The Right to Rest for All
Sisters of the Road is not just an endorser of the Right to Rest Act, we are a co-creator of the bill. The Right to Rest Act is a product of extensive outreach by Sisters and fellow Western Regional Advocacy Project members asking our unhoused community: what are the most important issues you face?
While housing is the number one priority, criminalization is not far behind.
Criminalization of the unhoused is not new. Oregon’s exclusionary laws have a long and shameful history. Time, place, and manner laws continue to displace and criminalize minoritized groups - now our unhoused residents.
Criminalization of the unhoused is not new. Oregon’s exclusionary laws have a long and shameful history. Time, place, and manner laws continue to displace and criminalize minoritized groups - now our unhoused residents.
These laws are tools used to manipulate, invisibilize, and criminalize unhoused Oregonians. Investigative reporting by Melissa Lewis between 2017 and 2020 illuminates that over 50% of arrests in Portland are of unhoused people while only making up 3% of the population. Most agencies, including the police themselves, know that arrests and citations are not solutions to houslessness.
However, criminalization is a formidable barrier to housing. Criminal histories, bench warrants, and citation accruals can make housing seem unaffordable if not downright impossible in the face of strict income requirements and background checks common with lease applications. With the looming tent ban Portland Mayor Wheeler intends to enact in 2024, the Right to Rest Act is necessary legislation to protect everyone’s right to exist in public space.
Public Hearing
Date: May 4th, 2023
Time: 8am
You can attend in person or online
If you want suggestions for testimony click here!
Attend online here (video will not show until hearing date): tinyurl.com/r2rlivestream
Register for live testimony here: tinyurl.com/r2rtestify
Submit written testimony here: tinyurl.com/r2rwrittentestimony
Learn more and/or join the campaign at: R2RAct.org
You can sign up for live testimony up to 30 minutes before the hearing, or, you can submit written testimony up to 48 hours after the hearing. Tell our representatives why we need the Right to Rest! Your contribution is crucial to the progressive movement of this important bill.
Sincerely,
Lauren Armony
