Published May 2007

Book details: 7 3/8 X 9 • 352 pages• ISBN 0-9769261-6-4, Trade Softcover, $24.95 • Author: Jessica P. Morrell • Foreword by Genevieve Nelson - To read the foreword, click here!

Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone, especially if that person is homeless, is given the opportunity to tell it. Thus was born Voices from the Street: Truths about Homelessness from Sisters Of The Road, a project with a unique and intimate approach. It compiles the personal stories of more than 500 people experiencing homelessness, who are confiding the facts of their daily lives and pasts, and discussing their dreams, fears, and solutions to homelessness. The results are a book of insight, naked truths and sometimes heartbreak that come straight from the streets and hidden places in Portland, Oregon.

The interviews, part of an organizing project of Sisters Of The Road, begun in fall of 2001 and have spanned into the new century with photographs taken by people experiencing homelessness. These photos, depicting the faces and landscape of homelessness, speak with the eloquence of poetry caught on camera and illustrate both the incredible hardship as well as the amazing resiliency and spark of the human spirit. The book is close to 120,000 words, with sixteen chapters and 25 photographs. The chapters range from describing how the person became homeless to relations to the police and legal system, to veterans, and finally the interviewers’ own thoughts about the process.

There is a new sense of urgency to address the epidemic of homelessness that has swept through this country. What began as an alarming trend in the 1970s, became a crisis in the 1980s, and has now grown to a full-blown calamity. Today the statistics regarding people who are homeless have become as disturbing as the reality of their plight. Evidence of people experiencing homelessness among us is everywhere—found in the haunted eyes of people who peer out from doorways, food lines, park benches, the hollow and secret places of our cities. This book brings those stories into the light.

For more information about the book or how to request data it was based on for your own project, or call her at (503) 222-5694 ext. 15.

Voices from the Street Contents:

Foreword by Genny Nelson, Cofounder Sisters Of The Road
Author’s Note
Introduction

Chapter 1: I never thought that I’d be homeless
Circumstances that lead to homelessness

Chapter 2:  We were constantly hungry. But that was a long time ago.
Family background and childhood

Chapter 3: I felt like I had no one
Self esteem, aloneness & estrangement

Chapter 4: You get arrested for freaking sleeping
Interactions with the criminal justice system

Chapter 5: Homelessness is like a cancer they haven’t found the cure for yet
Homeless Veterans

Chapter 6: It is very, very scary out there
Dangers and violence in street life

Chapter 7: I am not a lazy person. I have worked all my life
Barriers to finding work

Chapter 8: It is hard enough being out here when you’re healthy.
Health issues

Chapter 9: It is a freakish, freakish feeling, a lot of anxiety
Mental health issues

Chapter 10: I have nowhere to go, I am in tears, I am trying to stay clean
Recovery issues

Chapter 11: I do not think that God wants us to be homeless
Spirituality

Chapter 12: People do not like to be forgotten
Relating to society and the homeless community

Chapter 13:  No one is really asking for any handouts. We are just asking to feel like we are human.
Dealing with the services available

Chapter 14: Family are the people that care about you
Definition of family

Chapter 15: Just give me a place where I can rest my legs
Solutions

Chapter 16: I keep moving forward
Dreams and hope for the future

Chapter 17: I learned that there is much wisdom and a staggering amount of pain walking around on our streets
Insights from interviewers

Appendix A
About Sisters Of The Road

Appendix B
Idiom

Appendix C
Suggested sources for continued investigation