PDX Houseless Radicals Collective has made the isolated park home base in its fight to address houseless issues
By Henry Brannan, 14 July 2021
What can houseless people do to fight back and better their own lives? Because no one else is going to do it for us.” Those were the words that started PDX Houseless Radicals Collective, according to Jean-Jacques Michell, a founding member.
Michell told Street Roots the collective considered other areas where they could be useful as the nightly protests of the George Floyd uprising tapered off earlier this year, finally looking inward to their own experiences.
“I’ve been houseless most of my adult life. I also went to college for social work and I worked in the homeless youth system for a while, so I’ve seen both sides of it,” said Michell, who is non-binary and uses “they” pronouns. “So I gave up my place and started talking to people, and it’s just kind of grown.”
