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When Portland Emergency Eviction Response’s Tent Fund was launched with a few posts on (anti-) social media and an email list, we quickly raised over $1,000.  Over the course of the past three months, that little crowdfunding exercise has allowed us to help out a bit with material needs of one particular tent encampment, mainly, in very close association with the PDX Houseless Radicals Collective.

PEER Tent Fund funds have gone towards a large tent, a trailer for transporting stuff to and from the camp, a bunch of 5 gallon water jugs, a big run of stickers to help get the word out about PDXHRC’s efforts to organize the houseless, a guitar, guitar strings, and other musical accessories for houseless musicians, and we’ve also been able to cover some bills for the phone that folks use as a wifi hotspot, and some groceries as well.

But now our coffer is dry.  There will definitely be more solidarity needed in these very trying times, and to the extent that PEER can be involved on the material aid front, how much we can do will depend entirely on how much you can donate.  Thanks for your solidarity.

Note:  all donations made using this button are clearly earmarked for the PEER Tent Fund, not to be confused with any other donations.  (Despite the fact that it will say Liberation Records Tent Fund when you click on the button.  It’s a shoestring operation, we don’t have nonprofit status, but you’ve got the right “donate” button…)

As things stand now, the federal eviction moratorium — along with local and state eviction moratoriums in Oregon and most everywhere across the US — expires at the end of this month.  All over the country, a lot is happening this month in particular, as we prepare as networks and as individuals to jump off this cliff together into whatever comes next.

Of course, any minute now, the eviction moratoriums may be extended.  The mainstream press is full of stories about how the rental assistance is in the pipeline, but it mostly hasn’t yet reached the renters, and more time is needed.  More time may be granted, but even if it is, the amount of assistance that’s out there isn’t anything close to what is needed to meet the need, to address a housing crisis that long predates the pandemic, which has been getting exponentially worse for decades.

The housing market is a massive Ponzi scheme, and it is completely unsustainable.  This is becoming increasingly mainstream knowledge.  What to do about the situation is where opinions start to differ a lot.  For some up-to-the-minute thoughts on the housing market Ponzi scheme and where things are headed, check out the latest piece from PEER’s David Rovics in this weekend’s edition of Counterpunch, The Coming Crash (or find it in podcast form by looking up This Week with David Rovics wherever you get your podcasts).  Together with Olympia punk band, Virtual Bird, David also wrote a new song on the subject — American Dream Ponzi Scheme (free download).

Memorial Day on Kelly Butte was a lovely little gathering.  Check out the PDX Houseless Radicals Collective for future gatherings there and elsewhere in the city, particularly if you want to be involved with the vitally important element of the struggle for housing justice that PDXHRC represents, along with very active networks like Stop the Sweeps PDX.

On Tuesday, June 15th, at 9:30 am at the Multnomah County Circuit Court at 1200 SW 1st Avenue in Portland, there will be an anti-eviction vigil organized by Don’t Evict PDX.

On Tuesday, June 22nd, at 7 pm in Irving Park, Portland Tenants United is having a Renter Town Hall.  Get there at 6:30 for pizza and socializing!

Together, we can stop this madness, and take control over the necessity of life for everyone that is housing.  We can make housing a right for all, instead of an investment market.  It’s the only way forward, for a sane society.  Eviction abolition.  PEER has new stickers which we can get to you through any number of means if you’d like to help spread the word through that particularly satisfying method.  We need to multiply our eviction response team by many times.  Send people to abolishevictions.org and tell them to JOIN THE MOB!