Like many programs that materialized in spring of 2020, the three city-sanctioned tent camps that appeared in central Portland in April of last year were born out of a crisis. Oregon’s COVID-19 pandemic social distancing rules had just fallen into place. The mandate forced homeless shelters to immediately reduce capacity, leaving hundreds of vulnerable Portlanders to shelter-in-place outdoors in the midst of a still-mysterious pandemic. At the same time, places that unhoused people relied on.
How do you open a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the middle of a pandemicâand thrive? One answer:
Break the paradigm and go co-op, Ã la Mirisata, Portlandâs only Sri Lankan restaurant, which is also vegan and entirely BIPOC- and worker-owned. The SE Belmont spotâs prospective owners prove themselves not with a fat wad of start-up cash, but via a few months of a trial working period. During the height of the pandemic, Mirisata went from pop-up to brick-and-mortar restaurant using small loans from customers and friends.
Another innovation: a buy-in membership program for $40 a year, which includes perks like discounts on orders. So far, Mirisata is Portlandâs only restaurant operating under a co-op model, but its worker-owners say itâs a way forward for those whoâve historically faced barriers, including women and people of color, to gain business ownership in a notoriously brutal industry.
December 17 2020
Partnership between Portland, Multnomah County, Do Good Multnomah nonprofit and St. Johns Church to provide shelter to 19 residents.
A leafy street in St. Johns is about to get 19 new neighbors.
A coalition of local officials, faith and nonprofit leaders are racing to meet a planned January opening of Portland s newest outdoor transitional shelter St. Johns Village before the worst of winter s chill arrives. Being houseless is difficult. Nobody is really excited to live in a tent on the street, said Chris Aiosa, executive director of Do Good Multnomah, the agency that will manage the site. This is an opportunity for folks to have their own place, to have a door that locks.