Beyond houselessness
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According to research compiled by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Oregon had an estimated 1,590 people aged 18–24 experiencing houselessness as of January 2019. This is troubling, considering one hopes that most 18–24-year-olds are going to college or getting their first jobs and transitioning into adulthood. Instead, houseless youth are worried about surviving and having space to live.
P:ear aims to tackle this issue head on. P:ear is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by three women: Beth Burns, Pippa Arend and Joy Cartier. According to Safe Space Coordinator Antonio Camacho Martinez, p:ear’s founders used to work for another organization which helped houseless youth, but recognized a need for an organization that could offer a safe space for houseless youth to discover their identity. As a result, Burns, Arend and Cartier formed p:ear in the hopes of creating a space geared toward, as Camacho Martinez put it,