City to Extend Park Camping to June 2021

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston 

 

City Manager Steve Powers plans to ask Council at the meeting on December 14 to approve extending the City's C19 Emergency Declaration six months to June 1, 2021.  The original Resolution 2020-18 adopted last March prohibited public gatherings on public property and suspended the camping ban in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  See "Sit-Lie Meets COVID-19."  The extension was inevitable, given the surging number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Marion and Polk counties, and the dearth of shelter spaces.  Powers recently gave this report on park conditions:

 

We continue to work on removing garbage from Wallace Marine Park. A total of 120 cubic yards over two days, equivalent to 10 City dump trucks, of garbage has been removed.City staff and Service Master have carefully and respectfully removed garbage and waste that would be a health and water quality issue.  In Cascades Gateway Park we made a big dent! We cleared all the major garbage from the forested areas west of Mill Creek –about 36 cubic yards worth of garbage (three heavy dump truck loads). We did not encounter the massive volume of garbage, debris, and bicycle parts as we have been at Wallace Marine Park. While it was more spread out, some of the campers have been storing the garbage in bags in dump piles, which helped us considerably. Still was a long day’s work. We need to assess the east side of Mill Creek and there is still garbage to be removed from the open area camping now occurring west of the dog park.

 

November 2019 Photo Courtesy Statesman Journal

Heavy rains mid-November 2020 drove campers in low-lying areas out of the parks and into downtown, again.  Tents are most conspicuous outside what's commonly known as the ARCHES building on Commercial Street NE, Marion Square Park, and the Commercial Street side of Rite-Aid.  The City Manager has noticed, and says, "[p]olice and outreach workers will encourage people to relocate", despite the shortage of humane options.  Powers says he believes "This is a dynamic situation that is untenable situation for all." [Sic.  An editing error (?) that makes one wonder which thought came first: "dynamic" or "untenable"?]  The June 1 date for letting the C19 emergency declaration expire coincides with the expected opening of Union Gospel Mission's new men's shelter.

 

12/7/20 update:  City reportedly plans to clear the camps in Marion Square Park and around the ARCHES building on Tuesday 12/8/20. 

12/14/20 update: Council voted 5 (Andersen, Ausec, Bennett, Hoy, Nordyke) to 2 (Nanke, Lewis) to extend the C19 emergency declaration.  See staff report and Whitworth, W.  "Homeless can continue camping in 2 Salem city parks, council decides."  (14 December 2020, Statesman Journal.) The new resolution, Resolution 2020-506, no longer prohibits public gatherings (defined as 2 or more) on public property, but it does require masks and social distancing, and provides that "publicly owned sidewalks, including landscape strips, are limited to active pedestrian use", enforceable by trespass under SRC 95.550.  So, effectively, a ban on sitting, lying and sleeping on sidewalks. 

5/17/21 update: the same language was included in Resolution 2021-21, passed 24 May 2021.  In a 17 May work session, the primary purpose of which was to hear a presentation by the staff of the MWV Homeless Reliance.  On pointed questioning by Mayor Bennett, City Attorney Dan Atchison denied it amounted to a ban on sitting, lying and sleeping on sidewalks.