News from the Continuum

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

Oregon Capitol 2021, closed due to C19 (photo courtesy Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce)

With the Capitol boarded up (first floor windows) and closed to the public, the 2021 Legislative Session feels very different this year.  But, the limited access hasn't stopped the City's Legislative Committee (Mayor Bennett and Councilors Andersen, Hoy and Lewis), who have been lobbying hard for the City's priorities since before the session began on Thursday, January 21 (House, with the Senate following on Friday). 

In December, the City had seven priorities, according to the minutes of the December meeting.

Priorities.  The Committee revisited priorities for the upcoming session: Yaquina Hall funding gap, operations of a navigation center, COVID-19 recovery resources, behavioral health resources, and canyon wildfire clean up, with the inclusion of a sobering center and CAHOOTS-style model for Salem.  The Committee expressed a preference for seeking capital funding for the CAHOOTS model, rather than operating.

Through the sausage process, the City's priorities narrowed to four: funding for navigation ($5M) and sobering ($1M) centers, Yaquina Hall ($3.1M), and "Community mental health impacts."  See Thomas, J. "City of Salem is again asking the Legislature to help fund housing and homeless projects."  (20 January 2021, Salem Reporter.)  

This winnowing was no doubt disappointing to Councilor Nordyke, who has been very vocal in her belief that CAHOOTS is a must-have for Salem, perhaps prompting this advice in the City Manager's 1/15/21 Update:

However, at Friday night's meeting, after noting Nordyke's disappointment that the City was not prioritizing CAHOOTS, the Committee approved a one-pager for legislators that included  CAHOOTS, and described the need as "$800K to cover 12 months of operations" that "assumes partnership with local organizations."  (The Salem version is "CRU", short for "Community Response Unit", and is a fledgling project of the United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley that Kim Hanson initiated when she was serving on the Downtown Salem Good Neighbor Partnership.  See "Council Conducts 'Disjointed' Session on 'Non-Criminal' Policing."  22 October 2020.)  

January 22, 2021, Legislative Committee

As Mayor Bennett described the CAHOOTS ask, the City wants the state to fund the City's contribution to the United Way project, which is not something the state typically does.  Thus, it would seem that the City does not seriously expect to receive CRU/CAHOOTS funding, and wouldn't know what do do with it if it did.  See "News from the Continuum"  (23 December 2020.) 

Also this week, the City announced plans to stand up a ~10-week, ~100-space, indoor camping program at the State Fairgrounds beginning early February at a cost of $602K (that's $602 per camper per week at capacity) ($250K from MWVCAA's share of "Out of the Cold" state program funds --see "State Policy Pits BLM vs. Homeless"  (4 January 2021) -- and $352K from the City of Salem -- see "Council OKs $1.2M for Homeless Relief" (10 November 2020). 

The City's announcement (press release, Community Connection, etc.) gives the impression that the program is part of its plan to "carefully conclude overnight camping" in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks, but it really isn't. 

For one thing, the program is open to all.  If there are 600 people camping in those two parks, there are at least that many camping elsewhere in the city.  While this temporary program might be of great significance to the relative few who enroll in it, it's unlikely to have much impact on the situation in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  Providers will be doing very well indeed if they manage to house as many as a third of those enrolled.  For more about Fairgrounds camping plans see Whitworth, W.  "Temporary homeless shelter planned for 100 at Oregon State Fairgrounds Pavilion."  (21 January 2021, Statesman Journal.)   Harrell, S. "With space for 100, temporary homeless camp to open at state fairgrounds."  (22 January 2021, Salem Reporter.) 

Note that the City's communiques erroneously cite the City's Emergency Housing Declaration as responsible for lifting the park camping restrictions.  In fact, it was the City's C19 Emergency Declaration that did that.  (City of Salem Resolution 2020-18 prohibited public gatherings on public property and suspended the camping ban in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.)

The distinction is one that Salem City Manager has been at pains to maintain, doubtless due to the need to maximize the chances that the camping programs, if they can be called programs, can be paid for with CARES Act or other federal funds.  But, if social media posts are anything to go by, there has been an unfortunate tendency to conflate Salem's C19 policy decisions with its homeless policy decisions.  In other words, too many Salem residents believe that City homeless policy has somehow changed from what it was in 2019.  They don't realize the City's 2020 decisions to incur costs in support of camping were prompted in large part by pandemic realities, and very likely would not have been taken without the potential for federal reimbursement.  Once pandemic conditions come to an end, it's highly likely that the City's willingness/ability to fund homeless camping programs will also come to an end.  

