Council & Park Camping Tensions

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

SEMCA Chair Cory Poole was back at City Council this week to give another three-minute photo presentation and answer questions on camping in Cascades Gateway Park.  See "News from the Continuum" (2 August 2020); "Has Council 'moved the needle' on Homelessness?" (2 May 2020.)  Claiming the situation in the park is "inadequate for the homeless, dangerous for the surrounding neighbors, and detrimental to the parks", he called on Council to "Save Our Parks" and find "solutions that can be put in place quickly and inexpensively" while displaying photos of sanctioned campsites in Portland and Eugene.  His concerns for the parks included trash accumulation, tree-cutting and fire- and waste-hazards.

For the record, sanctioned camping programs are both complex and costly to run.  To learn more about Olympia, Washington's experience with sanctioned camping, listen to Outsiders, a podcast by KNKX Public Radio and Seattle Times Project Homeless.  To learn about the history of sanctioned camping efforts in Salem, see "Sanctioned Camping" (15 November 2015) (updated to present).

 

Councilor Andersen thanked Poole for "educating" the Council on the situation, which he called "frightening and disparaging" as well as "deplorable."  He asked if City Manager Powers could give Council "a little report."  Powers agreed the situation was "not ideal" and the damage to parks was "unfortunate", but said, basically, that options were limited because of the pandemic + need to maintain social distancing + limited shelter space/sites + growth of homeless population after canyon fires + Council's preference for the parks over downtown sidewalks.  He reiterated that the City has limited ability to enforce park rules (e.g. no cutting trees, no fires, no littering, etc.).  The gist was that, at present, the City has no reasonable alternative to allowing camping in the unimproved areas of Cascades Gateway and Wallace Marine parks.  

Powers asked Gretchen Bennett to report on mitigation efforts, but Mayor Bennett first called on Councilor Hoy.  Hoy thanked Poole for continuing to hold Council to account for their decision to allow camping in the parks, but "the problem continues to exceed our ability to solve it."  He "challenge[d]" Council to reconsider organized camping elsewhere in the City, which Council previously has rejected.  See Brynelston, T. "Salem leaders decide to shelter homeless instead of setting up public camping." December 9, 2019, Salem Reporter.)  As he usually does, the Mayor immediately pointed out that, not only is there NIMBY resistance to overcome in siting camps and shelters, a couple of organized camps would have minimal effect on the problem, given Salem is home to +1,500 unsheltered individuals.  He urged Council to "stay the course" and then called on Councilor Nordyke, who "wholeheartedly agree[d] with having additional options."  She called on property owners to reconsider their unwillingness to lease premises for use as a shelter, and claimed there were "a variety of community partners who are ready and willing to help with managed camps."  She did not, however, claim there was anyone ready and willing to operate a managed camp.  [But see 10/31/20 update below.]   

Gretchen Bennett gave a vague account of mitigation efforts, e.g., the ticketing of broken down vehicles at the parks, the challenges to getting them moved, the search for more vehicle and tent campsites, and the effort to identify and clean up abandoned campsites.  She and Powers both indicated that the matter is slated to return to Council on November 9th with policy choices and a request for funding.    

Council did not discuss, either Monday night, or during its work session on "non-criminal" policing, the implications of the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Oregon's decision in Blake v. City of Grants Pass.  See Harbarger, M. "Cities cannot fine homeless people for living outside, U.S. judge rules in Grants Pass case." (11 August 2020, Oregonian/ OregonLive.)  As we noted back in July when it came out, the decision is one more reason to believe conditions will not allow the City to enforce the camping ban at Wallace Marine or Cascades Gateway before March 2021 at the earliest, unless the City can provide some other place for people to live.  See "News from the Continuum." (26 July 2020.)  The ban currently is suspended through January 12, 2021.  See Woodworth, W. "Salem City Council votes to extend COVID-19 emergency declaration on gatherings, homeless."  (11 August 2020, Statesman Journal.)  The 2021 Point-in-Time Homeless Count is scheduled for January 26, 2021.  The decision is, however, bound to be on the minds of City staff.

