One of my top priorities as The Oregonian/OregonLive’s homeless reporter is to shine a light on the way homeless services work or fail to work for the people they are meant to serve.
But the view I get is often filtered through the lens of the people who fund and operate those systems.
People who use the services are frequently talking to me in front of providers and funders and may be limited in what they feel comfortable saying. Or they are speaking to me privately, but don’t want their name associated with badmouthing a service organization lest it limit them from getting services. Providers tell me that they would never refuse services to someone exercising their right to free speech by talking to a journalist, but those concerns persist…