In preparation for that day, the City is currently participating in a League of Oregon Cities work group that is "seeking enforcement options for public spaces" in the wake of Boise v. Martin.  Because, even if  the legislature gives Salem another few dozen supportive housing units and another few hundred low-barrier shelter beds, people are still going to be trying to find a place to pitch a tent.  The alternatives are not nearly as humane as people like to think, and there are just too many people living in the streets.  The Mayor likes to insist that Salem is not going to become Portland, but it's just a question of strategy and scale, especially as one considers that "seeking enforcement options for public spaces" is exactly where the City left off 2019.  See "Camping Ban for Christmas" (21 December 2019) and Kavanaugh, S.  "Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s urgent mandate to move homeless campers into ‘humane’ shelters isn’t working."  (23 January 2021, Oregonian/OregonLive.)      

1/19/21 Minutes

 

Members: Paul Gehlar 

Organizations: AJ Klausen, Timothy Sinatra, Doug Circosta, and Chuck Adams with the YMCA; Rob Justus Home First Development

City, County and State Representatives: Julie Warnke, City of Salem;  Matthew Gill, Downtown Enforcement Team

Guests: none

The regular meeting of CANDO was called to order at 6:00 p.m., on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. The meeting was conducted by Zoom video-conference.  The Chair and Secretary-Treasurer were present.  

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

Sgt. Matthew Gill has replaced Sgt. Kevin Hill as head of the Downtown Enforcement Team, which is now staffed back up to six members, having been stripped down to three early in the pandemic. 

 

The board heard a presentation on the YMCA’s 34-unit low-income veteran housing project at 220 Cottage Street SE, to be developed by Home First Development.  The intent is to provide residents with “wrap-around” support services and YMCA membership.  The project is expected to be complete in the first quarter 2022.

Michael’s motion to authorize Chair Kern or designee to submit a letter supporting the City of Salem's application to the Oregon Community Paths Program for a grant to fund construction of a path running from City Hall, under Commercial Street and the railroad, to Riverfront Park at or near the Eco Earth (aka acid ball) passed unanimously.    

There being no further business before the board, the Chair adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p.m.

Council's 2021 Homeless Policy Agenda

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston     

 

Proposed 2021 Actions in the priority area called "Reducing Homelessness"

Updated 20 January 2021

Last night, City Council conducted a work session on the draft Strategic Plan Update.  This was a follow up to the November work session on the same subject.  See "City to Prioritize Hlessness Response" (20 November 2020).  Like the November work session, it was facilitated by a consultant from Moss Adams.

The City's annual strategic planning process calls for Council to set a "policy agenda" every year.  The idea is that the policy agenda should be consistent with the City's 5-year strategic plan, and let the community and, more importantly, staff know what to prioritize in the coming year.  It's part of the City's annual cycle of "developing the budget, policy and program evaluation, financial forecasting, and reporting on progress."  

This post focuses on the first and foremost of five priority areas for 2021, namely reducing homelessness (the other four are community resilience, improving resident access to city services, building great neighborhoods, and taking action on climate change).   

As in years past, the proposed 2021 policy agenda had the City continue doing what it's been doing with respect to the reducing homelessness priority.    

Gretchen Bennett in the City Manager's Office has been coordinating "collaboration between City, non-profits, and other entities..." since shortly after the pandemic hit Oregon.  And, the City's been pursuing some form of regional cooperation viz homelessness since Mayor Peterson formed the Mid Willamette Homeless Initiative five years ago.  See "MWHITF:  Goals and Expectations", (20 February 2016).

The City's been "pursu[ing] a housing-first support model" through the Salem Housing Authority's Homeless Rental Assistance Program (HRAP) since 2017.  See "Mayor Announces Ambitious Plan for Chronic Homeless"  (15 February 2017).

The City's been "explor[ing] options to implement a CAHOOTS-style first-responder model" since Councilor Nordyke first fell in love with the idea a year ago.  See  "Council Conducts 'Disjointed' Session on 'Non-Criminal' Policing"  (27 October 2020);  "News from the Continuum"  (17 October 2020);  "Work Session Dissipates Sit-Lie Support"  (24 November 2019).  

