Council OKs DevNW Project over Mayor/Grant Objection

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Last night (11/23/20), City Council approved DevNW's application for the map/zone changes needed to allow them to transform the Evergreen Baptist Church property at Cottage and D streets into 19 apartment units.  The Planning Commission approved the application, but the Grant neighborhood association appealed the decision.  Grant opposed the project at every step in the process, relying in the main on a floodgates argument against the dreaded scourge of multi-family/low-income housing (aka, "luxury high rise" apartments). 

Grant rep Paul Tigan argues Council should disapprove the DevNW project

Shortly before 10 p.m., Councilor Hoy finally moved staff recommendation to affirm the Planning Commission decision with an amendment to the lower maximum height from 50 to 40 ft.  Seconded by Lewis.  Aye:  Hoy, and Councilors Lewis, Nordyke, Ausec, Andersen, Leung, and Nanke.   Nay:  Mayor Bennett, who not for the first time opted to benefit himself politically rather than fulfill his duty to follow the requirements of City code.  "This could have been resolved with more time and more consultation with the neighborhood", he baselessly claimed, after spending much of the nearly three-hour hearing interrupting with leading questions, shaking his head over answers, and repeatedly signaling his bias in favor of the Grant neighborhood association.  Bennett represents the City of Salem on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance Board of Directors.

Council had, back in June, sided with Grant resident and former Councilor Cara Kaser in opposing the project, forcing developer DevNW to redesign the project and resubmit the site plan.  See "'Progressive' Council Snuffs Affordable Hsg Project"  (20 June 2020).  For her part in that decision, Kaser was investigated by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.  In late October, she entered into a stipulated final order with OGEC in which she agreed she'd violated ORS 244.120(2).  See November 6, 2020 Meeting Materials at page 123.  The situation recently led at least one observer to conclude:  

It is the Neighborhood Association and the City, not the developer, who has left evidence for bad faith. Until someone turns up evidence that is more than merely conjecture and hypothetical, the developer here deserves the benefit of any doubt or uncertainty.”

"City Council, November 23rd - Affordable Homes and German Baptist Church Project."   (20 November 2020, Salem Breakfast on Bikes.)  See also Harrell, S. "Former Salem city councilor faced ethics complaint for failing to disclose potential conflict of interest ." (23 November 2020, Salem Reporter.)  Harrell, S. "More affordable housing is on the way after Salem City Council approves church property conversion." (24 November 2020, Salem Reporter.)    

While it's never too late to do the right thing, the Grant neighborhood association deserves no credit here, because they opposed the project throughout, as did Mayor Bennett, for the flimsiest of reasons.  While a majority of Council did finally approve the application, that doesn't begin to undo the damage.  Their bad faith refusal to fund the project back in June not only encouraged Grant to continue opposing the project, but also delayed development, raised costs, and generally made it look as though Salem doesn't really want or need all the quality low-income housing that's offered it.  No question that Council got this one mostly wrong.  

In other news, the Men's Mission reopened last week after closing due to a C19 outbreak.  Loew, T. "Salem's largest homeless shelter reopens after COVID-19 outbreak."  (19 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)(C19 winter capacity 110, down from 198)  Alexander, R.  "As temperatures drop, Salem's largest homeless shelter sees Covid outbreak"  (9 November 2020, Salem Reporter.)   Loew, T. "COVID-19 outbreak closes Union Gospel Mission shelter, store in downtown Salem."  (9 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)  UGM managed to isolate affected guests, no thanks to the Marion County Health Department, which seems to have been largely MIA on the pandemic front. Harrell, S. "Marion County has spent more than $1 million on a hotel for Covid respite. Most of its rooms have sat empty," (18 November 2020, Salem Reporter.)  There is a good chance Salem could gain additional shelter spaces through Project Turnkey.  See Radnovich, C. "Oregon lawmakers approve $35 million for homeless shelters amid pandemic, recession."  (10 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)  Awards are expected to be announced in late January/February 2021. 

11/25/20 update:  added cite to Salem Reporter coverage

12/18/20 update:  Monday last, Council was asked again to approve HOME funding for the DevNW project (as Amendment #2 to the 2020-2021 Annual Action Plan).  It did so 6 (Andersen, Ausec, Bennett, Hoy, Lewis, Nordyke) to 1 (Nanke -- no reason given), with zero remarks from the Mayor.  Recall that Bennett had chastised staff (and Council?) last month, for "looking at investing City money in this [project, which] makes me increasingly uncomfortable that we haven't looked at this closely enough.  I hope in the future we'll look very closely at these kinds of issues."  See "'I do not understand the Mayor'."  (1 December 2020) and "'Progressive' Council Snuffs Affordable Hsg Project"  (20 June 2020).  

