Talking about Homelessness

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Bieze Appeal withdrawn circa 6/11/19

Gerald Bieze withdrew his appeal of the City's decision to allow the Union Gospel Mission's proposed modification to the Conditional Use Permit and Zone Change for the new Men's Mission on NE Commercial Street NE (700-800 block) this week.

The Bieze appeal, like the Glennie appeal before it, was concerned with "likely adverse impacts" of the new mission on adjacent property owners, and, like the Glennie appeal, it was a loser.  Good for everyone that it was withdrawn.  But, no one should make the mistake of thinking this signals anyone's learned anything.

In April, almost a year after Glennie lost his "likely adverse impacts" appeal to City Council, he sent a mass email to his fellow downtown property owner buddies with a link to the KOMO polemic, "Seattle is Dying", saying it had been "many months since I’ve offered anything relating to the UGM mega-shelter."  

Glennie told his friends the show was "very much worth your time", as it was "[b]alanced, thoughtful and offering pragmatic solutions."

He also said that it "[o]ught to be mandatory viewing for City Council and management staff", suggesting that they were "oblivious the damage caused by refusing to enforce existing statutes."

We wrote Glennie, and asked him what in his mind was the connection between the "Seattle is Dying" video and the new Men's Mission, and what did he think were the "pragmatic solutions" the City should be implementing?  He replied with several assertions, none of which was responsive, followed by a rehash of his unsuccessful arguments on appeal.  After a week's correspondence, we were able to identify Glennie's primary concern as "the 20-30% of the chronic homeless population'...[who] commit crimes, and are likely to be suffering addiction issues."  Glennie believes that "based on what was represented in ["Seattle is Dying"], money spent on incarceration and the M[edicated]A[ssistance]T[reatment] program appears to be money better spent than the other alternatives that have tried and failed."  He stopped short, however, of advocating for the adoption of "section 35" type laws like Massachusetts', featured in the video.  See, Wood, J. "Massachusetts' contentious tactic to fight opioid epidemic: jailing addicts."  (23 April 2019, The Guardian.)

The "Seattle is Dying" video is, of course, not in the slightest "balanced, thoughtful [or] pragmatic."  See, e.g,  "DRW's AVID Program Responds to KOMO's 'Seattle is Dying'" and Hill, K. "'Seattle is Dying' prompts political response to homelessness in Spokane."  (31 March 2019, The Spokesman Review.)  But, despite its being roundly criticized and debunked (Disability Rights Washington called it "sensational, inaccurate and exploitative"), it resonates with people who, like David Glennie, experience property crime and "unsafe" public places, and conclude the problem is lax law enforcement.

Some segments of the population, Eric Johnson (author of "Seattle is Dying") included, have long seen law enforcement as the ultimate bulwark against petty anti-social behavior of the sort perpetrated by some chronically homeless individuals.  Upstanding citizens themselves, they tend to view modern law enforcement's adoption of a "harm reduction" approach to "quality of life" crimes as misguided "political correctness."  They tend to believe zero-tolerance, "broken-windows" policing is what's called for, and they haven't tried to wrestle with the resource and other issues that led law enforcement to change its approach.  "Fix it", they tend to say.  "I shouldn't have to deal with this."

Ultimately, the philosophical and practical divide between "harm-reduction" and "broken-windows" policing gets cast as a political left-right, liberal-conservative divide, with the crisis of homelessness falling into what Johnathan Martin (Seattle Times "Homeless Project" editor) calls the "mushy middle." 

Public conversations about homelessness, we've observed, tend to take place in this "mushy middle", and get bogged down with emotion and personal anecdote, wherein "the rights" of people experiencing homelessness are consistently pitted against "the rights" of the rest of society not to be affected by their experience, and the guilty speak of choice, and caution against "enabling."  "Not in my front yard", as they say in San Fran.

If Salem is to make progress in this area, public conversations about homelessness will need to avoid that "mushy middle."  Settling on the most humane, most effective methods for ending homelessness needn't involve "progressive" versus  "conservative" politics, but it does require, as a starting point, a commitment to principles of harm reduction, which does not equate to lax law enforcement.  If that's a hard concept for you or someone you talk to, consider the what Sgt. (now Lt.) Jason VanMeter of the Salem Police Department told the Salem Homeless Coalition in February 2016: 

We as a community need to embrace the Harm Reduction Model which is successful in Seattle. The Harm Reduction model meets people where they are.  This enables us to supervise and manage illicit behavior versus a zero tolerance model. The best example is the mission and shelters in Seattle allow their people to drink and smoke in the shelter, because it's better to supervise and manage the inevitable versus kicking them onto the street where I get called by business owner to deal with them.

