Creative Housing Option

Ibrahim Mubarak, here and here, says he is a "triple threat" to people who want to maintain the status quo: he's Black, he's a Muslim, and he's Houseless. Local people who do not have indoor places to stay sometimes call themselves "houseless," rather than "homeless," given that they create homes wherever they are--in tents, with shopping carts and cardboard, in cars or trucks, or however they can. Their housing situation does not dictate to others who and what they are. "I don't like the word 'homeless,'" Mubarak says. "We just don't, at the present time, have a house to live in. And there are as many reasons for that as there are people out here on the streets." Mubarak is a visionary leader who helped to create Right To Dream Too. (Link is to their blog, not updated since May.)

This morning I had business downtown, and I found myself in front of Right to Dream Too. This last link is to an article about them in the newspaper sold by houseless people and is probably the most useful link to click on, if you're in a hurry. Right to Dream Too is affectionately known in the Portland Occupy community as R2D2 . Scroll down to the last picture in that last link so you can see better what you're looking at in this accordion-pleated row of wonderfully-painted recycled doors that form a fence around an empty lot where about sixty people have made their homes in tents. Some doors were painted by people in the houseless community; some were painted by college students, local citizens, and union members in solidarity with houseless people. Some doors have pictures, quotations, and proverbs painted on them such as the following:

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are."--Maya Angelou.

"Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings." --Nelson Mandela.

"Comfort the disturbed. Disturb the comfortable."

"When we can't dream any longer, we die." --Emma Goldman.

R2D2 is a campground or "rest area" for houseless people. It is carefully patrolled and regulated by members of its own community. It's safe and at the moment, although Portland Police are demanding fees for permits and one stupid thing or another, it is a place where houseless people can sleep without being harassed by the cops. People pay a dollar a night to stay here, and I'm told there is a waiting list, although I wasn't able to find anyone to confirm that. It is one of the few places where heterosexual houseless people can stay together in couples (the other shelters are single-sex); and where houseless people with pets can stay with their animals. Some of the people in R2D2 self-identify as mentally ill. Others don't. Some have addictions but agree to a substance-free home base. Others have been evicted from their former houses and apartments. With local shelters overflowing, R2D2 is a creative option for some houseless people. But there are more people wanting in than there is space for.