A Beautiful Day for Protest

One of CANDO's favorite cops, Sgt. Jason VanMeter

Spring was in the air today, as Oregonians gathered at the Capitol, on the front steps, and over in Willson Park along Court Street near the WWII memorial.

As couples and families with small children strolled along the Capitol Mall among the blooming cherry trees, they could hear the voices of 70 or so people at the southern end, insisting that love trumps hate, and that homophobia has got to go.  "Jesus hates Fascism", according to one of the many hand-made signs, and does not care particularly about making America great again.

The crowd on the Capitol steps were there for one primary purpose:  to prevent the MAGA (Make America Great Again) March from occupying them. And a beautiful

day it was for a protest.  Even the State Troopers and the Salem Police bicycle patrol seemed happy and relaxed as they stood watchfully nearby.  The only unhappy people we could see near the Capitol were a dozen or so black blok types, presumably not from around here, who, after hovering in front of the steps awhile, made off in a westerly direction, toward Willson Park, where the MAGA Marchers had set up tents at the WWII memorial, behind a "fence" of police bicycles (and police).

We noticed as they left that the police were following, so we followed, too.  That's where we ran into the former head of the Downtown Enforcement Team, Jason VanMeter, who was happy to chat with us, despite needing to hold his bicycle in position as a part of the fence.  In recent years, Jason's been behind a desk, promoted from the DET to admin, which he was very happy to abandon in January, in favor of patrol duty.  He's now working with the mobile crisis response team (we think that's the right name, but we'll update if we find out it's something else), which he helped create. 

"Fence" between the east and west crowds

As most readers may know, Willson (two 'l's, people) Park belongs to the state.  And there were a lot of state police there to protect it  today.  That's how we like to think of them, anyway, as protecting the park, even knowing they were really there to protect us from each other.

It was kind of hard to hear our conversation with Jason because of all the yelling behind him.  We couldn't make out what the argument(s) was/were about, but it's fairly safe to assume it wasn't about who was likely to prevail in the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament.

There was one arrest while we were there; it was one of the younger MAGA Marchers wearing a black III% hoodie (anyone know why it's III% instead of 3%?).  Don't know what for, exactly.  Nothing serious, it would seem.  [Update: T. Oregonian reports it was for illegal possession of a firearm.)

Arrested III%er at far left, Daniel Bejamin in the red MAGA hat

The crowd dispersed a bit after the arrest and the fence reformed in a slightly different location.  The yelling having subsided, we chatted with some of the MAGA Marchers.  A woman with lipstick to match the red MAGA hats asked us if we were tourists, saying she was from Tigard.  She said the Love people (meaning the crowd on the Capitol steps) were nice, but the young men in black (meaning the black blok types) didn't believe in anything, "they just want a fight."  We wondered later if she was aware the guy who was arrested was a III%er on the side of the MAGA Marchers.  (We had to look it up, but if you don't know, the 3% is a reference to the percent of colonists believed to have been "active in the field" of what's commonly referred to as the American Revolution.) 
 
A fellow MAGA Marcher joining our conversation, a man, said "those guys are Bernie burnouts."  He said that they feel betrayed, hate Hillary Clinton, and don't believe in anyone or anything.  He agreed with the woman that they "just want a fight." 

The crowd (which was about the same size as the one on the steps of the Capitol) fixed their sunglassed eyes on us, sideways, as we wandered through their midst without signage or identifying colors.  "He's the only one who can do this", said the man with the microphone on the steps of the obelisk.  "He's a maverick."       
        

We ran into Jerry Moore, in civvies and shades, over by the fountain that was turned off a couple of years ago on account of the drought, and is now just a chlorinated duck pond.  He seemed a little surprised at the size of the turnout, although it was well within SPD's predicted total of 300.  We agreed the weather likely brought more people out.

Former Salem City Councilor Daniel Benjamin wandered over to greet  the Chief, saying it was good to see him, though he wished it were under different circumstances.  He was not, we think, referring to the fact that they were meeting at a pro-Trump rally, but rather to his having been forced recently to resign from the Salem City Council.  The conversation was the briefest.  He wandered away again, almost as soon as we had introduced ourselves.

