. For months, the very visible challenge to the city's anti-camping ordinance garnered both support and opposition. The camping law didn't change, but the city did sit down with representatives of the encampment in order to negotiate an agreement everyone could live with. That is how Dignity Village landed in the spot where it's been for the past eight years: an asphalt lot at the end of the #10 bus line in Northeast Portland, on land used primarily for the city's leaf composting operation. Instead of tents, the village now houses up to 60 residents in 10x10 foot structures built out of mostly salvaged materials.
The city's main concern has always been that the village be transitional housing as opposed to a permanent home. Dignity Village is now a 501(c)3 nonprofit with its own internal governing body called the council. According to the current council chair, village resident Randy Curl, people stay in the village for about 18 months on average, though some have been there for years and some get kicked out after only a few days if they don't follow the basic rules:
No violence toward yourself or others.
No illegal substances or alcohol or paraphernalia on the premises or within a one-block radius.
No stealing.
Everyone contributes to the upkeep and welfare of the village and works to become a productive member of the community.
No disruptive behavior of any kind that disturbs the general peace and welfare of the village.
Tent cities have cropped up in other places around the country, from Sacremento to St. Petersburg. Olympia and Seattle have both sanctioned tent cities (with the requirement that they move to new locations every few months) and Puyallup is still considering an ordinance that would allow a similar encampment there.
The next installment of our No Place to Call Home series takes us to Dignity Village.
Have you lived in a tent city? What was it like? Do you remember when Dignity Village was under the bridges? What did you think about it then? Have your thoughts and feelings changed?
Editor's Note: this show was pre-recorded last week at Dignity Village so we will not be taking calls during the program. Of course the conversation will continue online.
GUESTS:
- Randy Curl: Dignity Village resident and council chairman
- Sally Erickson: Manager of the Ending Homelessness Initiative for the City of Portland
- Tim McCarthy: Former Dignity Village resident who now owns his own home in Newberg
Photo credit: Julie Sabatier/OPB
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This country has ignored the poor for 40 years? Slaves, indigenous people and immigrants have been abused and dehumanized since this country's founding.
My dad mentioned Hoovervilles in Sullivan's Gulch during the 1930s when he attended Benson High School.
http://www.sullivansgulch.org/aboutus/hollywoodstar0201.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan%27s_Gulch,_Portland,_Oregon
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I was homeless for a number of years. During that time , I had a dream of forming a legal unincorporated association for the purpose of buying property, using the collective sum of all the SSI checks of all the homeless that were interested, and using that property to build a somewhat self-sustaining community. I figured that individually, the SSI checks were not sufficient to do much, but collectively, a great deal could be done with them. With an unincorporated association, or an incorporated legal body of some sort, property could be purchased, rules could be established for membership in the community which would facilitate the peaceful co-existence and community of all the residents , and a community council of some sort, possibly elected, could become the "payee" for people whom require that for their SSI. Well, I still think this is a good way to go, and it is very realistic: Possibly Dignity Village has considered something along these lines for establishing a more permanent home.
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If your kitchen is food preparation, eating, there is no reason for you to have one or a few bar stools. If the island is a full block down and fully exploited for the storage you may experience problems with the place where you can put the bar stool.
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Buy Antidepressants medicine I just read the thing about carving Sad It seems odd that we wouldn't be able to carve the cake, since that is a very typical way to decorate cheap pain meds online and it doesn't say in the original rules that carving isn't allowed. I was just trying to be creative within the boundaries of a single 9 inch cake.
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Anyone remember 'Hoovervilles'? The simple fact is that for forty years this country has ignored the poor, and the political system has decimated the so-called middle class. What will it take before the voters in this country wake up and save our republic from corporate fascists? Does everyone have to become homeless, unable to access healthcare and work for minimum wage before we take back our country from the super-wealthy and their political stooges?