8/10/24 update:  McDonald, A. "Building Salem:  Veterans housing opens in Grant Neighborhood" (9 August 2024, Salem Reporter.)

City to Prioritize "Hlessness Response"

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

This week, Council held a work session facilitated by consultants from Moss Adams to update the City's first ever citywide 2017 Strategic Plan.  The three-to-five year plan has not previously been updated.  The update involves choosing new goals and actions.  Below are the goals and actions the City's focused on for the last three years.

Short term (3-5 yrs) Goals from Salem's 2017 Strategic Plan

To update the 2017 plan, City leadership needs to select ("prioritize") three to five strategies relating to the City's six "Service Areas" or "Result Areas" (Safe Community, Welcoming and Livable Community, Strong and Diverse Economy, Safe, Reliable and Efficient Infrastructure, Natural Environment Stewardship, Good Governance).  Moss Adams presented Council a preliminary "short list" of five priorities based on a survey of Council members.   

11/16/20 Work Session on Salem's Strategic Plan

The survey given Council was based on Moss Adam's "long list" (below), which was compiled from surveys of City management, staff and the public (bottom of the post).

 

 

But what does it mean to "prioritize" a phrase that's not defined?  That was up to Council to decide.  Moss Adams told Council that prioritizing financial stability could mean putting extra time, energy and staff resources into identifying new ways to create financial stability for the City.  But first, was Council ok with the short list?

 

At first Council focused on what didn't make the cut.  Councilor Hoy said he saw DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) not as a separate strategy but more of an overarching goal/philosophy, whereas Councilors Ausec and Leung thought DEI should get more attention.  Councilor Andersen said he saw Infrastructure and Public Safety as being subsumed by Environment and Homelessness Response.  Mayor Bennett was concerned that Great Neighborhoods not be left out and was willing to drop Financial Stability.

 

Next, Moss Adams asked Council to discuss what the phrases meant to each of them, starting with Homelessness Response.  What would success there look like?  The City's management teams, for instance, saw it a couple of  different ways.  One view focused on "direct daily response actions" to mitigate negative impacts, the other focused on "preventing homelessness."  The question for Council was, "how would we know we had actually reached a point of success" on the City's homelessness response? 

 

Hoy led out, but ended by saying he didn't understand the question, and was prompted, "What are the specific outcomes you're looking for?", at which point Bennett jumped in saying, "that the public knows what we're already doing right now", and that he wanted "a list of those programs that are actually in the works."  Hoy took a different tack, saying the City needed to "double-down" on partnerships, regional efforts, stop working "in the silos of government", to which Bennett added, "we just can't do it alone."  

We just can't.  It's too big.  We can keep having 36 units here, 25 units there, and a parking lot here, and a parking lot there and a couple of warming centers and we've now taken care of 200 people.  We still [have] 1,300 people unhoused and probably 200 [more] moving into town.  So [success is] really finding some sort of public satisfaction that [the City] has committed adequate resources to addressing the problem.                

Councilor Ausec said, "What I think is important to say is, if as a City we're not capable of housing everyone, what are we going to do for the folks we can't house until we can get to that point."  Councilor Andersen basically agreed with Ausec, but said the City also needed to "respond to the public's concerns about what's going on in parks, what's going on downtown, and that sort of stuff", because "when people say they're concerned about homelessness, many are concerned about issues 1 (Homelessness Response) and 2 (Affordable Housing), but many are concerned about 3 (Economic Development)."  "Probably most", Bennett quipped, chuckling.

 

Hoy summed up the problem as deciding what to invest in managing homelessness (crisis response), and what to invest in ending homelessness (housing).  Councilor Nordyke said she thought "the people of Salem will feel we have made a difference when homelessness becomes less visible" and the best way to achieve that was a Housing First strategy.  Ausec said he wanted to see the top two priorities  reflected in the City's budget.  Councilor-elect Phillips said the top two priorities could be combined, and that he would define success as a mobile crisis response team, a low-barrier shelter, and a sobering center.  Then the discussion bogged down over how much money was needed, what type of housing, the need for collaboration, etc., etc.

 

Wrapping up, Moss Adams told Council that, next, they plan to develop a long list of potential objectives/actions for each of the priorities (like the 2017 goals and actions above), work with Council and management to select which ones to include in the plan (i.e., which to make the measure of success), submit a draft plan by the end of December, and begin developing the 2021 Council Policy Agenda based on the response to the draft plan.  