As we chatted with Jerry about the need for people to forego their iPhones occasionally and talk to one another, sit on front porches if they have them, and risk actually talking to their neighbors about their barking dogs, the black blok types disappeared somewhere, and gave us a clear shot of the bicycle fence.

Was the ardor for argument chilled by the arrest, the warming sunshine, or was it just time to start thinking about lunch?  We don't know. 

We said goodbye to Jerry, and continued our walk.

Minutes 3/21/17

 March 21, 2017

Residents: Deb Comini

Organizations: Jeanine Knight, UGM; Ross Swartzendruber, Salem Creative Network; John Hawkins, Friends of Salem Police (PAC)

City and County Representatives: Councilor Kaser; Sgt. Kevin Hill, SPD; Brady Rogers, Neighborhood Enhancement Division; Karen Odenthall, SKATS MPO;  

Guests: none

The regular meeting of the CanDo Board of Directors was called to order at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at the First Christian Church at 685 Marion Street NE, Salem.  The Chair and Secretary-Treasurer were present.

The minutes of the February meeting were approved by unanimous consent.

Councilor Kaser reported that the City’s Strategic Planning Project process is in Phase 2.  The “big issues” have been identified and assigned to six work groups who will conduct four to six public, goal-identifying meetings over the next three months.  She also reported that the Salem Housing Authority Board of Commissioners received an information report on the Mayor’s Homeless Rental Assistance Program (HRAP) which will be coming before the Citizens’ Budget Committee next month.  

Councilor Kaser reported that on April 19, there will be a public hearing on replacing Salem’s existing regulations for vehicle for hire and transportation network companies (SRC 30.700 to 30.835), and that she had heard only from the affected businesses.  [Background: In August 2015, City Council amended SRC Chapter 30 to allow for operation of transportation network companies, such as Uber and Lyft, within the City Limits (see Jul 2015 Report). Around the time City Council passed the amendments, Uber ceased operation within the City and there are no transportation network companies (“TNCs”) currently operating within Salem.  On January 9, 2017, on the Mayor’s motion, Council directed staff to prepare amendments to the Salem Revised Code to accommodate TNCs “business model.”  (See Mar 2017 Report.)]  Also on April 19, there will be a hearing on the Planning Commission’s recommended code amendments affecting short-term “AirBnB” type rentals, now being offered contrary to existing regulations.  Kaser said she would like to receive comments on both matters by March 27, that there are a great many openings on City boards, commissions and advisory committees, there will be a new Citizens Police Academy starting in April.

 

Officer Hill reported that the Downtown Enforcement Team has been busy since January covering downtown seven days a week and have been seeing increased litter, vandalism and nighttime trespassing.  He said they were preparing as “event season” gets under way for a crowd of about 300 at pro- and anti-Trump rallies at the Capitol on Saturday March 25.   

Michael Livingston reported that the engineering planning phase of the Maple-Winter Street Bikeway Project is under way and should be completed by January 2018, at which point the City will be in a position to seek project funding.  He said the bikeway is expected to be a model for others in the City, and other neighborhoods have already expressed interest.

In public comments, the board heard from John Hawkins on the subject of the $61.3M bond measure for the proposed 115,00 SF police facility on the May 16 ballot, and referred everyone to the interactive webpage to find out more.  The board also heard from Ross Swartzendruber about the Salem Greenway open streets event along Maple-Winter Streets planned for Saturday, June 17 from 10 to 2.  Volunteers willing to help at intersections may sign up at the Salem Greenway website.     

There followed a presentation by Karen Odenthall about the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation System FY 2018-2023 Transportation Improvement Program.

There being no other business before the board, the meeting adjourned at 7:07 p.m.

Homeless Voucher Lottery to Morph

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Jimmy Jones speaking to the Emergency Housing Network about changes to the homeless voucher lottery.

Yesterday at the Emergency Housing Network (EHN) meeting, staff of the Salem Housing Authority (SHA) and the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency (MWVCAA) announced SHA's intent to change its homeless voucher lottery system from random selection to a needs-based prioritization system (which means it's no longer a lottery).

MWVCAA's Jimmy Jones, who's recently been promoted from Coordinated Entry Specialist to the Director of the Community Resources Program, was there to explain the needs-based prioritization process, discussed here last November.

