Why have homeless camps shifted to Lancaster Drive?

Outreach and Livability Services and friends, City of Salem, Oregon

"Lady wanted to know why homeless camps have shifted to Lancaster Drive. "

"Ever year, same thing.  Week afore Thanksgivin', it's what 'bout dem homeless, why's d'city jes lettin' 'em multiply under bridges.  It's lak nobuddy ever hearda winter er the river raisin. 

"I tole her d'poleece er downtown.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Get me the latest data on homeless per capita by ward, please.

Good question, but I'm afraid that calculation is not available at this time.

Well, get me the city-wide numbers, then.  I want the newly homeless year over year, last three years, compared to the total stably housed at least six months, all housing providers, by program, if you please. 

Also a good question, but also not available.

What about that regional group the City's supported the last four years?  The Homeless Alliance.  Doesn't somebody have their numbers?  

Good question.  No.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

Neighbors are scared, kids walking to school feel unsafe, and businesses are looking to relocate. I feel like Mayor-elect Hoy and I were the only ones raising this issue, but "[t]hey are now aware they have to do more and I'm hoping people will see the difference.  It will not go away completely, but they should see a difference [on Lancaster Drive] going forward."

                                                                                                    Jose Gonzalez, City Councilor, Ward 5

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“While it’s important to understand that the density of homeless persons on the east side of Salem has grown, few people have stopped to ask why.  The only person in the Statesman article that came close to addressing the “why” was the young homeless woman, who noted that “there was nowhere else to go.”  Salem, like every western city, has a deep and complex history of redlining race and poverty away from wealthier white populations with high property values. You need look no further than an overlay of current affordable housing projects in Salem for evidence that the practice continues. Some may argue that it’s best to “build within communities,” but mixed income and diverse communities are a HUD best practice.  It’s also true that the desire to keep the downtown free of the homeless and plans for future development are pushing the homeless population to the east side of town. Future development plans along Front Street in particular hope to drive the homeless out of Wallace Marine and the downtown to the east side of town, where poverty is concentrated compared to the rest of Salem.   There have been hushed, private meetings all summer saying the quiet part out loud: “for Salem to prosper the homeless have to go.”   These are all forms of structural racism, which concentrate poverty, reaffirm white privilege, protect and retain social and economic discrimination, and foster inequality.”

                                Jimmy Jones, Executive Director, Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency

City Begins the End of Park Camping

 By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

More like:..before...after...before...after...before...after...before...after...before..after...before...

Just a little over a year since Councilor Nordyke first praised City Council and staff for "helping move the needle on a crisis that has been decades in the making" by opening Cascades-Gateway and Wallace Marine Parks to overnight camping (See "COVID-19 Returns Campers to City Parks."), the Salem City Council agreed conditions in the parks had, sadly, become "unsanitary and a potentially a threat to public health and safety" and camping should, once again, be banned.  See "Has Council "moved the needle" on Homelessness?" (2 May 2020); "Council & Park Camping Tensions" (28 October 2020;  City to Extend Park Camping to June 2021"  (4 December 2020); "Park Camping to Continue for Now" (7 Jan 2021).   It seems that the growing chorus of senior outrage under the baton of Paradise Island Park owner and SEMCA Chair, Cory Poole was no match for Salem's so-called homeless advocates.  Cf. Hayden, N. "Where else would they go? Portland standoff with homeless campers at Laurelhurst Park dramatizes personal and political costs of inaction." (16 May 2021, Oregonian/OregonLive.) (Portland) and Caps, Kristin, "The High Cost of Clearing Tent Cities."  (12 April 2021, Bloomberg City Lab.) (Chicago, Houston, San Jose, and Tacoma).   

 

Thus it was that Monday night that Council passed Resolution 2021-21, extending the C19 emergency through 13 December 2021, but not extending the suspension of the parks camping ban (i.e. making camping in the parks illegal after 31 May 2021).  Any misgivings about the fact that, a year on, the City is no more able to accommodate (commit, house, shelter, jail) the campers than it was before, were effectively quelled by a paragraph added to the Resolution after the Council's May 17 work session, stating, "It is the policy of the City Council that camping be concluded in a legal and humane manner as soon as practical", and Councilor Hoy's insistence that the move was needed to hold Council "accountable" (the way slumlords tear down slums, one supposes).  The unanswered question on everyone's mind, however, was what will enforcement (or, if you prefer, the "rolling back" of what some called a sanctioned camping "program") look like.  See Whitworth, W.  "Homeless park camping ends June 1, but Salem officials say enforcement will be gradual."  (25 May 2021, Statesman Journal.);  Harrell, S. "Managed camps and new shelter options could be coming online soon as parks camping ends."  (25 May  2021, Salem Reporter.) ("could" here being entirely speculative).  No one, including the City, really knows (though it will be "section-by-section").   

