News from the Continuum

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Monday night, after receiving notice on Friday that the Oregon Housing and Community Services department (OHCS) was finally getting around to distributing the second round of pandemic-related Homeless Emergency Solutions Grant funds (ESG-CV2), with about $6M slated to come to providers serving Marion and Polk counties, the City agreed to allow Church at the Park to use the winter shelter site at 2640 Portland Road for 24-hr vehicle- and pallet-structure camping from the end of March through the end of October 2021.  It did so by enacting Resolution 2021-11, which amended Resolution 2020-49 which had declared a state of emergency relating to unsheltered persons through 6 October 2021.  Whitworth, W.  "Salem City Council approves new 'Pallet' shelter site for homeless."  ( March 2021, Statesman Journal.)  Councilor Hoy said Monday night that the funds would be a "game-changer", but did not offer specifics.  

The notice of ESG-CV2 funding is relevant because that is where Church at the Park will get the estimated $275K needed to pay for staff and PPE, and $140K for the pallet structures.  Were it not for the pandemic, these funds would not be available -- and they will not be available for long, nor are they  unrestricted.  Allowable uses are limited to emergency shelter, street outreach and rapid re-housing.     

ESG-CV2 FAQs

Not that anyone would know this from the Council discussion.  For reasons not hard to imagine, the City is taking credit by fronting through Gretchen Bennett's ever-empathetic manner the appearance of sincere concern and a desire to shelter/house more of Salem's chronic homeless population, even as management prepares for a return to the pre-pandemic "policy of chasing them around town."  Under Blake v. City of Grants Pass and HB 3115 if it passes, the City's enforcement policy requires that they have, or be able to argue as the Mayor did in 2020, that the City's homeless services and shelter options are sufficient to "remove any barrier or excuse for anyone to claim that camping on our community’s sidewalks represents a needed choice or situation." See "Mayor Bennett: State of City" (12 February 2020).  

Some might argue that what matters is that the City is working to increase homeless services and shelter options, not why.  However, that assumes all homeless services and shelter options are of equal value when they are not.  They run the gamut from volunteer to trained professionals, from religion to evidence-based, from shoe-string to multi-million dollar institutions, from basic needs to permanent housing.  The "why" dictates whether the approach will be management/minimalist, or ending/maximalist.  Contrary to popular belief, only a concerted effort at the latter can, in fact, reduce the chronically homeless population of Salem.  

The City's rhetoric always has been a problem, but it is getting worse.  Referring to vehicles, tents, pallet structures and parks as "shelter", as the City is now doing, does not make them fit for human habitation.  See "City Approves More Overnight Shelter for Area Homeless"  (23 March 2021, Flash Alert) (referring to the approval of the managed camp at Portland Road).  Council members may make dubious claims that Church at the Park programs have moved people into permanent housing, but have they?  Does it matter?  If the public are somehow persuaded that the City is doing all it can to "address homelessness" with basic needs programs and hopeful rhetoric, will homelessness cease to be the City's top concern?         

The decision to keep the Portland Road site open through next fall was a bit of a bait-and-switch for the Highland and Northgate neighborhoods, whose residents back in November had been given to understand the building would be 1) for vulnerable/elderly participants, 2) overnight only, and 3) winter only.  They were also told in November the program might be expanded to vehicle/tent camping, but not year round.  See November 5, 2020 meeting video here.  The City did recently let neighbors know about the new plan, however.  

Resolution 2021-11 makes much of not allowing managed camps in areas zoned single family (RM), which is small comfort to concerned homeowners on the east side of Brooks Avenue NE in the Pine Street Mixed Use Overlay Zone.  (Portland Road site in red) 

In other news, Oregon took the number three slot for the highest percentage of unsheltered homeless in 2020. HUD's 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress.  If Oregon were to adopt Salem's latest "innovative" approach to the problem, it would need only about 300 Portland Road sites and $1.2M/yr to "address" the unshelteredness problem ($400K per site for pallet structures, staffing and PPE with toilets extra).  Perhaps less, depending how long the pallet structures last.  Wonder why they have not done that.  Will Councilors Lewis and Phillips advocate for expanding Salem's managed camps when the City, as opposed to the federal government, has to pay?  Tune in this time next year and find out.