The lottery was suspended in the summer of 2016, and resumed only last month.  It will remain unchanged (10 vouchers awarded each month through random selection, along with 5 domestic violence victim vouchers) through March and April. 

In May, however, providers hoping to obtain a voucher for a homeless client must contact MWVCAA to have their client assessed and placed on a master list prioritized by degree of vulnerability.  No change to DV voucher lottery is anticipated.  Clients scoring into the highest levels of need on the master list of all persons assessed in Marion and Polk Counties will be offered one of the 10 homeless vouchers set aside that month.  

The plan appeared to be well received.  There were three questions from the audience:  could clients manipulate responses to affect their VI-SPDAT score (no), could the data be broken out by county (yes), and what is the next step for the data being amassed (it will be used to inform local decision-making about allocation of resources)?

There were approximately 50 people in attendance, including UGM's CEO and former MWHI Task Force member, Bruce Bailey (red shirt, upper right corner of the photo).  Some housing providers not represented at the meeting included Salem Interfaith Hospitality Network, which shelters up to four families in participating churches, and also runs a tenant-based rental assistance program funded with City HOME program dollars, and Grace House, which houses single women, no children, often straight from Coffee Creek, for up to six months.  UGM, Salvation Army, St. Francis and Center for Hope and Safety were all present.  Four members of the Home Base Shelters of Salem (HBSS) board were present, as well.  HBSS is attempting, so far without success, to implement a Rest-Stop (aka "Safe Spot") type of program in Marion or Polk County.

Acceptance of the switch to a needs-based selection system is huge for this community, both because it's the first and biggest step toward the implementation of a true coordinated entry system, and because it's needed to implement the Mayor's proposal to target resources toward the chronically homeless.  A first for this community, and long overdue.

The proposal for a Homeless Rental Assistance Program or HRAP to house 100 of Salem's chronically homeless residents over the course of a year comes before the Salem Housing Authority BOC Monday, March 13, at City Hall.
According to the overview published yesterday, the program budget is "$1.9M, with $1.4M requiring new funding."  If the BOC gives the program the nod, which is expected, the matter will go before the Citizens' Budget Committee in April.  As the chart above indicates, such program have been shown to save community resources in the long term, mainly in "Police-Jail" and medical, including behavioral health costs.

The prospects for approval appear to be favorable.  Events over the past year, like the housing shortage and rising rents, the extended sub-freezing temperatures, the deportation actions and Muslim ban, the rise of hateful, racialized rhetoric and consequent fear, the prospect of deep cuts to housing, health insurance and other social care programs, which promise to make the situation even worse than it is, all these things, along with the "recovering" economy, a new City Manager, Mayor and Councilors, all these things seem to have made Salem officials more willing, not less, to think, plan and act more broadly/inclusively than they have in the past.  However, to succeed, the City will need the cooperation of rental property owners. 

News from the Continuum

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Morningstar Community Church

In case you missed it, there was a Big Meeting of the Rural Oregon Continuum of Care (ROCC) last month, right here in Salem, at the Morningstar Community Church.  We knew about it because we were invited to attend, but when we got there, we were told we were not welcome.  We were, of course, disappointed, but not surprised, on account of our daring to suggest last fall that Marion and Polk Counties might be better off re-creating the Salem, Marion and Polk County CoC.

According to reports, there was a lot of cool data and resources and information presented during the 2-day meeting, which makes you wonder why they wouldn't want that information to get out into the community.  (We were told it would be shared, but, one month later: nothing.)  No reason was ever given for closing the meeting, and neither the staff, nor the board (who defer to staff) seemed to care that closing the entire meeting for no reason violated ROCC's guiding principles, as stated in its bylaws.  "We're a not a legal organization", Jo Zimmer told us by way of explanation, "we're fake!"  In other words, unincorporated associations don't have to adhere to their bylaws because they're "not legal."

And they wonder why some of us are thinking ROCC is not quite up to the job of ending homelessness.

Also (reportedly) discussed at the meeting was ROCC's "rebranding" itself as the "Oregon Balance of State CoC."  If that seems a little like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, it nevertheless has the ring of truth.  It's not hard to imagine them really believing, "There's nothing wrong here, but maybe we need to disassociate ourselves from the community's perception that there's something wrong and we might do that by changing our name."  However, "rebranding is notoriously difficult, especially with businesses that have an established identity and history", to say nothing about rebranding to anything like, "Oregon Balance of State CoC."  

