Housing and homelessness is a visible and divisive issue in local media, in politics, and across different communities within our state. Many of us were experiencing housing instability and economic uncertainty even during the “boom” times before the current crisis. This conversation will explore common assumptions and perspectives about the experience of houselessness/homelessness and seek to answer the question, How do we decide who “belongs” in our community?

Register for this event.

Yimei Shao is a community organizer, coalition-builder, and street librarian with Street Books, a bicycle-powered library for folks living outside. Formally trained in curriculum development and critical education studies, Yimei has served as an educator in NYC high schools and various Portland community workshops. A diasporic person 3,000 miles from childhood home and 6,000 miles from ancestral home, Yimei is both neither-here-nor-there and right-here-right-now, at home in Portland.