Since its inception, the City's been "play[ing] a lead role in developing an action plan for the regional Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance", not that it's made the slightest difference in reducing homelessness. 

To the extent that there have been any "regional efforts to address gaps in shelter beds" in the past couple of years, the City's been participating.  (Presumably this refers primarily to continuing to lobby  the state to pay for a low barrier shelter/nav center.)  See Thomas, J.  "City of Salem is again asking the Legislature to help fund housing and homeless projects."  (20 January 2021, Salem Reporter.)

"Updat[ing] the housing needs analysis to identify local needs and gaps" is a comprehensive planning requirement, and Salem Housing Authority has, for many years now, been "explor[ing] opportunities to create additional permanent supportive housing" -- and creating it. 

So "Pursue", "explore" (twice), "play a role in developing" a plan, "participate in efforts", and "update" a plan.  There is nothing new or at all ambitious here.  There are no defined outcomes.  Only HRAP can actually reduce homelessness over the coming year.   

January 19, 2021 Work Session on 2021 Policy Agenda

At the work session, Councilor Nordyke led out by saying she wanted to see an affordable housing action item.  Councilor Hoy noted that the City doesn't build affordable housing, but could "incentivize" it, and Nordyke agreed.  Councilor Phillips asked for reassurance that the City was still prioritizing the pursuit of navigation and sobering centers.  Mayor Bennett told him he thought they were implied in the CAHOOTS-related action, "because we gotta have someplace to respond from and to", he said.  The consultant said that they were also implied in the "coordinating collaboration"-related action, and that incentivizing affordable housing was slated for next year, after the City updates its housing needs analysis.  Nordyke said that made sense.  

To the Mayor's point about a mobile unit needing "someplace to respond from and to", Nordyke said that Tim Black from CAHOOTS had told Council most of their calls didn't require transport.  There was another back and forth between Bennett and Nordyke, following which Councilor Gonzalez noted how often he gets the same constituent questions, and said the City needed some kind of information hub, otherwise, "we're going to hit a lot of resistance" as the City tries to "move forward" with its plans, he said.  Phillips said it was his understanding that the navigation center could fill that role.  (Very unlikely.)  

Phillips also said the biggest benefit to the City would be a navigation center and a mobile unit together, "and in a perfect world, we would also get a sobering center."  (Phillips is an ER physician who objects to ER beds being taken up by non-acute homeless patients.)  After Councilor Andersen joined the meeting late, the consultant asked Council if it was satisfied with the language describing the role of regional collaboration.  Bennett, who has a seat on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance board but no longer attends meetings, called on Hoy to respond, and Hoy indicated satisfaction with the language.  The consultant then moved to the next priority area.                      

The final Strategic Plan Update and 2021 Policy Agenda will go to City Council for adoption in February.  Compare this year with last:  "Council Sets Ambitious 2020 Policy Agenda"  (19 February 2020).

The Struggle to Count Bodies & Beds

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Every January, hope springs anew in communities across the country that they may be successful in the struggle to give an accurate accounting of all their homeless beds and bodies.  

Donations are solicited and warehoused, volunteers recruited and trained, and, to a greater or lesser extent, the count has been publicized in print and social media.  "The day of the count" will, usually, get heavy media coverage, even though the counting will continue for up to two weeks. 

The results, however, have tended to get very little, if any, attention.  Certainly not in Marion and Polk counties, which have historically been very slow to publish results compared to other geographic areas, or doesn't publish them at all, which happened in 2020.  

The state agency, the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department, publishes only odd-year counts, by county, but buries them deep in the OHCS website under a tab for providers, in inconsistent formats that make detailed comparisons difficult.  

Polk (L) and Marion (R) counties 2015-2017 PITC Summaries

 

Polk (L) and Marion (R) counties 2019 PITC Totals

So, what happened to the report on Marion and Polk's 2020 count -- the very first count for the newly-formed Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance?  See "The Pointless Point-in-Time Count."  24 December 2019.  

After asking Alliance staff repeatedly for several months when the 2020 PITC report would be published, and finally being told (incorrectly) "it's on the website", we decided to compile our own report, using raw data and the format that MWVCAA has used in prior years.  Turns out, the 2020 count showed a deep (>50%) drop in sheltered homelessness from previous years, and a significant (~10%) drop in overall homelessness from 2019.     

