On November 14, the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a coalition of west coast social justice-based homelessness organizations of which Sisters Of The Road is a member, released a report that documents how more than 25 years of federal funding trends for affordable housing have created the contemporary crisis of homelessness and near-homelessness.

“Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today.  It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing.  Available at WRAP’s website, the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed.

Created in partnership with five other organizations, the report uses federal budget data and other sources to document that:

• HUD’s budget has dropped 65% since 1978, from over $83 billion to $29 billion in 2006.
• The Emergency Shelter phenomenon was born the same year that HUD funding was at a drastic low point.
• In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion the same year that general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.
• HUD has spent $0 on new public housing while more than 100,000 public housing units have been lost to demolition, sale, or other removal in the last ten years.
• Federal housing subsidies are going to the wealthy. In 2004, 61 percent of these subsidies went to households earning more than $54,788, while only 27 percent went to households earning under $34,398.
• More than 600,000 identified homeless students went to public schools in the 2003-2004 school year, according to the US Department of Education.
• Federal support helps homeowners instead of poor people. In 2005, federal homeowner subsidies totaled more than $122 billion, while HUD outlays were only $31 billion – a difference of more than $91 billion.

Our annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. march and rally will be held on Monday January 15, 2007 at 3pm and will focus on economic human rights and Dr. King’s later work.

The event includes a high school essay contest themed: Into The Next Generation: Economic Human Rights for Everyone is Possible.  Winning essays will be included in the event program.

For information about the essay contest, contact Chelsea Brooks at 503-222-5694 ext. 22.  We are also seeking event volunteers: contact Mary at 503-222-5694 ext. 17 .

The march will leave from Sisters (133 NW 6th Ave), follow West Broadway, and end at St. Mary’s Academy (1615 SW 5th).  Willie Baptist, Co-Coordinator of the University of the Poor and the Education Director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union of Philadelphia, will speak at the Rally.

Sisters Systemic Change Manager Devin DiBernardo says, “Every year we honor and celebrate the life and work of Dr. King.  We believe in a world where all people have their economic human rights met and everyone has a right to housing, healthcare, living wage job, and an education.  Please join us in spreading King’s lesser-known teachings and working together to end poverty.”

For more information contact Devin at 503.222.5694 x16 .

Baby Carol, at left, is one of the many people that benefit from our annual Hygiene Drive.  Because many people like Carol’s parents Kim and Robert cannot buy hygiene items with their foodstamps or WIC, and because these items are not offered at most food pantries, they struggle to afford diapers and the basic hygiene items they need.


Please consider organizing a hygiene item drive at your workplace, school, children’s school, or church - make it fun!  For example, two youth groups at a downtown church hold a yearly competition to see who can collect the most hygiene items.  One Sisters supporter who owns a greeting card store challenges her customers, many of whom are women concerned about women and children on the streets, to collect items.

The items we are seeking are (in order of greatest need):

• diapers, diapers, diapers! (esp. size 4 and up)women’s hygiene items
• new toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss and mouthwash, esp. travel-sized
• new socks for adults
• new deodorant
• rain ponchos (no coats or umbrellas please)
• shaving cream and new razors
• new lip balm and lotion
• diaper changing pad
• first aid items – band-aids, travel-sized Neosporin and alcohol pads–we can’t accept any medications such as aspirin
• new washcloths
• adult diapers esp. large sizes
• powdered laundry soap
• new shampoo and conditioner, esp. travel-sized

These items are in great demand as well:

• bus tickets and passes to look for work and make their appointments- honored citizens or all-zone passes/ tickets are most desirable
• phone cards to stay in touch with family and employers

For more information, contact Lauren by calling (503) 222-5694 ext. 25 .  Thank-you so much for your care and concern! 

Check out this week’s issue of Willamette Week and their (Give! Guide. Readers will get incentives and can win prizes when they donate to Sisters Of The Road or other nonprofit groups, until December 31.


For instance, everyone who donates will receive a discount coupon for American Apparel, a cup of joe at Stumptown, a tin of Powell’s After Reading Mints, a booklet of Music Millennium New Year’s coupons and, while they last, a copy of WW’s Finder magazine.


Give $250 or more and Publisher Richard H. Meeker will personally deliver a pound of coffee, a six-pack of beer, and a bottle of fine wine from E&R Wine Shop.  Make the biggest gift and get dinner for two with Meeker and WW’s editor, Mark Zusman, at your favorite restaurant.


All donors have an equal shot at the DeLuxe edition of the Johnny Cash box set (a $300-plus value from Music Millennium) and chef’s dinners for two at clarklewis. So Give! Give! Give!  Thank-you Willamette Week.

Admission is $25 and half of all proceeds will be donated to Sisters.  “We currently donate our $10 corkage fee to
Sisters,” says Sutherland. “We really believe in what they do for people.”


Filbert’s is located on the corner of NW 23rd Place and Vaughn, at 1937 NW 23rd Portland. For more information visit www.filbertscafe.com or call (503) 222-2130.  Thank-you Filbert’s!