DHSTF Wraps Up

Revised: January 2019

 

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force members chat with Mayor, public, following 6th and final meeting

The Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force was dissolved Wednesday evening, following their sixth and final meeting.  According to the City's press release,

They [the task force] are [sic] identified specific, measurable, and time-bound solutions that make the downtown inviting and welcoming to all Salem residents and visitors. They also ensured that solutions equitably address the rights of downtown customers, visitors, businesses, property owners, and individuals experiencing homelessness.

In fact, the task force did neither.  They were supposed to identify specific, measurable, and time-bound solutions, but the draft recommendations developed by staff for the task force's consideration were nowhere near that mark.  In fact, they're pretty darned vague, not to mention that they reprise recommendations made before, repeatedly, and never effectuated.   

According to the City's press release, the final recommendations were these (numbered for ease of reference):

1. Provide public toilet facilities that are available 24/7.
2. Provide a hygiene center with showers and laundry facilities to serve homeless individuals in the downtown.
3. Endorse a simplified point of contact system individuals may call for support in dealing with issues related to homelessness and provide the community with easy to understand guidance on when to call 9-1-1 verses the non-emergency number, or the point of contact number.
4. Establish a Downtown Good Neighbor Partnership for those who live, work, shop, and visit downtown Salem that supports appropriate behavior and ongoing dialogue with stakeholders. In conjunction with the establishment of a Downtown Good Neighbor Partnership, City staff will assess Salem codes and ordinances to ensure that the City is appropriately balancing the rights of those who live, work, and shop in our downtown, and providing the City of Salem with the tools needed to address behaviors that negatively impact others.  Support the development of additional storage for homeless individuals in need of a safe place to store their possessions during the day. 
5. Support the development of additional storage for homeless individuals in need of a safe place to store their possessions during the day. 
6. Support alternative ways of giving.
7. Encourage property owners to make building and site modifications that implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and provide Riverfront-Downtown Urban Renewal Area grants for improvements that meet grant criteria.
8. Pursue options for expanding downtown cleaning services.

Wednesday night's meeting opened with a chastisement from the Chair to the purveyors of fake news:   

There are 22 draft recommendations in this document [precisely speaking, there were 10 recommendations, and 22 "options"], but I want to speak briefly and directly to one of them in particular because of the interest in social media and the news media.  That has to do with the draft recommendation ["option"] to "revise Salem’s ordinances to provide restrictions to camping or storing personal items on downtown sidewalks during business hours." 

This draft recommendation ["option"] has been interpreted by some in social media, and in the news media, to mean that the City will again consider a sit-lie ordinance, and that's unfortunate, because I don't agree with that interpretation of the intent of this draft recommendation (emphasis added)...I hope that tonight's conversation...will help people decide for themselves, when presented with the rest of the story, whether or not they support this recommendation.

(Link added.)  At no point during the meeting did Chair Kaser say how she interpreted the language she cited, or offer any assurances that the City would not reconsider a sit-lie ordinance.  She never said whom she spoke with or what she read that she thought was incorrect.

Most of the community conversation about staff's Trojan horse, "assess codes" recommendation, and the subsequent "revise ordinances" "option", took place on social media in posts/shares of either our blogs, or the Statesman Journal article published July 30, which interpreted the presence of the "option" language in the staff recommendations as meaning that "A controversial proposal to ban camping or storing personal items on Salem sidewalks during daytime hours is back on the table."  It also referred to "sidewalk camping ban" being "resurrected." 

Whatever Councilor Kaser may think, there is reason for concern about the "assess codes' option.  As Paul Logan said at the meeting, the task force members basically agreed about the safety concerns.  Where they disagreed was the approach.  Contrary to all knowledge and experience about what works, the City and some downtown businesses remain stubbornly focused on law enforcement.  That's why the Task Force was careful to put constraints on the City's ability to exercise the "assess codes" option.  See "DHSTF Smothers Son of Sit-Lie."

The Task Force recommendations go to the Mayor, then through the Council Policy Agenda process.

1/18/19 Update: staff report on implementing the Downtown Homeless Initiative Task Force recommendations.