 

The next work session is scheduled for January 19, 2021, at which point Councilors-elect Gonzalez, Phillips and Stapleton will have been sworn in, and the public will find out just what prioritizing "Homeless Response" will (and won't) mean for the next three to five years.

11/17/20 Minutes

  

Members: none

Organizations: Steve Bates, Vietnam War Memorial Fund; Mike Abbate, Abbate Designs

City, County and State Representatives: Virginia Stapleton, Ward 1 Councilor-elect; Irma Dowd, Salem Neighborhood Services; Kimberly Fitzgerald, Salem Historic Preservation Officer; Chris Havel, Oregon State Parks Department

Guests: none

The regular meeting of CANDO was called to order at 6:00 p.m., on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.  The meeting was conducted by Zoom video-conference.  The Chair and Secretary-Treasurer were present.  

The agenda and minutes of the October meeting were approved unanimously. 

In interested citizen comments, Michael advised the board that the Salem Parks Improvement Fund approved his Letter of Intent to apply for a grant to install a Bike Fix-It Station at Minto-Brown Island Park.  The deadline to submit an application for funds is January 31, 2021.

Councilor-elect Stapelton offered comments on recent City activities and shared her areas of interest as she prepares for her first term on Council. Comments included concerns about the City’s alternate transportation (bikes) and homelessness-response planning.       

The board heard a presentation about the Willson Park Vietnam War Memorial Historic Design Review by Steve Bates with the Vietnam War Memorial Fund, Chris Havel with Oregon State Parks and Mike Abbate, Architect, who shared a video about the design.  Find still visualizations of the design here. 

There being no further business before the board, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 7:12   p.m.

Council OKs $1.2M for Hless Relief

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Monday night, the City Council approved a supplemental budget appropriation of $1.2M toward the City's unsheltered homeless emergency.  It appears from the staff report that these expenditures may be reimbursed from the City's CARES Act funds.  Here's the breakdown.

For cold-weather sheltering:  $30,000 to the Salem Warming Network, mostly to renovate the building at 2640 Portland Road NE. 

2640 Portland Road NE

To improve the situation at Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks:  $84,600 for additional chemical toilets/hand-washing stations, $23,000 to install a water line, $67,000 for maintenance equipment, $6,300 for additional garbage service, $3,000 for weather-proof duct tape, sleeping bags, tents, etc., $50,000 for gift cards ("Cash for Trash") program, $14,000 to tow inoperable vehicles from the parks to the City's vehicle camps, and $86,540 for the vehicle camping program.  See details in the staff report here.  

The remainder of the $1.2M allocation (>half) is for unspecified "opportunities" ($120,00) and "sheltering options" ($733,780).  As the City uses the term here, "shelter" can include tent- and vehicle-camping.  HUD, however, does not consider tent- and vehicle-camping to be shelter because, among other things, they don't come with heat or running water, which means they're not "fit for human habitation."      

It's quite possible that not all these funds will be spent.  So far, the City's not been able to identify any suitable "land and/or buildings", or a campsite/shelter operator.  Not surprising, given it tried and failed just last year, before the pandemic hit.  See Brynelson, T. "Salem leaders decide to shelter homeless instead of setting up public camping."  (December 10, 2019, Salem Reporter.)  Below is the query the City sent area providers last month, in hope of finding a campsite/shelter operator:

Also on Monday night, Council "consolidated" and extended its unsheltered (but not its COVID) emergency declaration for a year to October 26, 2021, expanded the City Manager's emergency powers, approved the purchase and lease-back of the land under The ARCHES Project, and passed Councilor Nordyke's motion 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."  The City Manager had previously committed to "work with the United Way on the United Way’s invitation to area organizations to explore what funding partnerships would be available" to support a mobile crisis unit.  See City Manager 11/4/20 update and "City to Buy Land Under ARCHES"  (5 November 2020).  Councilors Ausec, Nanke and Kaser were absent, Kaser having resigned November 2. 

There was some confusion on which emergency declarations the Council was consolidating/extending, leading the Statesman Journal to report (incorrectly) that Council had extended its suspension of the camping ban in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  See Woodworth, W.  "Salem Council approves 'urgent and critical' relief for homeless."  (9 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)  ("The council Monday voted to extend the emergency declaration until October 2021.  The emergency declaration lifted a ban on camping in Cascades Gateway Park and Wallace Marine Park. Hundreds have flocked to the parks in the ensuing months, and concerns over safety, crime impact and the lack of amenities have grown.")