 

What is the message here?

The staff report explains (rather, acknowledges, at long last) the legal strictures that prevent the City from immediately sweeping the camps the way it used to (see, supra, before...after).  In all probability, the promised "gradual" process will never be completed.  Just reducing the number of campers will take "an extended period", meaning several months but "not years", according to remarks made by Gretchen Bennett during Monday's meeting. 

 

During "debate", Councilor Phillips rightly pointed out that last year's decision to allow camping in the parks fulfilled its stated purpose, which was to prevent as far as possible the spread of C19 within the street homeless population.  He believes the decision probably did save lives (he is, remember, a doctor).  It also put increased pressure on the City Manager's Office, specifically Gretchen Bennett, the City's Human Rights and Relations/Federal Compliance Manager (Senior Policy Analyst), who was assigned the task of fielding complaints about the City's response to homelessness and liaising with the City's homeless service providers, amateur and professional, to coordinate mundane but critical government services such as garbage disposal, a role that previously tended to fall de facto to Urban Development Director, Kristen Retherford.  2020 was thus the year that saw City Manager Steve Powers begin publicly reporting to Council in granular detail how the City and "partners" were managing the hoards living in the parks, in the streets and under bridges.  From his May 7 report:

 

While not City property, we have been directly involved or have helped coordinate services at the Market St./I-5 encampment. Every Wednesday, outreach teams visit the Market Street underpass and along I-5. This includes, ARCHES, Northwest Human Services (HOAP -medical outreach, as well as HOST Youth and Family outreach), Easter Seals (to locate and help house veterans), HIV Alliance - Needle Exchange, and Salem Housing Authority.  Arches has completed around 20-30 housing assessments with those staying there. Salem Housing outreach checks to see who has had a housing assessment and helps them with any next steps, or to check where they are at on the wait list. A couple people in this area have been referred to the HRAP program, and Salem Housing is working on getting them enrolled. Easter Seals has connected with about two or three people and offered services/housing through their programs. ARCHES has also placed five to ten people from this area into the hotel program due to them being medically fragile/vulnerable. HOAP's team provides medical case management as well as wound care. They can transport to the hospital, as well as to HOAP to receive COVID vaccinations. Volunteers have been helping transport to the Arches mobile shower truck.  The garbage is picked up by ODOT every other week; volunteer teams collaborate with people who are camping there to get the garbage collected and into trash bags. The City has provided trash bags and gloves on two occasions to nonprofits involved in this effort. Gretchen Bennett and Ryan Zink have just recently negotiated a great deal with Covanta Marion.  Garbage collected at unsheltered encampments can be delivered by approved haulers to Covanta at no charge. Rite-Aid, outreach organizations, and the City worked together on a concentrated deep cleaning of the sidewalks surrounding Rite Aid.  The same humane, coordinated approach will be taken for the sidewalks along the Marion Parkade. 

Given the inevitability that the numbers in the parks would swell, the parks would flood, conditions would grow increasingly miserable, many would be unable to conform, some would prey on the vulnerable, and the neighbors would complain loudly and bitterly that "nothing" was being done, it was perhaps inevitable that the City would begin referring fraudulently to homeless camping as "sheltering."  "After the sheltering ends in the two parks, damaged facilities will be repaired." "Staff are aware of the growing number of persons sheltering on sidewalks and at the parking garages, also referred to as "sheltering hot spots."  The reality was just too, je ne sais quoi, depressing.  

The City estimates its decision to end parks camping, if fully implemented, would displace ~500.  If ODOT were to resumes camp "cleanups" en masse, as many as 400 would be displaced (but of course  ODOT cleanups never happen all at once).  The Church at the Park's Safe Park vehicle camps and the temporary pallet shelter/vehicle camp on Portland Road appear to be full up.  See Whitworth, W.  "A new homeless shelter is opening in north Salem. How it plans to address neighbor concerns."  (2 April 2021, Statesman Journal.)  Council seems ready to approve Church at the Park's proposal for 3, temporary, 20-tent managed camps, and a temporary 40-bed low-barrier shelter somewhere in the vicinity of downtown.  Not nearly enough, obviously, but for some strange reason, Council's so-called progressives appeared Monday night to feel as though much had been accomplished (perhaps they were still feeling the glow from Janet Carlson's May 17 presentation on the achievements of the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance).  With all the state and federal funds now at the City's disposal, money appears to be no object, everything's either a "best practice" or "innovative", so why not try everything, at least until the money runs out.  If there's a strategy here, it's to be seen providing minimal supports while hoping (praying?) affordable housing booms.  