Council's hope that the state will come to the rescue may be waning after last week's decision by the Emergency Board not to fund homeless shelters.  See VanderHart, D.  "Proposal to spend Oregon tax dollars on hotels spurs controversy"  (23 October 2020, OPB.) ($30 million is expected to fund around 500 units of shelter in wildfire-impacted areas including Clackamas, Jackson, Lane, Lincoln, and Marion counties.)  Borrud, H. "Oregon lawmakers consider spending $65 million to convert motels, hotels into shelters"  (23 October 2020, Oregonian/OregonLive.)   Borrud, H.  "Oregon lawmakers approve $30 million to purchase motels and hotels as shelters in wildfire areas, zero for the rest of the state"  (24 October 2020, Oregonian/OregonLive.)  Radnovich, C. "Lawmakers send $100M to wildfire relief, vote against homeless shelters."  (24 October 2020, Statesman Journal.)  While the Salem area is likely to benefit from the wildfire relief funding, it will provide no more than 50-100 units of non-congregate shelter for the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable.  What about everyone else?  

Perhaps in November, Council will be asked to reconsider Councilor Andersen's proposal to allow camping in some parts of the City and not others, as a reasonable "time, place and manner" limitation along the lines suggested by the court in Martin v. Boise.  See "Council Votes to Keep Camping Ban Intact, Bring Back Sit-Lie"  (10 February 2020) (rejecting Councilor Andersen's motion to lift the camping ban outside downtown, residential areas and parks).  Oakland passed such an ordinance last week.  See Orenstien, N.  "When can the city close a homeless camp? Oakland considers new rules."  (23 September 2020, The Oaklandside.) (Since 2017, Oakland's homeless population has jumped 63% to around 4,000.  Oakland has at least 140 tent/RV camps.  Oakland City Council unanimously approved the measure on 10/20/20.  It will take effect on 1/1/21.)  Associated Press.  "Oakland approves contentious rules on homeless encampments."  (21 October 2020, Fox40.)  We feel sure the Mayor and City staff would not support such a course change at this juncture, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in future if the situation in the parks does in fact become the "absolute disaster" that Mayor Bennett described it as Monday night.  This blog will be updated when more is known about the agenda for the November 9 Council meeting. 

10/29/20 update:  earlier this month, Poole gave the same presentation to SCAN, who last week passed a resolution claiming there had been "severe damage" to the parks to the point of destruction, and calling on the City Council to "begin a humane transition of unsheltered persons" out of the parks to some other, unidentified location.  The resolution helpfully advises:

To make this transition, the city should quickly identify the best practices for meeting the basic needs of unsheltered persons and implement those immediately—then monitor and improve upon those practices.  

The email from SCAN President Lorrie Walker, transmitting the resolution to the City, characterized the resolution as supporting "making some changes to camping in two of the city parks."  Perhaps Council should ask SCAN if they're now willing to allow the use of Pringle Hall as a temporary shelter?  See  "City Pleads with Pringle Hall Neighbors" (17 January 2020) (SCAN NIMBYs low-barrier shelter).  

10/31/20 update:  DJ Vincent with Church at the Park, which oversees the City's "Safe Parking Network" of vehicle camps and provides basic needs from its Turner Road location, told the Statesman Journal they "have a proposal in" to open a managed, 1-acre, 50-person tent campsite at an undetermined location.  Woodworth, W.  "Salem considers more options for 1,500 homeless as winter looms, COVID cases spike."  (31 October 2020, Statesman Journal.) 

11/5/20 update: Nordyke has a motion on Monday night's agenda to "direct staff to present Council with a proposal to implement a mobile response unit for the city including funding options. The proposal shall describe how a mobile response unit will fit in with other services and identify potential community partners to share costs."  To understand why this motion is cart-before-horse, see "Council Conducts 'Disjointed' Session on 'Non-Criminal' Policing" (22 October 2020).  Also Monday night, Council will be asked to consolidate its unsheltered emergency declarations and extend it for a year to October 26, 2021.  Staff report here.  Resolution 2020-49 would also "allow the City Manager to suspend land use regulations, including land use permit requirements, for warming centers and emergency shelters on land not zoned single-family residential, and continue the vehicle camping pilot program."  If passed, the City Manager plans to suspend land use regulations to allow the property at 1787 State Street to be used as a shelter for women and children.