Street Roots

Donors to Street Roots include the Northwest Health Foundation, Seeding Justice, the Solutions Journalism Network, the Proteus Fund, the Oregon Community Foundation, the New Venture Fund, the Network for Good, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the American Online Giving Foundation, and the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. ³

Background

Street Roots evolved from a newsletter entitled Burnside Cadillac which was published by students at an adult literacy program beginning in 1990. It started a vendor program in 1996 and became Street Roots in 1998. ⁴

Street Roots started as a volunteer operation in 1998 in Portland, Oregon, publishing the newspaper and allowing street vendors to sell the papers and keep the profits. Vendors are typically homeless or poor. By 2015 Street Roots was published weekly and sold by over 150 vendors. ¹

In 2024 Street Roots moved to a new $8 million building. ⁵ The move was partially funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund, which is a tax levied on large local retailers. ⁶

As of the end of 2024, Street Roots has more than 800 vendors, with about 75 percent of them homeless. ²

Work Areas and Advocacy

Street Roots covers “economic, environmental, and social inequity” related to the homeless. ⁷ It advocates for the decriminalization of homelessness, low-income housing, and addressing, “the relationship between climate change and homelessness.” ⁸ It supports homeless cities including Portland’s Dignity Village from the early 2000s and the more recent C3PO camp villages. ⁸

In 2016 Street Roots was involved in launching the Welcome Home Coalition to advocate for the development and preservation of low-income housing in Portland. ¹

In 2019 Street Roots advocated for Portland Street Response (PSR), which proposed that 911 calls that involve mental health issues are responded to by a PSR team member rather than by the police. PSR began as a pilot program and became a citywide service by 2023. ^{1 9 10}

In 2019 Street Roots advocated for a stop to homeless sweeps in Portland, claiming that the “sweeps are traumatizing” to the homeless. ¹¹

Starting in October 2024, Street Roots partnered with ProPublica through its 50 State Initiative to create one reporting partnership in each state. It will continue to focus on Portland’s homelessness situation. ⁷

Street Roots publishes the “Rose City Resource Guide,” which is a booklet that contains a comprehensive list of services for the homeless and poor in Portland. It is funded by Multnomah County and the City of Portland’s Joint Office of Homeless Services, along with Goodwill Industries International, the ACLU of Oregon, the local Salvation Army, and the local Planned Parenthood. ¹²

Memberships

Street Roots is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, ⁸ the International Network of Street Papers, and left-of-center Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). ¹³ Other member organizations of INN include Mother Jones, ProPublica, and Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.” ¹⁴

In December 2024, the Street Roots staff announced a plan to unionize under the Communications Workers of America. ⁵

Funding

Street Roots reported $3,042,186 in revenues and $1,898,111 in expenses on its 2023 tax returns. It received $1,421,032 in government grants. ^{15 16}

Donors to Street Roots include the Northwest Health Foundation, Seeding Justice, the Solutions Journalism Network, the Proteus Fund, the Oregon Community Foundation, the New Venture Fund, Network for Good, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the American Online Giving Foundation, and the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. ³

Leadership

Kaia Sand became executive director of Street Roots in 2017. She earned a master’s degree in fine arts from George Mason University and worked as a poet, an artist, a community organizer, and a university professor. ^{17 18}  Sand resigned on December 6, 2024, after a leave that began on October 31. ¹⁹ Rebecca Nickels, a nonprofit consultant, began as interim executive director on December 16, 2024. ¹⁹

Rambo became editor-in-chief of Street Roots in 2021. Rambo earned a degree in journalism from Iowa State University and was managing editor of its affiliated Iowa State Daily. He was an intern at local news outlet IowaWatch then moved to Oregon and became an intern for The Oregonian, ²⁰ covering police accountability during the 2020 Portland riots. ²¹ He became an investigative journalist for the Albany Democrat-Herald and its sister publication, the Corvallis Gazette-Times, and then moved to Street Roots as its editor-in-chief in 2021. ^{22 23}

Nick Bjork is the board chair of Street Roots. Bjork earned a master’s degree in business from Portland State University and held roles as a journalist, a digital marketing sales executive, a publisher, and a managing director. He joined BridgeTower Media as its director of product development in 2021. He has been a member of the Street Roots board since 2019. ²⁴