 

Realizing those figures couldn't be right, we asked MWVCAA Executive Director Jimmy Jones by email "what happened" with the 2020 count.  Here's what he told us.

The 2019 PIT Count showed 121 homeless persons in Polk and 974 in Marion, for a total in both counties of 1,095. The transition from a ROCC to a local process produced some confusion as there were a lot of people who were new to their roles.  The 2020 count showed 998 [homeless] persons [total], which is about a 10 percent reduction from the prior year.  Nothing fundamentally changed in the homeless population in Marion and Polk between 2019 and 2020.  The 10 percent decline was a product of new people in new roles, the transition to a new COC, and the use of a new technology platform also played a role. The shelter count was especially inadequate. And then, we have to come to terms with the fact that [the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)] in Oregon is completely unreliable. I have no confidence in the ultimate numbers that are produced by the state.  In recent years they’ve had to make adjustments to make the numbers they have in their system, and the numbers reported to HUD, match.   Until we have a competent statewide system the numbers are unreliable.

So why then are we doing a full count in 2021?  [HUD offered to grant CoCs waivers that would relieve them of the requirement of conducting a 2021 unsheltered count, but the Alliance chose not to seek a waiver.]

Because the community has to make a better effort at getting this right and we can’t wait til 2022 to figure out how to do it the right way.  [An unsheltered count is required only in odd-numbered years.]   Unsheltered homelessness will continue to get worse the next decade, and state and federal funding formulas will bend increasingly heavily toward point-in-time counts, especially if there are additional future increases in the Emergency Solutions Grant, which during COVID have been [awarded in proportion to community need based on communities'] unsheltered counts.  There are a lot of reasons not to do a count this year, and I would have opposed it but for the simple fact that the window HUD gives us is a full two weeks under these [pandemic] conditions.  That dramatically increases the odds of getting something closer to a[n] accurate count.   We also have next to no information on how much our homeless population has increased because of the wildfires. I think it’s greater than people believe and we need to be able to prove that now.

We asked Jones to say more about his assessment of Oregon's HMIS as completely unreliable.  (HMIS is a shared database that is used to track individuals entering and exiting the homeless services system, and is supposed to let communities know how well or poorly their homeless services system is functioning.)  Basically, his view is that the reports generated in HMIS should be viewed with skepticism.  Ask about the report's design (what data was included and what data was excluded) and the margin of error.  Ask about the report's history of reliability, and whether any program-level staff have signed off on this particular report, and if so, what, if anything, did they think the numbers signify.  Don't just accept a report at face value. 

With that caveat, we turn to a less known, but equally important, metric:  the Housing Inventory Count, or HIC, which also occurs in January, and is designed to inform communities about their homeless shelter and housing programs.  The HIC tells communities how many beds they have, of what type, and the extent to which providers and programs are participating in HMIS. 

Marion and Polk counties started 2020 far behind where we should have been in terms of HMIS "bed coverage."  See "HMIS and Bed Usage Rates", revised January 2019.  Last January's HIC demonstrated what was known already -- i.e, that the Alliance had a lot of HMIS "on-boarding" to do with providers before it could begin to compete as a CoC.  In this respect, the Alliance's greatest accomplishment in 2020 was adding Simonka Place, a program of the Union Gospel Mission of Salem that serves women and children, to the number of providers participating in HMIS.  

That said, because UGM's men's programs won't be added until later this year, when the new Men's Mission opens, the Alliance will be falling short of HUD's 85% bed-coverage benchmark in Emergency Shelter (44%) and Transitional Housing (61%) types this January.  This failure means the Alliance will fall short on the 2021 System Performance Metrics, or SPMs, that are based on ES and TH data (which is to say, most of them).  That's in addition to the reliability problems that Jones identified.  To find out more about plans for the 2021 PITC, visit the Alliance web page here.

CANDO 2020 Compliance Statement

 

Law Change Threatens Motel Program

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Back in November, Salem had a decent shot at creating additional shelter space for the chronically homeless through a CARES Act/Project Turnkey grant to acquire a motel/hotel for use as non-congregate shelter.  See Radnovich, C. "Oregon lawmakers approve $35 million for homeless shelters amid pandemic, recession."  (10 November 2020, Statesman Journal.)  But, a move to "modernize" the laws governing the allocation of federal anti-poverty funds has all but dashed those hopes to bits. 