Concept two -- Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. (LEAD). This is what  I'm passionate about, pre-booking access to social services. Instead of taking people to jail I can call a case manager that meets me on the street and takes it from there, this program is a collaborative effort between prosecutors, defense attorneys, social service workers, and medical professionals (people with letters behind their name). If some one is admitted to LEAD and relapses, applying the harm reduction model, we just get them more help versus a stiffer sentence.  Unlike current programs where if a person has a dirty UA they are kicked out of the program. Doesn't make sense. 

Harm reduction is a less expensive model -- art-a-johns for example, we know people will urinate and defecate in public without public access restrooms. I'd rather meet them where they are at, versus legalizing urinating in public, defecating in public, and trespassing. I've spent several years living in Africa and the Middle East and I want that behavior regulated in the US because it's not pleasant when it is not.  It lacks depth of solution when it comes to mental health and chemical dependency. Housing as we know is the key, not a shelter, housing (transitional and permanent).

Harm reduction equals tiny town or legal camping areas. Having been an infantry Marine on multiple combat deployments I assure you a large tent with sections for privacy can soon become a welcome home.  A place to live and store things, this is a harm reduction tactic that eliminates the need to adjust laws or take tools away from police and business owners.

As far as the shelters, allowing beer contributing to relapse, let's just say there is no lack of meth and heroin in the shelters right now. It's well known on the street.  I get dope off a majority of my custodys.  Beer is the least of our community worries. However, getting stores to stop selling high gravity malt beer would be a great start.  It's a soft balance between treatment, tolerance, realistic expectations, and our desired end state.

    

In a couple of weeks, the Urban Development Department will reconvene a portion of the Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force (DHSTF) (Cara Kaser, Salem City Council; Neal Kern, CANDO; Kevin Hill, SPD; Nicole Utz, SHA; Dan Clem, UGM; Paul Logan, NWHS, Ashley Hamilton, The ARCHES Project; Tom Hoffert, Salem Area Chamber; and a rep from the Salem Main Street Association) for "ongoing coordination and collaboration on homeless issues in follow-up to the Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force", and meet quarterly thereafter.  The DHSTF last met on August 8, 2018.  For more about their work, and to see where they left off, see the list of topics below under "CANDO Archive task forces."

CANDO's Michael Livingston with Sgts Hill and VanMeter, October 2016

         

Council Affirms/Modifies UGM Permit

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

NIMBY Properties

The City Council affirmed the hearing officer's decision to grant UGM a conditional use permit to relocate to the 700-800 block of Commercial Street NE, adopted staff recommendation, and added a  condition to maintain 24-hour public access to a restroom.  The meeting did not run late.

No surprises here.

Christy Wood, whose business is in the same block as the Men's Mission, and who's on the Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force, considers UGM a good neighbor, and said she would support siting UGM's new facility at its current location if it were feasible. 

The makeshift camps and storage that cropped up over the winter are gone from the Commercial Street side of UGM.

According to sources, this is the result of a new UGM policy that says if you want to take your meals at UGM, you can't be hanging around outside the building all day and night.

1/26/19 Update: UGM has acquired Mike’s Electric at 275 Division NE and BAM Advertising at  255 Division NE, on the south/courtyard side of the building site.  See "Glennie Appeals UGM Permit to Council" (20 April 2018). 

UGM's Executive Director, Dan Clem, reports that the capital campaign, "Hope Has a New Address", is on track with $8.7M pledged/committed/collected towards the total of $15M."

3-Hr Hrng on UGM Permit - No Decision

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

4/25/18 Public Hearing on UGM's CUP

No decision on the Glennie appeal this week.

After nearly 3 hours of public hearing and "testimony" from roughly 25 individuals, the lawyers agreed to deadlines for the submission of  rebuttal "evidence" and arguments, and the issue will come before Council again at its May 14 meeting.

The majority of comments favored the move/expansion.  Those that didn't, focused on the expansion, and, implicitly, UGM's capacity to manage its guests and those who congregate nearby for whatever reason.  The image of UGM as an "attractive nuisance" dominated. 

Speaking in opposition to expansion were Jim Garaventa (Broadway Townhouses),  Mirabel Ortiz (Broadway Place apartments), Dana Vugteveen (Salem Center), Loretta Miles (Salem Cinema), Chris Blackburn (Downtown Storage and Warehouse, NW Remarketing, Inc.).  Ross Hopkins and former WU law prof, William Long, cast doubt on UGM's "changing numbers."

