On any given night, thousands of people sleep on the streets in Portland, Oregon. They seek shelter in tents, bushes and overpasses in a city that has struggled with one of the worst housing crises in ...

Lichen is 34-weeks pregnant and worried about where he’s going to live. His partner left abruptly last month, leaving Lichen with a month-to-month rental agreement he can’t afford. He was a ...

In March 2024, Oregon lawmakers voted to recriminalize the simple possession of small amounts of opioids, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs, reversing Measure 110, the landmark 2020 voter initiative ...

The starving artist is cliche. So is choosing between supporting the arts and paying your bills. The broad art world still has a reputation for being elitist and exclusionary. While plenty of the ...

Supporters like you keep our low-barrier work program and award-winning newspaper going. Portland, Oregon's award-winning weekly street newspaper - for those who can't afford Free Speech.

When Santiago Ventura Morales was released from an Oregon prison in 1991, it made national headlines. Ventura was convicted five years earlier for murdering a fellow migrant farm worker in a case that ...

Planters have been placed under bridges along Naito Parkway, where people experiencing homelessness go for respite from the elements. Credit: Photo by Joanne Zuhl Anti-homeless policy has been a ...

State data shows, patients ready for discharge typically spend months occupying desperately in-demand beds for care that mental health professionals and authorities say they don’t need. Credit: Design ...

The Oregon Governor is a statewide elected position serving a four-year term. As Oregon’s chief executive, the governor is responsible for executing laws, leading and coordinating the executive branch ...

Attendees of Yakama Nation and Columbia Riverkeeper's May 8 event look southeast out into the Columbia River Gorge, where the John Day River pours into the artificial lake created by John Day Dam. The ...

A legal loophole allows former law enforcement officers with a lifetime ban from Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, or DPSST, to work as campus officers with many of the same ...

Portland City Council passed an ordinance May 8 banning public sleeping. Portland police began enforcing the ordinance July 1, focusing on encampments the city deems particularly problematic. Credit: ...