Team Toilet: Anna, Gary, Tim, PK, Darlene, Verena

Also in case you missed it, after 18 months in service, the two Arta Potties behind the Bishop building and at the corner of Front and Court Streets have been put in storage with Ace Chemical Toilets (there's still one in the parking lot of the First Congregational Church, though).

The reason given for the removal was overuse.  "We simply need all 7 placed, not two or three potties. We have had long morning lines to serve", organizer Rebecca Courtney told us.  "We...have just formed a new partnership with "Partnerships in Community Living, Inc...this way we can provide tax deductions and receive the non profit $$, meeting the city requirements" [for a $4K grant/loan authorized last spring].

A story in the Salem Weekly provides a bit more about the organizers' getting more people involved and renegotiating the terms of the City's $4K loan/grant, but no real information or plan has emerged.  According to the Salem Weekly article, "Interested people can make tax-deductible donations to Partnerships in Community Living’s 'Arta-Potties' account. Funds will be used to purchase more potties, art installment and weekly cleaning from the project’s continued partner, Ace Chemical Toilets."

Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation 2/26/17 Mtg Ad 

In recent weeks, Home Base Shelters of Salem (HBSS) appears to have moved on from advocating that the City allow tent camping in secure sites to "developing micro-housing."

Towards the end of 2016, HBSS members met with the City Manager about their proposal to provide secure tent camping facilities for select homeless adults.  Mr. Powers reportedly told them that the City did not have any property/parcels that would be suitable for their project, which the City was not all that keen on to begin with.  HBSS received a similar message at a meeting with Marion County Commissioner Janet Carlson, according to her oral report at the February 15 meeting of the Marion County Board of Commissioners.  Consequently, it seems, HBSS is reworking their proposal, and their image, as "a group dedicated to developing micro-housing." 

HBSS's micro-housing plans were briefly posted on their website.  The website said HBSS "have a prospective village site in Marion County outside high-density urban residential neighborhoods and retail commercial areas."  Seems like it's going to be hard for folks living out in the county, especially if they've been assessed by ARCHES as "highly vulnerable" as the summary suggests, "to actively work to develop the community connections, knowledge and skills necessary to secure more stable shelter", not to mention "participate in the Salem community by providing weekly volunteer service."  Also, $12K annual budget seems low.

The extended period of sub-freezing weather in January, boosted by social media, raised awareness among Polk County residents of their unsheltered and inadequately housed neighbors, culminating in a community forum attended by about 80 members of the community and area providers.  One result of that gathering could turn out to be a Dallas-based Interfaith Hospitality Network modeled on the Salem IHN directed by TJ Putman, in which volunteers host homeless families overnight in church classrooms for a week at a time, while the parents work on finding housing, employment, etc., supported by a case manager.  The program's claimed 100% success rate will be hard to reproduce, though, without also screening families for criminal histories and active substance abuse issues and having a well-funded tenant-based rental assistance program. There was an informational meeting about the IHN in Monmouth last Thursday called, "Supporting Families Back on Their Feet."

There was something new at the Polk Community Connect event in January -- an acknowledgement that reproductive health care qualifies as a basic need.

We volunteered at the Connect, and also tabled for KMUZ Community Radio.  Our table was next to the Planned Parenthood table, which allowed us to observe the many people who visited it to ask about the wide range of services PP offers, including general health, transgender counseling and advice about STDs, like what to do when one partner is being treated and the other isn't (one question of many along those lines that we overheard).  Other visitors to the table wanted only a handful of mints and/or condoms, which were about equal in popularity.  Several others, including a couple of OHSU nursing students, commented to us how gratified they were to see the PP table at this Polk County event, indicating they, too, thought it a valuable service to participants.

PP Welcome Here, Not in Salem

But, if you were expecting to see a PP table at the Salem-Keizer Community Connect this year, you'll be disappointed.  They weren't allowed last year, either.  The event is sponsored by Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, the Salem Leadership Foundation, Cherriots, Salem First Baptist Church (host), the United Way and Profund Northwest.  The City of Salem supports the dental van(s) with a $2K grant.  We're not sure which one(s) of these was unwilling to "Care.  No matter what", but it's too bad they were allowed to decide for everybody else.                 

