Mary Anne funk

Human Settlement – Finding Home – Homelessness in PDX

Human Settlement / Finding Home

Ongoing Series

[su_divider top=”no” text=”Homelessness in Portland, Oregon” size=”5″ margin=”20″]
Human Settlement – Finding Home shines a light on the housing crisis in Portland, Oregon and works to provide understanding that in order to survive and rebuild our lives, we need stability and shelter as a basic human need: without it, people are forced to focus on just trying to survive each day with no time to focus on long term solutions.

Sometimes that shelter is built by the individual with a tent or a tarp along sidewalks, under trees or along hillsides. Sometimes that shelter is built by a community of people coming together to form an intentional community of support. Sometimes that shelter is in a vehicle parked in a driveway, parking lots or along the street. Sometimes that shelter is under a bridge or in a doorway.

Beyond the structure: it is about forming shelter and having a place to call home. Shadow and his wife are homeless. She is not feeling well and is sleeping when we walk up. Shadow was cleaning up their area. He keeps a broom with them at all times to keep where they stay clean and they keep their belongings neatly statcked. They stay ready to move on a moments notice because they never know when the police will tell them the need to move.

This project will be an interactive web project mixed with multimedia stories.

In this project, I want to show the individual experience, how their story relates to the housing crisis in Portland and how it relates to what is happening throughout the United States.

“A human settlement, or community, is not merely a collection of houses. It is a human (social and cultural) organization” By Phil Bartle, PhD http://cec.vcn.bc.ca/cmp/whatcom.htm