Christy Wood

Others in the business community spoke in support of expansion: Christy Wood (Runaway Art), Dick Withnell, Mike Roberson, Terry Hancock, Greg Petersen, and Gene Pfifer.

Former City Councilors Paul Wolf and Warren Bednarz, also spoke in support, along with Paul Young (Word of Life Fellowship), New Life Fellowship graduates Tom Ellis and Mike Potts,  UGM resident Katrina Smiley, and UGM contractors, employees and volunteers Jeff Tross, Dan Clem, Rick Bratton, Jeannine Knight, Bruce Donohue and Lisa Campbell.

UGM, since 1953 the face of homelessness in downtown Salem, has helped a lot of people, women as well as men.

Paul Young said UGM has an annual budget of $4M.  It doesn't take any government money, a point of pride for many.

Everyone who spoke agreed that the number of people living on Salem's streets has been growing.  Rick Bratton said UGM turned away 2,500 men in 2017.  The new facility will have 224 emergency beds (about 30 over its current wintertime capacity), 76 New Life Fellowship beds (up from 48), and cost $15M to build.  Dick Withnell assured Council that the the money will be there.

345 Commercial Street, September 2017

Those opposing expansion were surprised to hear that the capacity of the new shelter would be only 300 beds, not 500 or 600, but they still worried that a larger facility would attract additional homeless to Salem, and to the "hood". 

Dan Clem told Council that, currently, men from outside the area may stay at the shelter only two weeks, unless they join the New Life Fellowship.

But, it was not just the UGM guests that concerned opponents.  It was all the unsavory people who congregate outside the mission during the day;  the people waiting to have a meal or a shower, or looking to sell drugs, or maybe steal something.  It's that prospect, that "likely adverse impact", that so concerned them.  Because, honestly, no one wants to have what's now at 345 Commercial Street in their block. 

Loretta Miles tried to tell Council the opposition wasn't NIMBYism, but it quite obviously was.  Opponents claimed nothing for the 700-800 block of Commercial that made it uniquely unsuited for a men's shelter.  Nor could they deny the move had been planned a very long time.  We're talking years. 

Mr. Grillo, for the appellant

At the very end of the hearing, Grillo, the lawyer for Glennie, told the Council they should consider mediation, because he didn't have time to handle an appeal.  Too bad for the rest of us that he didn't give that same advice to his client, back in December, when Glennie says the issue "plopped in his lap."  Imagine where all this would be if Grillo had told Glennie,

"Where you been, Dave?  Don't you talk to people?  I can take your money, but you don't need a lawyer, 'cause this thing is all but here.  And these folks you don't talk to?  These are your neighbors, Dave.  Go talk to your neighbors.  Tell them your concerns, work something out.  Ain't no case here."     

Unfortunately, however, Mr. Grillo did take Mr. Glennie's money, so it's kind of sad that Glennie

Mr. Glennie, the appellant

ends up at the public hearing, telling the Council he supports moving the shelter to its proposed location -- he just has a problem with the size.  It's even sadder that he based his concern on the mistaken belief the shelter was going to be 2 to 3 times its current capacity.

Glennie told the Council he thought capacity should be limited to 100, with some winter overflow capacity.  He apparently didn't realize that limiting shelter capacity would effectively prevent the enforcement of the City's anti-camping bans.  A decent lawyer would have advised him he needed a different strategy.    

Almost by way of friendly advice (in that it seemed to be unrelated to his appeal) Glennie advised the Council that "the City itself" needs to provide its homeless residents what he called a "hygiene center", a building with toilets, showers, laundry facilities and storage for the personal effects, for both men and women, saying he came to this realization after talking with Paul Logan of Northwest Human Services, and Jon Reeves, of the "Mid-Willamette Valley Council, Community Action Agency."  The irony that Jon Reeves, who closed MWVCAA's homeless day shelter last June and has yet to reopen it, should be the source of such advice appeared lost on Mr. Glennie, but perhaps not the Council.

About 100 showed up for the hearing, 27 commented.  The record was left open a few more days, to be followed by arguments.  The revised staff recommendation was to adopt the additional conditions offered by UGM (see below) and require a photometric (lighting) plan as a tenth condition.]

Glennie Appeals UGM Permit to City Council

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

The hearing officer's decision on UGM's consolidated application for a CUP and zoning change goes to City Council on Monday, courtesy David Glennie.  Councilor Kaser  told CANDO at its annual meeting on Tuesday that, based on the written comments received so far, she expects a pretty good turnout for the public hearing.