The Polk Connect took place the same day as the Marion and Polk Counties' Point-in-Time Count.  Preliminary (oral) reports on the PITC results suggest we will not see large increases in the numbers counted, despite additional efforts on the part of MWVCAA staff and others to "get out into the county" this year.  To date, MWVCAA has not published a  report on the 2016 count, so we asked for their raw data, and, based on that, last year's count was 857.  Jimmy Jones, with MWVCAA, has been collecting data on Marion and Polk Counties' community's homeless population since August of last year.  He estimates that there are now, in Salem alone, about 2,000 people experiencing homelessness.  MWVCAA recently asked Jimmy to take over the direction of its Community Resources Program (which includes The ARCHES Project), and he will be speaking to the Salem City Club about his research on March 17.

from the December 2016 SHA Program Management Report

Updates on a couple of Salem Housing Authority's programs.  The RAP for vets with SMI is reportedly doing well.  According to ARCHES staff, "we are off to a good start.  Sara Webb runs that program for Linda [Strike], and she's very committed to the cause and a very talented person generally. We're finding new vets to be screened every day, and I would say we have a pretty good data picture of what the vet issues are in the community, even only 5 months into the game."

Still, "it's hard to gauge the relative effectiveness of any program this early in the game. You get a lot of false positives until you have a full data set to examine.  We'd need a year of entry, and then be able to look at how many we assessed, how many then got a mental health screening, how many were offered assistance, and how many were able to lease up. Then we'd need to know how many were successfully housed after a year, and so on."  In other words, they're just getting started.

Chuck Bennett on the air

Funding for the program to house Salem's chronically homeless announced by the Mayor in his State of the City address on February 15 will be going before Salem's Citizens' Budget Committee some time in April or May.  We've not seen any "official" statement of the plan/program yet, but Salem Housing Authority staff are engaged in planning, and Housing Administrator Andy Wilch told the Salem Housing Advisory Committee last week that long-term success in ending chronic homelessness will require the community to adopt a "uniform approach with coordinated access", a message consistent with experience nationwide and HUD guidance.  The Mayor reports he will be meeting with Wilch and City Manager Steve Powers "soon" to plan next steps.
 

Winkle Letter re ROCC

Revised: January 2019

 

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

At left is the first page of a letter from Robin Winkle, an officer in the ROCC (Secretary).  She also happens to work for one of two providers serving Marion and Polk Counties that, for years, has received funding through ROCC.  She also happens to be a good friend of ROCC's paid Program Coordinator, Jo Ann Zimmer.

The letter was sent to CANDO the day we were considering this resolution.

The letter makes no representations about funding levels or costs, as it assumes those matters will be addressed in the planning phase, at which point it will be determined "how much funding will actually come to our community should this separation move forward."

Same with respect to costs associated with ServicePoint (Oregon's HMIS) and Winkle's bulleted questions (see below).

For the record, several weeks before Winkle wrote the letter, we met with her to ask her views on a possible separation, and we assured her that her concerns would be dealt with to everyone's satisfaction during the planning process, a fact she omits from her letter.

On page two (at right), Winkle refers to us condescendingly as "a few community members that have never participated in a HUD Continuum of Care", a reference that unsurprisingly ignores HUD's definition of a CoC, which consists of all those in the community who serve or care about the homeless, and the fact that we've been members of the ROCC and attending meetings since June 2016.

Sadly, although we've come to expect this haughty lack of respect from the ROCC leadership, we know it's not personal; it's merely a symptom of ROCC's many internal problems.

Winkle's letter asks, "Are there changes that need to occur in the current CoC system that can be made without separating from the Oregon Balance of State CoC [aka the ROCC]?" and then answers it with "I believe that our community can come together to provide a continuum of care without separating."  In other words, we are admonished to "work from within", without any admission that there is a problem and without any offer of assistance.  Precisely what one might expect from a 17-year veteran of a closed system/organization.