The Oregon Community Foundation, which administers Project Turnkey funds through an application and selection process, approved the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency's application for $7M to purchase a 68-room motel.  But, just as MWVCAA was trying to put together funding for operations,  the state's Housing and Community Services department dropped House Bill 2100, prompting MWVCAA to withdraw its Project Turnkey application.   

Housing Stability Council January 8, 2021 Meeting

As explained to the Housing Stability Council last week, the idea is that OHCS will no longer allocate (by formula) all Emergency Housing Assistance (EHA) funds and State Housing Assistance (SHAP) funds to community action agencies (CAAs).  Instead, OHCS will distribute the funds in "established geographic buckets" through a competitive process.  In effect, OHCS is seeking to retain the ability to administer these federal homeless assistance programs, versus allowing local control through CAAs.  It's a controversial proposal that many see as impracticable on a number of fronts.  OHCS and CAAs are still in negotiations over a possible compromise bill.  But the uncertainty alone was enough to kill the motel/shelter project.

We asked MWVCAA Executive Director Jimmy Jones by email if he thought there was any chance the motel/shelter project might be revived in some form.  "Possibly", he told us.  Finding sustainable funding for operations, "without risking funding plans we have for ARCHES or our HYRC program", was already a challenge, he said. 

 

We are still holding meetings with other public and private partners to talk about funding options.  But the “modernization” plan places too many of our resources in jeopardy, and it’s not prudent or in alignment with our fiduciary responsibility to pursue these kinds of long-term commitments until we have resolution on our long-term revenues.  The same set of decisions are being made across Oregon, and other agencies are balking at signing long-term contracts until this matter with OHCS is resolved, in such a way that we can trust that the state will be there to help us support these services.  It’s not just the motel.  Without cost control and long-term revenue assurances, the state’s plans to create infrastructure development to end homelessness are in jeopardy, especially the Navigation Center concept that’s likely to be introduced into session later this month.

We will continue to follow OHCS's "modernization" plans through the legislative session.  Related post:  "New State Policy Pits BLM vs Homeless"  (4 January 2021).

Hless Alliance Looks at Trends

 By Sarah Owens

 

The Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance is trying to figure out just what the data (specifically, its "system performance" data) reveal about Marion and Polk counties' homeless services delivery system, and the picture is none too clear.  

The good news -- above all -- is that for the first time ever, we have an Alliance, a committed group of professionals from government and non-governmental agencies, asking questions and expecting to see improvements in the homeless services delivery system, and at the same time, offering supports to make that happen.  The other good news is that we have our own discrete data, specific to this geographic area, and not blended in with the data from 26 other counties.  (See the many posts on how Marion and Polk counties came to separate from the 28-county Rural Oregon Continuum of Care by searching on the CANDO Archive issue, "ROCC: Leave or Remain?")

Now for the numbers.  Looking at the staff report, which compares FFY 2018/19 SPMs with FFY 2019/20 SPMs, it does appear that more people exited emergency shelter into what's termed a "positive housing placement", but, for reasons no one really knows, the region is not reducing the length of time persons are in homeless service programs, or the number of homeless persons.  For now, C19 can usefully be blamed for this trend.

But, as horrid as the C19 year has been, we can thank C19 for forcing the cancellation of HUD's annual funding competition, and allowing the Alliance to avoid a challenge it most probably was not prepared to meet, given its inexperience and the negative trend in measures that can't be blamed on C19.  See "COVID Kills 2020 CoC Competition for Homeless $$"  (28 July 2020). 

The staff report (which is embedded below) was shared last week with the Alliance's Performance and Evaluation Committee, about three and a half hours before the meeting.  Asked during the meeting to speculate on what each of the graphs might mean, the committee basically scratched its collective head and said very little.  Consider if you would have done any better.     

 

 

It might help to know that Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) is included in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), that the number of homeless persons = the number accessing emergency services, and that the area's largest emergency shelter provider, Union Gospel Mission, only recently and only partly began participating in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).  According to staff, The Arches Project's "robust prevention/diversion program" may be credited for the reduction in the number of people accessing services for the first time.

The Alliance board will be receiving the staff report at its January meeting next week, which is open to the public.  Meeting details can be found on the Alliance calendar, here.  This post will be updated.

