Mission

Street Books is a street library that provides community, resources, and advocacy for people living outside or at the margins in Portland, Oregon.

We cultivate mutual relationships rooted in dignity and autonomy by showing up every week, year after year, in all kinds of weather, all around the city, to meet people where they are.

We believe in the transformative capacity of books, both for the individual and collective. Books offer access to ideas, education, and liberation.

Vision

We are part of a growing movement in Portland building a community where all people belong and are known, where everyone has access to safety and security and the resources to thrive. We believe housing is a human right, and we support community organizing for systemic change that supports housing for all.

Equity Statement

Street Books is committed to the pursuit of equity—both internally and in the world at large. We work in solidarity with our patrons and show up for human rights.

Equity is a verb and a process. We are in it for the long haul, and we understand the work is always evolving and by its nature cannot be complete. And, as adrienne maree brown describes, active equity is the “deepest form of love.”

We use an intersectional, anti-oppressions lens for all that we do, assessing whether what we do, who we serve and what books we provide dismantle oppressions and uplift the whole community, and most especially those who are the most impacted by the systems of control and oppression that operate in the very air we breathe (racism, classism, sexism,  capitalism, etc.). We believe these systems can be changed to systems of common good and healing but we must work for those changes, including always working on ourselves with love, resources, and a powerful and strong commitment.

Read more

Service:

1. We use our anti-oppressions lens to assess where and how we put our energy  - who we serve, who we are not serving, who we partner with, where we go/locate our operations, etc.

2. We have a written equity and anti-oppressions policy that we revisit and update with intention together as a whole organization.

3. We go to our patrons so they don’t have to come to us (as houselessness is exhausting and traumatizing).

Books:

1. We ensure that our patrons can see their lives reflected in the books we offer.

2. We have a variety of books and genres, with a focus on underrepresented writers.

3. We seek and share books with tools for ending systems of oppression and effectively changing individual acts of oppression.

Relationships:

1. We will prioritize the building of mutual, authentic relationships and stand up for our patrons’ basic human rights

2. We will stay committed to liberation and not give up on each other. We will challenge individual and systemic oppression with respect, believing that in healthy community we will challenge harmful beliefs and help create the conditions for them to be transformed

3. We will make mistakes and when we do we will be accountable, listen and believe each other and commit to learning

Internal Policy:

1. We will provide good wages and jobs so anyone can work here because everyone who works deserves a livable wage.

2. We acknowledge that different members of the Street Books team need different things to thrive.

3. We will have an annual plan of action that is measurable that help us continue learning and effectively change systems of oppressions.

4. We will be clear and consistent about our systems change perspective, strategy, and work (for example deciding if reform is enough in a violent capitalist system) and be strategic and clear in what ways these beliefs inform our work.

5. We will create structured time and space for this work and these conversations.

6. We will establish a foundational set of trainings and expect that all staff, contractors and board members will engage in the ongoing process of learning as we work toward our collective liberation.

7. We will strive to be a reflective, curious, receptive learning organization so we can implement our mission and meet our equity goals with vision and integrity.

8. We recognize this is a living document and we will revisit it regularly as we learn and grow.

Systemic Change

Since 2011, we have seen the suffering and displacement of our library patrons first-hand and have witnessed the failure of our city and the system at large to ensure that they have a safe place to live and the resources necessary to thrive.

Our city/state/nation has the resources to offer safe housing to every person who needs it. It’s clear that allowing people to be unhoused is the result of systemic factors and policy choices.  

While we are deeply committed to our work, we recognize that it is not enough—we are working against longstanding systems that prioritize the well-being and status of some at the peril of everybody else. Direct services are not enough. We must work together for structural change and for safe, affordable housing for all people. 

Read more

How Did We Get Here? For the last 40 years, the federal government has slashed affordable housing budgets. This decrease in affordable housing has caused a predictable rise in houselessness. Housing and rent prices have soared while affordable housing has become increasingly scarce.

Rather than address the root causes of houselessness in constructive ways, states and municipalities have enacted a growing number of laws criminalizing basic survival. If you live outside, basic things like sleeping, sitting, and going to the bathroom become criminal acts.

As the number of people without housing has increased dramatically, so have efforts to hide poverty using targeted policing and policies like sweeps. The trend to criminalize and punish poverty gains momentum as the evidence of it becomes more visible. This move away from compassion is cruel, counterproductive, and expensive.

Houselessness is not inevitable.

And while the nuts and bolts of good policy can get complicated, the general idea is very simple: Get people into housing. Then provide them the necessary services, including food assistance, medical care, addiction treatment, wrap-around services for those who need it, and social support. Our current system fails to do this.

In the words of Dr Martin Luther King: 

Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.