However, it was Resolution 2020-18, passed during an emergency session on March 17, 2020, that declared a C19 emergency, banned loitering and gatherings in public spaces, and opened the two parks to camping in unimproved areas through April 28. See "Sit-Lie Meets COVID-19."  The C19  emergency declaration was initially set to expire at the end of April.  It was extended to June 30, and later to the end of August.  See "City Extends de facto Sit-Lie Ban to September"  (23 June 2020). On August 11, Council extended it to 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 C19 declaration is still set to expire January 12, 2021, a couple of weeks before the annual Point-In-Time Homeless Count.  

11/11/20 update:  Harrell, S. "City provides additional $1.2 million to find new shelter locations, add water to homeless camps." (11 November 2020, Salem Reporter.)  

City To Buy Land Under ARCHES

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

615 Commercial Street NE

Monday night, the City Council acting as the Urban Renewal Agency is, at long last**, expected to authorize the purchase of the property (land only, not the building) at 615 Commercial Street NE, and a 30-year lease-back to the seller, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.  See staff report here.  The building's lower level is occupied by MWVCAA's ARCHES Project.  The City Manager's 10/28/20 Update incorrectly states that the City has purchased the building already, but the City will not be purchasing the building, only the real estate under it, and the City has not yet authorized that purchase, but likely will on Monday night.    

City Manager's 10/28/20 Update

The agreed purchase price is $2,225,000.  **See "The Golden ARCHES Project", Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, "State to Sink More Hless Assist $$ in MWVCAA Bldg", "MWVCAA Bldg Sucks Up More Gov't $$",  "Urban Renewal to the Rescue" (28 November 2018), "MWVCAA Pays Mortgage Debt with Hless Assist $$" (21 February 2019) and "State Seeks Accountability from Hless Svces Providers" (24 February 2019).

As discussed in an earlier post, the purchase is part of the City's effort to establish a much-needed  navigation center/low-barrier shelter and will allow the The ARCHES Project day shelter to expand from 27 to 41 hours/week and be open on Saturdays.  Current hours are M-W, F: 9–3 and Th: 9–noon.  Expanded hours will be M-W, F-Sat: 9–4, Th: 9–3.  It won't be the 24/7 nav center/low barrier shelter that some had hoped for, pre-pandemic, but it's a step in the right direction.  See "News from the Continuum" (17 October 2020). 

Ward 1 Councilor Kaser will not be voting on the purchase, having resigned earlier this week. Woodworth, W.  "Salem City Council member Cara Kaser resigns. What we know."  (2 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)  (stating that Kaser served on the Police Facility Committee, the Water/Wastewater Task Force, and "focused on the city's response to homelessness" during her four years on Council).  On October 23, 2020, Kaser entered into a stipulated final order with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission in which she agreed she'd violated ORS 244.120(2) by failing to disclose that she lived across the street from a proposed low-income housing development that was before Council on an application for the City's HOME funds.  She also failed to disclose that she was married to the neighborhood association officer who testified against the development.  See November 6, 2020 Meeting Materials at page 123, and "'Progressive' Council Snuffs Affordable Hsg Project"  (20 June 2020).  Kaser's term would have expired in two months.  She told the Statesman Journal she resigned because she and her husband had moved to Silverton.  Council is expected to accept Kaser's resignation Monday night, and appoint Councilor-elect Virginia Stapleton to serve as guest councilor (can't vote) in her absence.  

Also Monday night, Council will be asked to "consolidate" extend its unsheltered emergency declarations and extend them for a year to October 26, 2021 [correcting a misreading of the staff report that the resolution would also consolidate the COVID emergency declarations].  Staff report here.  The resolution consolidating the emergency declarations 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. 

1787 State Street

On the CRU mobile crisis unit front, Councilor Nordyke will ask Council Monday night 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).  See 11/7/20 update below.

City Council will also be asked to allocate $1.2M from the General Fund "to allow for the additional expenses related to the unsheltered in Salem."  It looks like these funds can be reimbursed from CARES Act funding.  See details in the staff report here.

11/7/20 update:  City Manager 11/4 update states, "Following City Council’s October 26 discussion of a mobile crisis intervention program, staff will work with the United Way on the United Way’s invitation to area organizations to explore what funding partnerships would be available in Salem."  

11/9/20 update:  correction that only the City's unsheltered emergency declarations were extended, not the COVID emergency declaration, which is set to expire January 12, 2021. 

11/13/20 updated paragraph on former Councilor Kaser to reflect the stipulated agreement with the OGEC.