Park Camping to Continue For Now

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Last March 2020, City of Salem Resolution 2020-18 prohibited public gatherings on public property and suspended the camping ban in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  The number of campers in those parks swelled into the hundreds.  Total somewhere in the neighborhood of 600.

Campers have limited areas within which to camp*

After months of pressure from SEMCA Chair Cory Poole to reinstate the camping restrictions, City Council last month asked City Manager Steve Powers to return to Council Monday night with a wind-up plan.  See News from the Continuum (23 December 2020).  Well, really, it was Powers's idea. 

The staff report's five-sentence summary:  

A preliminary plan to end camping at the undeveloped portions of Cascades Gateway Park and Wallace Marine Park is outlined in Attachment One to this staff report. COVID-19 has highlighted the region’s shelter deficiencies.  Ending camping today risks Covid-19 transmission and unsafe public-right-of-way camping. The preliminary plan’s key elements include preventing Covid-19 transmission, opening sheltering options, and communicating respectfully. We will work with partners to develop solutions and implement the safe end of camping at the parks.

In a nutshell, given the limited capacity to offer appropriate alternatives to park camping, reinstating the undeveloped-area-camping restriction in the short term just isn't feasible.  See the staff report and "Safe Park Camping Unwind Plan" here.  The five-page plan attached to the staff report is divided into sections: principles, timeline, "possible unintended consequences", communications, housing/shelter options, siting, logistics, and budget.  The report (Item 6.f.) is information only, and requires no action by City Council.  The documents contain no surprises, or even new information, but are more like snapshots of the current situation.  Unless extended, the emergency declaration lifting the restrictions expires June 1, 2021. 

December 21, 2020 Meeting on Plan to End Camping

Gretchen Bennett in the City Manager's office met in December with area homeless services providers to seek advice on the plan.  Poole also attended the meeting, which was open to the public.  

One disturbing rhetorical trend displayed in the staff report (which is titled, "Sheltering in Cascades Gateway Park and Wallace Marine Park") and plan was the tendency to lump the terms shelter and camping together as "shelter." 

Camping (tent or car), is not, however,  "intended for human habitation" -- a fact that's a matter of HUD policy, and that the City admits, e.g. by stating "City parks are not intended for human habitation, and camping in these locations is unsustainable."  Camping is, therefore, not "shelter", and the City should not confuse the City Council and public by suggesting in official documents that it is.    

1/12/21 update:  owing to numerous public comments and deliberations over a resolution condemning white supremacy and institutional racism, Council did not reach Item 6.f. until late in the evening (about 9:15).  After brief remarks by City Manager Powers, Gretchen Bennett gave a brief slide presentation, following which Councilors Nordyke, Lewis, Stapleton, Gonzalez and Phillips offered comments.  Nordyke acknowledged the strain that widespread homelessness has put on City staff/resources, and said that the City had had to "completely reconfigure" Gretchen Bennett's position.  Despite repeated recommendations from staff that the City should look for regional solutions (think Mid-Willamette Homeless Alliance), she told Council that they should consider creating a City office of homeless services, that the city was "big enough."  Lewis asked about vaccinating the campers, and noted that in six months, it is "quite possible" the shelter situation won't have changed very much, and Council might have to extend the emergency declaration.  Powers reminded Council that the emergency declaration was due to C19, not inadequate shelter capacity.  He said it was not realistic to wait to end the camping "program" until there was adequate shelter.  Stapleton asked Bennett to explain what the City was doing to encourage campers not to use park trees for firewood.  Gonzalez asked how "regular citizens" could help out.  Phillips said the City had no choice but to allow camping in the parks, and that it had been the right decision.  The Statesman published an article on the plan in advance of the meeting.  See Whitworth, W.  "Salem leaders outline plan to end homeless camping in city parks."  (11 January 2021, Statesman Journal.)

*See Whitworth, W.  "Flood concerns lead to Salem city officials limiting homeless camping in parks."  (31 December 2021, Statesman Journal.) 

New State Policy Pits BLM vs Homeless

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

2019 AHAR Part 1

Frustrated by the under-representation of the BIPOC community among Oregon's literally homeless, the oh-so culturally sensitive State of Oregon, through its Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS), has decided to expand the definition of "literally homeless" to include the "doubled up", so the State can claim to be practicing racial equity in its homeless services programs. 