Hope, as we know, is not a plan.  So, let's be clear and state what should be obvious.  Salem needs to focus on reducing the number of  chronically homeless persons who are living in its streets, parks and under bridges.  These are the individuals that everyone in Salem (really, anywhere) had in mind when they said (for last 5 years running) that homelessness was their No. 1 concern.  Doing that would mean prioritizing placing 579 persons with at least one disability, according to the City's numbers in permanent supportive housing.  Not in a pallet shelter or a tent or a vehicle camp or even a hotel, but in P-S-H.  That will require more support for HRAP (which accepts only the "more" vulnerable, not the "most" vulnerable because of inadequate staffing and facilities) and the development of more PSH than is currently in the pipeline (Sequoia Crossings* will not be nearly enough).  A sobering station and another mobile crisis response unit (both state ARPA candidates) will do nothing repeat nothing to house Salem's chronically homeless.  Nor will managed camps or the MWV Homeless Alliance.  Yet these, sadly, are the shiny objects that compel Council's full if uncritical attention.  If some enjoy what Councilor Nordyke and Salem Reporter refer to as  "overwhelming support", it is because people have been misled about what such programs can, and cannot, do.  City staff want to take a more strategic approach;  Council should be supporting that effort, not pulling in the opposite direction just so they can be seen to be "doing something."  (Yes, it's obvious.)

*Oregon's Housing Stability Council is expected to approve awards Friday 6/10/21

 

In other news, Salem finally made the "severely rent burdened" grade for 2020, finally creeping past the 25% threshold to 25.3% (a city was severely rent burdened when >25% of residents spent >50% of income on rent). Corvallis was 36.9% (Oregon's highest).  Keizer was 24.2%.

 

6/3/21 Update:  Gretchen Bennett on evicting campers:  “We strive to see what the alternative shelter locations and safe park (for vehicle) locations there are.”  Harrell, S. "'Having to be moved like cattle is ridiculous.' Hundreds ponder what’s next as city-sanctioned homeless camping is expected to end"  (2 June 2021, Salem Reporter.) 

 

6/11/21 Update: "Salem Police Department officers and parks crews were focusing this week on moving people from the Cascades Gateway Park area east of Mill Creek and the Beaver Grove Shelter picnic area" (improved areas supposed to be off limits for camping).  Lugo, W and Whitworth, W.  "Salem crews begin removing homeless from Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks."  (11 June 2021, Statesman Journal.)  "Before the clearing began, police counted 211 tents at Wallace Marine Park and 171 tents at Cascades Gateway Park." 

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.) 

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.

Council & Park Camping Tensions

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

 

SEMCA Chair Cory Poole was back at City Council this week to give another three-minute photo presentation and answer questions on camping in Cascades Gateway Park.  See "News from the Continuum" (2 August 2020); "Has Council 'moved the needle' on Homelessness?" (2 May 2020.)  Claiming the situation in the park is "inadequate for the homeless, dangerous for the surrounding neighbors, and detrimental to the parks", he called on Council to "Save Our Parks" and find "solutions that can be put in place quickly and inexpensively" while displaying photos of sanctioned campsites in Portland and Eugene.  His concerns for the parks included trash accumulation, tree-cutting and fire- and waste-hazards.

For the record, sanctioned camping programs are both complex and costly to run.  To learn more about Olympia, Washington's experience with sanctioned camping, listen to Outsiders, a podcast by KNKX Public Radio and Seattle Times Project Homeless.  To learn about the history of sanctioned camping efforts in Salem, see "Sanctioned Camping" (15 November 2015) (updated to present).

 

Councilor Andersen thanked Poole for "educating" the Council on the situation, which he called "frightening and disparaging" as well as "deplorable."  He asked if City Manager Powers could give Council "a little report."  Powers agreed the situation was "not ideal" and the damage to parks was "unfortunate", but said, basically, that options were limited because of the pandemic + need to maintain social distancing + limited shelter space/sites + growth of homeless population after canyon fires + Council's preference for the parks over downtown sidewalks.  He reiterated that the City has limited ability to enforce park rules (e.g. no cutting trees, no fires, no littering, etc.).  The gist was that, at present, the City has no reasonable alternative to allowing camping in the unimproved areas of Cascades Gateway and Wallace Marine parks.  

