Sweeps Don't Work

A "sweep" is a tool of a Western city to continually move their homeless from place to place, in order to make sure they know that they are not welcome in the city and to invite them to leave to another place.  Recently a friend of mine asked a police officer involved in the sweep where the homeless should go.  He said a national forest fifty miles away from the city.

Why sweeps don't work:

1. You can't use a stick to motivate someone who is beaten regularly

2. Homeless folks have molecules. If you move them from one space, they will have to take up another.

3. If neighbors complain about the homeless being under the freeway, they would like them worse on the sidewalk in front of their house.

4. To move homeless folks around means that they are more difficult for service agencies to find them, to help them and so to get them off the street.

5. 40 percent of homeless folks work, and forcing them to move on a regular basis threatens their ability to hold down a job.

Can you think of any more? 

The Time Had Come

"Quietly they pack up their few belongings. Not saying a word to each other or those forcing them to go.
"The 'cleaners' are threatening to take an old persons walker. An old mans cart. A back pack because they are on the sidewalk next to my house and the sidewalk was posted. They threatened me with the cops. I moved my home and he told me to move it again he is going to cause me problems.

"Silently the homeless move down the road. Small groups and single people breaking off going in different directions. No communication. Just a sense of loss. A sense of defeat and anger. Shoulders slumped and heads down. They keep walking trying to just remember why they even bothered to wake this morning. Each one lost in their own thoughts their own devastation. Finally they look up and see how far they have come only to realize that even as far as they have come they will only have a few hours rest if that. They set down their heavy loads and Finally look at one another realizing that not a one of them can keep moving. The time had come for them to make their stand. It was time to stand and fight. No more flight."

-L. Karen Burch, living in an RV on the streets of Portland, watching her friends in tents be forced to move, even though their spaces were clean and on public sidewalks

Sweeps Kill: New Podcast

Here's a new podcast of Nowhere to Lay His Head!

This month I interview... myself (well, I talk for a while) about how sweeps kill and how I worked this last year to try to get the city to stop killing sweeps.

Anyway, here's the podcast:

http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/4904050#sEMBQwzEx5DQqkAz.01

And here's some articles confirming my actions this year:

Forgotten Realms: the beginning

Arrested in Gresham for speaking out for the homeless

Camp Serenity

Ending Camp Serenity

Sweeping 500 off of the Springwater Corridor

Trial dismissed

Fire at Forgotten Realms

Podcast on the Springwater Trail Sweeps

Amanda Reece-Murphy has been heading up Rose City Backpacks of Hope for many years, providing the basic needs of the homeless in Southeast Portland.  This year was her most challenging yet.  Amanda and Steve will discuss their effort to figure out what the city wants and their effort to move people to new locations.

Please click the below link to hear our conversation.  Or go to iTunes and subscribe to Nowhere to Lay His Head Podcast.

Nowhere To Lay His Head, episode 2: Springwater Trail


You can read more about Springwater Trail and the involvement of advocates in this Oregonian article.


If you'd like to find out more about Rose City Backpacks of Hope, please check out their Facebook page. 


If you'd like to find out more about Anawim and the work Steve does, please look at their website, Anawim Christian Community 


If you'd like to find out more about Mary Anne Funk, who produced this podcast, as well as many other quality video documentaries, please check out her website.

The Constant Push

For the last 21 days, the City of Portland has been sweeping 500 people out of SE. Homeless folks and their advocates scrambled to find places for them to be. Under the stress of the move, many of those swept ended up in the hospital, and others had mental breakdowns.

One of the places that many went to is Gateway Green, between the 205 and 84 freeways in NE Portland. About 80 percent of the people staying there were forced there because of the previous sweep.

Now the city of Portland plans to do another sweep of the Greenway area, causing more trauma upon the poorest people in our city. The city claims that they plan to do construction in this area for a bike park, but that construction is years away, after the shelters currently being planned are built.

If you live in Multnomah County, please call the Portland city council and tell them to stop evicting the homeless until they have a place to go. Tell them to stop oppressing our most vulnerable populations.

A tyrant forces people to do what is convenient for a few wealthy people. A leader provides positive solutions for all their citizens. Amanda Fritz, Charlie Hales, find solutions before you move people. Stop traumatizing your citizens!

Amanda Fritz: (503) 823-3008
Charlie Hales: 503-823-4120

I just visited this area this morning. They are peaceful and supporting each other, trying to keep the area clean. Provide support, not oppression!

Springwater sweep

The Shepherd and the Dog

A shepherd needed his sheep to move to a different place, so he sent his dog, who nipped and bit the sheep, leaving some of the sheep injured. This happened every day for weeks. The sheep gathered together and whispered to each other, "The shepherd wants to injure us. We will die like this!"

Eventually, the shepherd build a fine house for the sheep to live in. So he sent his dog to give the sheep the good news. The sheep whispered among themselves, "This is the slaughterhouse. Finally the dog and the shepherd gets rid of us!" And the sheep stood up, trampled the dog out of fear and ran as far away from the house as they could.

If the city council refuses to speak directly to the homeless, but send ruffians out to move and harm them, what makes them think that the homeless will believe them when the city tells them that they have a fine shelter to live in?