For now, the expanded definition applies only to one part of a two-part program, called "Out of the Cold", which ends with the fiscal year on June 30, 2021.  But, it could signal a policy shift away from what works, but is hard (housing the chronically homeless), and into the lefty land of easy feel-good (housing low-needs families connected to the work force).

"Wave 2" of OOTC, as it is called, will distribute $10M of state funds that were allocated to OHCS by the Emergency Board back in October "to support the provision of shelter and shelter-related services."  

A recent OHCS email states "these funds will be allocated to Community Action Agencies (CAAs) around the state to safely house people in non-congregate and socially-distanced congregate emergency and transitional shelters, as well as services to help people obtain and maintain access to permanent housing."  See Radnovich, C. "Lawmakers send $100M to wildfire relief, vote against homeless shelters."  (24 October 2020, Statesman Journal.)  Locally, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency has been spending its share of Wave 2 funds ($1,171,162) on The Arches Project's hotel program, Church at the Park homeless programs, and Family Promise. 

The overall population figures in the chart at right come from the most recent census data discussed here, and the homeless population figures were derived from the 2019 PIT Count figures (most recent available) reported here.  They don't total due to rounding.   

The figures in the chart are what's got everyone upset, and that's as it should be.  To be clear, no one's suggesting Oregon has freed itself from institutional racism or is somehow misguided in its desire to achieve racial equity in the allocation of resources.  But, consider how OHCS explained its decision to expand the definition of literal homelessness:  

We have modified the definition of literal homelessness for Out of the Cold Wave 2 to include “doubled up” households – this means that the definition will differ between our other programs. We recognize this adds a level of complexity to the operations but given the reality that many households are doubled up due to the pandemic and the wildfires, and the very real racial equity implications for excluding this population from homeless services funding, we have moved to add this as a part of the definition of Category 1 Literal Homelessness.  (Emphasis added.)

Translation:  the numbers in the chart notwithstanding, in many communities across the state, there are so few people of color who are literally homeless that OHCS has to expand the definition in order to avoid "racial equity implications."  In other words, "racial equity implications" are pressuring OHCS to  spend homeless services funds on those who are not literally homeless.  This is like thinking you can make up for unequal access to health care by offering to hospitalize someone who just needs outpatient care -- when there's a hospital bed shortage. 

Oregon's strong majority progressive government should know better than to enable providers to spend scarce homeless services dollars -- scarce compared to the scope of Oregon's homeless problem -- on people of any demographic who are merely doubled up, and not living in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks, or the equivalent, with kids, mental illness, addiction, victimization, violence of all forms and stripe, disability, hunger, suffering from pain, sickness and disease, horrible, treatable disease like trench foot, and dying outside.   

Street Roots ran a piece last week about the legislature extending the eviction moratorium through June.  Henderson, T.  "Oregon lawmakers extend eviction moratorium; landlords sue."  (30 December 2020, Street Roots).  Toward the end of the article, the author reminds us that it was just last January that Speaker Kotek called for the declaration of a state of emergency on homelessness and exhorted lawmakers to approve $100 million to expand shelter capacity and put navigation centers in Eugene and Salem.  But, if the subsequent pandemic and the social unrest made some Oregonians forget about its homeless problem, they didn't live in Salem.  No one here forgot about it, not for one second.  

It's sometimes said that hard facts make bad law, meaning sympathy isn't what makes good public policy.  If sympathy is the motivating factor behind the State's decision to expand the definition of literal homelessness to include doubling up -- and let's assume it is -- it's still bad law.  Let's hope Oregon learns from this mistake and resolves to get back to what works, but is hard.  People are dying outside.

1/8/21 Update:  yesterday, in advance of the regular 2021 legislative session, the Governor's Housing Policy advisor briefed the Housing Stability Council on the Racial Justice Council's legislative recommendations.  They included expanding the definition of literal homelessness to include doubled-up households, on the grounds that "homelessness looks different in diverse communities."  They also included plans to revise ORS 458.585 to curb if not eliminate altogether the community action agency network's hegemony over federal anti-poverty program delivery in the state.  See "BLM/Pandemic Weaken CAPO's Grip on Hless Assist $$."  (11 August 2020.)  The policy shift has the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency and others worried.  To be discussed in a subsequent post.  

Housing Stability Council December 7 Meeting