Having given all due consideration to the concerns raised in this letter, the CANDO board at its February meeting voted unanimously in favor of proceeding "to the planning phase to determine how best to proceed with recreating a Marion & Polk Counties CoC." 

Brief responses to Winkle's bulleted questions 

Why does HUD recommend that smaller CoCs merge with larger CoCs?  Well, first, what's a "small CoC", and when has HUD recommended that, to whom, based on what information?  It's certainly not general advice.  We asked Ms. Winkle these questions, and she declined to answer.  So, that would be a question for HUD.  Certainly HUD might advise CoCs with insufficient capacity/resources (like OR-504 back in 2011) to merge, but that doesn't mean HUD would advise against Marion and Polk Counties recreating an effective and sufficiently resourced local CoC today.

Why did Marion and Polk Counties merge with the Oregon Balance of State [ROCC] in 2012?  Because MWVCAA lacked the organizational capacity to continue as the lead agency, and they just more or less threw up their hands.  It wasn't a considered or even thoughtful solution.  It was just the first door out.

How much funding would truly come back to the Marion and Polk Communities?  Not sure what "truly" means here, but, as Ms. Winkle well knows, that question is for HUD, and someone with a relationship with HUD will need to ask it in order to get a straight answer.  That said, MWVCAA and Shangri-La received $610K in this last cycle.  In 2010, Marion and Polk received over $900K.  Although there will be a gap in funding due to the transition, it seems unlikely we'll do worse in the long run.

What will the implementation of an HMIS cost the grantees, in addition to what each grantee pays for? The current grantees (MWVCAA and Shangri-La), and many potential grantees in Marion and Polk Counties have already implemented an HMIS (in Oregon, it's ServicePoint).  Licenses are less than $400.  Training/technical assistance funding is a gap issue, but not an issue overall.  It just needs to be planned for, and it will be.

What Marion-Polk agency has the funding, capacity and staff knowledge to be the lead agency and collaborative applicant?  Several, actually.  This is a silly question.  Consider the fact that ROCC relies on a part-time consultant nominally supervised by the admittedly totally uninvolved Community Action Partners of Oregon.  We're hardly likely to do worse, and we certainly intend to do better.

Are there changes that need to occur in the current CoC system that can be made without separating from the Oregon Balance of State CoC [ROCC)]? No.  Not based on what we've seen.  If it coulda happened in ROCC, it woulda happened by now.  It's not gonna happen, and Ms. Winkle can't even bring herself to assert that it could, she can only ask questions. 

What is the true benefit of Marion and Polk Counties separating out from the Oregon Balance of State CoC [ROCC]?  Having a functional, effective, local CoC would include these benefits (note that none focuses on "the money"):

1. Homelessness, and chronic homelessness in particular, is a humanitarian concern that has significant economic impacts on every community's resources.  Therefore, any reorganization that promises to improve the effectiveness of homeless assistance dollars should be supported.   
   
2. Since 2011, Marion and Polk Counties have been working with 26 other counties in Oregon to improve homeless services through a federal program called the Continuum of Care, but progress is very slow.  
3. If Salem/Marion, Polk Counties were to reorganize as our own CoC, we could concentrate on local programs and services that directly address the unique needs of area residents.
4. Accurate local data allows providers to respond appropriately to the needs of area residents, but right now, Salem/Marion, Polk Counties' data gets rolled in with the other counties and is difficult to separate. 
5. Currently, only two providers in Salem/Marion, Polk Counties receive federal CoC Program grants.  Reorganizing under local control would make it easier for Salem/Marion, Polk Counties providers to learn about the program and apply for grants to support and house local residents.
   
6. Reorganizing under local control would make it easier to expand the number of providers collecting and sharing data and to improve the quality of the data and use it to allocate resources where they will be most effective.
   
7. Developing a coordinated entry system that will allow providers to prioritize resources for the most vulnerable is much more feasible across 2 counties than across 28.  
8. A locally controlled collaborative can be held to account for progress or lack of progress in preventing and ending area homelessness in ways that a 28-county collaborative cannot.
9. The local community, including the homeless community and homeless advocates, would be able to participate in and expand the capacity of a locally controlled collaborative in ways that are just not feasible across 28 counties.
10. A Salem/Marion, Polk Counties collaborative would be more agile and more likely to adopt innovative strategies.]