in re City Camping Program

CANDO RESOLUTION NO. 2020-1

 

A RESOLUTION REGARDING CITY-SPONSORED ORGANIZED TENT-CAMPING 

WHEREAS, at its December 9, 2019, meeting, the Salem City Council discussed -- and apparently still is considering -- a plan to provide public funds, property and other resources to establish an organized tent-camping program that would accommodate approximately 35 “homeless” residents, would cost about $1 million a year and would create housing for no one;

WHEREAS, in the past two years, the Salem Housing Authority’s Homeless Rental Assistance Program (HRAP) has placed more than 100 chronically homeless individuals in permanent supportive housing;

WHEREAS, in addition to more permanent supportive housing, Salem also needs a “low-barrier” shelter facility;

WHEREAS, as City staff acknowledges in the staff report outlining the proposed organized tent-camping program, “[t]he City’s resources needed to support paid staffing of an organized temporary shelter/campsite would be better invested in a low-barrier shelter or the HRAP program”;

WHEREAS, the City is facing an approximately $16.2 million annual General Fund budget deficit, and, in order to address that revenue shortfall, the City Council (a) enacted an ordinance establishing an “operations fee” to be collected through utility billing and (b) referred a proposed employee-paid payroll tax to the voters in the May 2020 election;

WHEREAS, organized tent-camping puts no one in housing, does not constitute shelter under HUD regulations, is expensive to operate and has high “lost opportunity” costs, and many of those who are chronically homeless either will not, or cannot, participate in such programs;

WHEREAS, the Central Area Neighborhood Downtown Organization (CANDO) is a neighborhood association created by the City of Salem and, as such, has legal standing in all land use matters within its boundaries and also is asked by the City and other jurisdictions to comment on a variety of matters important to the community;

WHEREAS, two of the favored sites identified by City staff as suitable for an organized tent-camping program are in CANDO;

WHEREAS, in 2016, the City of Salem helped launch the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative “to identify and launch proven strategies to reduce homelessness” in the region; 

WHEREAS, on September 9, 2019, the City Council authorized a Memorandum of Agreement to create a Development Council to oversee and manage the development of a local continuum of care (aka “Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance”) for purposes of receiving much-needed homeless assistance funding through HUD’s Continuum of Care Program;

WHEREAS, a city-sponsored organized camping program is inconsistent with

a. CANDO’s goal to “Support initiatives offering practical solutions for neighbors living on the streets”;

b. the mission and purpose of the Homeless Rental Assistance Program;

c. the mission and purpose of the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative;

d. the mission and purpose of the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance.  

NOW. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that CANDO recommends to the City Council AGAINST using public funds and resources, including city property, to establish and /or administer an organized camping program. 

ADOPTED by the CANDO Board of Directors, this 18th day of February, 2020.

ATTEST:

CANDO Secretary/Treasurer