The hearing will start with the staff presentation and any questions, followed by UGM, followed Glennie (the "appellant").  CANDO would then be entitled to speak, but won't be doing so, the board having chosen, for various reasons, not to take a position.  So, after Glennie or his representative, the Council will hear from "other interested persons."

Two things to think about.  One is the narrow legal issue, described below.  The other is what the statements made during hearing -- by the parties, the public and the Council -- say about the prospects for a "shared vision" that the Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force has said we need in order to make meaningful progress addressing the growing problem of homelessness.  

Site of New Men's Mission on Commercial Street

Glennie has to persuade five members of the City Council that at least one of two code provisions hasn't been satisfied.  One is SRC 240.005(d) (conditional use) and the other is SRC 265.015(e)(1) (zone change).  The zone change is needed to make the UGM store a permitted, conforming use.  Nobody really cares about the store or the zone change issue.  So, the hearing will focus on SRC 240.005(d).

SRC 240.005(d) lists 3 criteria for granting a CUP.  If the criteria are met, the City has to grant the permit.

Although the public comment is likely to make it sound like the issue is property values versus Christian values, that's not the issue Council must decide.

What Council must decide is whether the criteria (listed below) have been met, and what conditions are needed to meet them.  If that sounds somewhat circular, it is, but that's how Council's going to get to "yes" on this question; Council will be giving UGM its CUP and zone change.  

SRC 240.005(d) CUP criteria

As to (1), there's no reasonable argument to be made that the first criteria hasn't been satisfied.  Opponents of UGM's move/expansion argued on appeal to the hearing officer that UGM didn't satisfy the allowed use definition of SRC 617.015(c), Table 617(2) (adopted in 2014 with UGM in mind), because UGM hadn't proved it had occupied its current location continuously since 1993.  They also argued that the planned expansion wasn't allowed.  These arguments failed to persuade the hearing officer, and they will doubtless fail to persuade the City Council.  (For more, see the hearing decision.)

So, the Council should focus solely on (2) and (3) -- i.e., what conditions will allow them to reasonably conclude that the "likely adverse impacts" are "minimized" and whether the new Mission is "reasonably compatible" with the livability and future development of the surrounding property.

Below are the conditions imposed by the Hearing Officer.  Council might amend, add or subtract.  Staff's initial recommendation is to approve the CUP and zone change without any new conditions.     

UGM: The Men's Mission

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Michael Kerrigone, UGM's Food Svces Mgr, and Dessert

Every month, housing and homeless services providers gather at the Union Gospel Mission downtown for an early lunch and networking, courtesy UGM and the Salem Housing Authority, whose staff plan and facilitate each meeting.  You don't have to be a provider to be welcome at the meeting, you just have to be interested in the work being done on homelessness, housing and social services. 

Mostly, however, those who attend are at the level of caseworkers (direct providers, not management).  As someone we know put it, "They come looking to find that one resource or referral that will prevent their having to tell a client, 'I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you.'"

Someone's always signed up to give a presentation.  Usually, the presentation consists of a provider talking about their program.  Perhaps oddly, it's rarely been someone from UGM.  UGM's kind of like your dad.  Been around since 1953.  Always there when you need him, so you take him for granted, as they say.  Rarely occurs to you to ask, you know, as if you're interested, whether he's worried about anything, or wishes his life had turned out differently.  He'd just say, "No."  So, we were pleased to learn that Simon Sandusky, Guest Services Manager for the Men's Mission, and Danial Ficek, Program Manager at the Men's Mission, were going to be speaking at the July meeting of the Emergency Housing Network.  We were so pleased, in fact, that we asked Simon and Dan if they would agree to be interviewed on Willamette Wakeup, which they did, and you can listen to the podcasts of those interviews here (Danial) and here (Simon).  Danial and Simon have since left UGM for new opportunities.

UGM circa 1953.  This and all photos below from UGM's FB page

Most locals know that the UGM's Men's Mission serves three meals a day, seven days a week.  (That's about 300 meals each day in summer, and about 500 in the winter.)  Everyone is welcome, whether or not enrolled in a  program.  Likewise, there are showers and clothing vouchers available for anyone who needs them, as well as lodging.  There are even trained volunteers providing haircuts and foot care.

All guests staying overnight go through a basic intake process, which is usually followed by a more detailed assessment of needs with a case manager.  Guests may, if they wish, opt into one of three programs.  The two more basic programs are called "Transitions", for men who are seeking housing and employment, but may need assistance with something like replacing identification papers, and "Supportive Services", for men with a physical or mental disability who are seeking housing and need assistance obtaining benefits, finding housing, etc.  In the past year, 39 men in the Transitions program secured housing, and 79 secured employment, while 31 in the Supportive Services program secured housing.

