by Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston
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| City Manager Steve Powers |
"City Helps Campers Under Marion Street Bridge in Coordinated Response with Local Service Providers."
-- City of Salem 8 Jan 2019 News Release
After a turbulent week "helping campers" under the Marion Street Bridge (see "Meals Under Bridge on Shutdown"), the City Manager has ordered Public Works not to issue any more permits to use the area under the bridge, and is evaluating the permit process set up last January to "manag[e] meal distributions." Monday night he told the City Council:
The goal of the evaluation is to determine if there are better ways of managing the meal distributions with the site under the bridge no longer being available to help prevent unreasonable interference with public health, welfare, safety and recreation.
He said he expected that "the result [of the evaluation] will be an approach that will last, as far as...food distribution in the City parks."
What's confusing about the Manager's remarks is that the area under the bridge is, of course, not a "park area." It's always been posted, "No Trespassing." Public Works made it into a City facility of sorts by putting tables, benches, barriers and garbage cans there, and then allowing people to reserve it at no charge through the City's website. That "facility" was, as we all know, hauled away on Wednesday, and barricades preventing vehicular access erected. The City has said it intends to enforce the "No Trespassing" directive under the bridges.
The City Manager seems to be assuming that those serving the meals want to use Marion Square Park or some other City park to distribute food. They're currently using the parking lot at 615 Commercial Street NE, with permission. Neither Marion Square Park nor the parking lot afford shelter from the winter rains.
The City Manager is probably applying SRC Chapter 94.200 Park Policy, section (d) in his evaluation of the permit process. That section provides:
The Director shall have the authority to regulate the activities in park areas when necessary to prevent congestion and to procure the maximum use and safety for the convenience of all. Visitors shall comply with any directions given to achieve this end. Failure to so comply with such regulations shall be considered a violation of this section
However, the big question that the folks who used to serve meals under the bridge have is not what do they need to do to be allowed to serve meals in the park, but what do they need to do to be allowed back under the bridge? What they want to know, and what the City won't tell them, is whether the area is off limits "forever", as appears to be the City Manager's intent, or might they come to some agreement?
CANDO is hosting a community conversation about the situation on Wednesday evening, January 23. For details see here.
Also on Monday night, the City Council advanced to second reading Ordinance Bill 23-18, dissolving the Community Services and Housing Commission (CSHC). See Brynelson, T. "Salem moves to dismantle, replace commission overseeing federal dollars." (11 December 2018, Salem Reporter.) City Council also amended the Mid Willamette Homeless Initiative (MWHI) Intergovernmental Agreement to extend it to June 30, 2020. No indication that a new regional Homeless Initiative Program Coordinator has been hired. See "Homeless Program Coordinator Calls it Quits."
Also on Wednesday evening, January 23, a work session on the Council Policy Agenda. The staff report on options to implement the Downtown Homeless Initiative Task Force (DHSTF) recommendations is an excellent example of what happens when hopeful vision meets bureaucratic reductionism. Of particular note is the way staff reduced the Good Neighbor Partnership vision to a card or flyer to hand out to downtown businesses, saying it's really up to Marion County or the regional Homeless Initiative Coordinator to convene such a group. The problem with that is, the vision is one for downtown Salem.
Fortunately, Northwest Human Services and the Mid Willamette Community Action Agency (MWVCAA)'s The ARCHES Project are cooperating to develop a program of coordinated outreach that could fill the Good Neighbor Partnership gap. See here.
The staff report confirms that the sobering center is in trouble (see "Sobering Center Gap Widens"), as well as the idea to use the Hillcrest Correctional Facility for a low-barrier shelter/housing (not a DHSTF recommendation, see here). The staff report on Hillcrest indicates that the City would have to acquire the entire 44.6 acre site (not likely, but not impossible). Of the 17 buildings on the site,
The Administrative Building appears to be the most feasible option for converting to transitional single room occupant housing with shared communal living, kitchen and restroom facilities. It would require restroom and kitchen improvements and may require other, currently unknown improvements to convert the building to residential use.
The State of Oregon is asking $5.6M for the property. A bargain, considering MWVCAA paid $2.1M for a 60+ year-old revamped warehouse on Commercial Street, but a huge undertaking to develop.
Per the staff report, Council, with respect to any "issue" in the Council Policy Agenda, may decide to 1) have another work session in 2019, 2) take it up in the budget process, 3) move it to the list for 2020 or 2021, or 4) proceed if Urban Renewal can pay for it. So, based on the staff report, and barring some unforeseen contingency, it's now a dead cert that the City will be purchasing some or all of MWVCAA's $2.1M property with urban renewal funds, in exchange for the promise of 24/7 staffed access to laundry, showers and toilet facilities, whether or not the sobering center project materializes. (See "Urban Renewal to the Rescue.")
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