Portland State Magazine Fall 2021

22 // PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE group. “Picking up trash with the movement not only benefits our environment but also the wildlife, people and businesses in the area. ” For her personally, “Keeping Portland clean means bringing back the original Portland I grew up with and cherish.” Shnayder’s group also has collaborated with Dirtbag Runners, a community of trail runners founded by Crista Scott Tappan. Shnayder and Tappan first met at Portland State’s School of Business, where Tappan is an instructor and content marketing manager and Shnay- der was an accounting major. Tappan suggested a partnership with Tuesdays for Trash because she was inspired by Shnayder’s dedication to improving the world.The two organizations share similar missions of environmental activism, community engagement and fundraising, Tappan says. Together, they’ve completed two successful cleanups, with a third planned. One, at Laurelhurst Park, “was a community-centered event in Portland as part of our last Run for the Planet to get participants connected in the area,”Tappan says. “Our organizations really mesh well together because they’re both about getting people who are passionate and active in their areas to raise their voices and dedicate time to care for the environment around them.” Building safe and secure housing Students and faculty members in the School of Architecture’s Center for Public Interest Design drew on the center’s long experience in applying design to social needs to answer the call when the pandemic underscored the urgency of supporting individuals experiencing homelessness. The center previously had brought architecture and design services together with stakeholders to bring to fruition several tiny house—or pod—villages, a model pioneered by the houseless community, says Todd Ferry, associate director and senior research associate at the center.The model combines the security and dignity of being able to have a safe place of one’s own with a supportive community structure. During the pandemic, a new, 19-unit village opened in St. Johns using a pod design developed in one of Ferry’s architecture studios with input from villagers. Units at the Kenton Women’s Village and Clackamas County Veterans Village employ the same design. Designing elements such as pods and seeing their impact in the real world has been “a transformative experience for students,” Ferry says. The work on villages and pods has also informed other center projects pursued during the pandemic to support the people living without shelter: Recent student projects include structures for the Hygiene4All hub under the Morrison Bridge, led by Lisa Patterson MArch ’18; the design of a self-care station called The Groom Room where people can attend to personal needs; and a collaboration with the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative to share stories of the houseless experience during the 2020 Oregon wildfires through a mobile exhibit and engagement station. Interest in alternative shelter models is growing nationally, Ferry says. “A lot of people are looking at Portland” both for guidance on highly technical aspects of building pods and villages, and for how they and other emerging models can foster “commu- nity cultures.” One alum has taken a different approach to Portland’s housing challenges. Recognizing that communities of color have been disproportionately affected, both medically and economically, by the pandemic inspired Randal Wyatt ’21 to found Taking Ownership PDX. Frustrated by being stuck at home during 2020’s lockdowns, students Sharona Shnayder (left) and Wanda McNealy (right) began picking up litter on the Park Blocks and turned their Tuesday cleanups into a global Instagram movement. “I would love to have a hand in creating Black homeowners.” Kris Carico ’97, chief executive officer of SOLVE, at a downtown cleanup organized by her nonprofit this September. LARISSA GORDAN COURTESY OF TUESDAYS FOR TRASH