Just asking for help getting an ID can be a struggle, Simon told us.  Entering a controlled environment, having to identify a need, those simple acts require some degree of trust, which, as we have learned, the homeless brain has trouble with.  It takes a lot of reassurance and encouragement, which of course staff do their best to provide.

Religious observance is not required to receive any of the services, or to participate in any of the programs, but, to some degree, guests do have to tolerate the promotion of Christianity as a model of healing, which could be difficult for some.  The third program in particular, called the New Life Fellowship, is bible-based, and participants are asked to attend chapel a couple of times a week.  They are not, however, required to do so.  "They can graduate our program and not believe in God at all", Simon told us.  Think of the bible- or Christ-based approach as describing the model employed by staff, rather than a set of beliefs guests are required to adopt. 

Danial manages the New Life Fellowship program.  "I hesitate to call it a drug and alcohol program.  We deal with a lot of different issues with our clients.  Anything from drug and alcohol addiction, [to] mental illness, [to] compulsive behaviors -- anything that is really life-debilitating and has brought them to our doors."  The program has four phases, beginning with the candidate phase, when the individual is what Danial describes as "broken, open and desperate."

Before                                         After

Danial tries to help people see themselves accurately through counseling.  "Healthy people do not walk through the doors of a mission", he says.  The men in his program come to him "drenched in shame", and he tries to help them   understand its true nature.  "I don't say overcome", he says, because that's not possible, but he can help them understand that their past, whatever they might have done, need not define who they are as individuals.  But first, he wants them to understand how desperate their situation is.  Then, through  counseling, begin to build a trusting relationship.  In addition to understanding shame, the  counseling involves looking at  traumatic moments in the person's life, while attempting to integrate principles of psychology and theology.  "If the psychology fits scripture, we use it", Danial says.  

Phase two covers beliefs and values.  Most programs do not tell participants their beliefs are wrong, Danial says, but in the New Life Fellowship, they do.  He says this is the point at which many people leave.  One individual, about ready to graduate, left six times before finally making it through the program.

Phase three is the basic transitions program, where an individual is looking for work, but still participating in the counseling program.  Phase four begins when the person becomes employed or enrolled in an education program.  These phases involve an assessment by UGM's learning center instructor, Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" curriculum, career counseling and mentoring, which Danial identifies as an essential program component.  "The key to success is in your relationships with other people."  

Twenty-four percent of NLF program participants complete the program (the national UGM rate is 18%), however,  about 11% of local NLF graduates do return to homelessness.  Those numbers may be discouraging to the wider society, Danial says, "but it's not to me...What keeps me going is I look at the individual in the chair in front of me, and I get to know that person, and my goal is to help that person.  When he gets up and leaves, I look at the next one."  The program does not try to force change.  It does offer an opportunity to change.

In the past year ending July 30, the Mission sheltered 646 guests, and that number would have been substantially higher had the Fire Marshall not reduced their maximum occupancy last December to 213 from 330-380.  (At the time of the July meeting, the Mission had about 160 guests.)  The Mission is hoping that recent upgrades to the fire alarm system will allow the Fire Marshall to increase its occupancy rate by another 100 (to 313).

Three years ago, UGM's then-CEO Mike Rideout told CANDO about plans to move the Mission north to 885 Commercial Street NE, where its store and admin offices are located.  He explained that the building(s) they were in (and are still in, today) had structural problems that made renovation extremely difficult, to the point of not being feasible.  He said they'd worked for several years with City Planning staff and the then-Mayor, Anna Peterson, to develop a plan acceptable to the City, and that they were in the middle of a capital campaign to fund the move.  At that time (July 2014), the campaign was expected to take 18 to 24 months.  The following December, Rideout resigned, and the capital campaign fizzled.  It took the UGM board almost 18 months to bring in new leadership, but before the new leadership could get things moving on the capital campaign, the new leadership resigned.

That was last June, and the board have decided not to wait for new leadership to crank up the capital campaign.  The need is just too great, and they can't wait any longer to get started.

UGM's has already received contributions from regular donors toward the new Mission, but they now need the help of the entire community.  They estimate the new Mission will cost between $11M and and $13M to build, and they hope to start construction within three years.  Donations to the capital campaign can be made electronically at this page by noting the contribution is intended to help build the new Mission.