Powers asked Gretchen Bennett to report on mitigation efforts, but Mayor Bennett first called on Councilor Hoy.  Hoy thanked Poole for continuing to hold Council to account for their decision to allow camping in the parks, but "the problem continues to exceed our ability to solve it."  He "challenge[d]" Council to reconsider organized camping elsewhere in the City, which Council previously has rejected.  See Brynelston, T. "Salem leaders decide to shelter homeless instead of setting up public camping." December 9, 2019, Salem Reporter.)  As he usually does, the Mayor immediately pointed out that, not only is there NIMBY resistance to overcome in siting camps and shelters, a couple of organized camps would have minimal effect on the problem, given Salem is home to +1,500 unsheltered individuals.  He urged Council to "stay the course" and then called on Councilor Nordyke, who "wholeheartedly agree[d] with having additional options."  She called on property owners to reconsider their unwillingness to lease premises for use as a shelter, and claimed there were "a variety of community partners who are ready and willing to help with managed camps."  She did not, however, claim there was anyone ready and willing to operate a managed camp.  [But see 10/31/20 update below.]   

Gretchen Bennett gave a vague account of mitigation efforts, e.g., the ticketing of broken down vehicles at the parks, the challenges to getting them moved, the search for more vehicle and tent campsites, and the effort to identify and clean up abandoned campsites.  She and Powers both indicated that the matter is slated to return to Council on November 9th with policy choices and a request for funding.    

Council did not discuss, either Monday night, or during its work session on "non-criminal" policing, the implications of the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Oregon's decision in Blake v. City of Grants Pass.  See Harbarger, M. "Cities cannot fine homeless people for living outside, U.S. judge rules in Grants Pass case." (11 August 2020, Oregonian/ OregonLive.)  As we noted back in July when it came out, the decision is one more reason to believe conditions will not allow the City to enforce the camping ban at Wallace Marine or Cascades Gateway before March 2021 at the earliest, unless the City can provide some other place for people to live.  See "News from the Continuum." (26 July 2020.)  The ban currently is suspended through 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 2021 Point-in-Time Homeless Count is scheduled for January 26, 2021.  The decision is, however, bound to be on the minds of City staff.

Council's hope that the state will come to the rescue may be waning after last week's decision by the Emergency Board not to fund homeless shelters.  See VanderHart, D.  "Proposal to spend Oregon tax dollars on hotels spurs controversy"  (23 October 2020, OPB.) ($30 million is expected to fund around 500 units of shelter in wildfire-impacted areas including Clackamas, Jackson, Lane, Lincoln, and Marion counties.)  Borrud, H. "Oregon lawmakers consider spending $65 million to convert motels, hotels into shelters"  (23 October 2020, Oregonian/OregonLive.)   Borrud, H.  "Oregon lawmakers approve $30 million to purchase motels and hotels as shelters in wildfire areas, zero for the rest of the state"  (24 October 2020, Oregonian/OregonLive.)  Radnovich, C. "Lawmakers send $100M to wildfire relief, vote against homeless shelters."  (24 October 2020, Statesman Journal.)  While the Salem area is likely to benefit from the wildfire relief funding, it will provide no more than 50-100 units of non-congregate shelter for the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable.  What about everyone else?  

Perhaps in November, Council will be asked to reconsider Councilor Andersen's proposal to allow camping in some parts of the City and not others, as a reasonable "time, place and manner" limitation along the lines suggested by the court in Martin v. Boise.  See "Council Votes to Keep Camping Ban Intact, Bring Back Sit-Lie"  (10 February 2020) (rejecting Councilor Andersen's motion to lift the camping ban outside downtown, residential areas and parks).  Oakland passed such an ordinance last week.  See Orenstien, N.  "When can the city close a homeless camp? Oakland considers new rules."  (23 September 2020, The Oaklandside.) (Since 2017, Oakland's homeless population has jumped 63% to around 4,000.  Oakland has at least 140 tent/RV camps.  Oakland City Council unanimously approved the measure on 10/20/20.  It will take effect on 1/1/21.)  Associated Press.  "Oakland approves contentious rules on homeless encampments."  (21 October 2020, Fox40.)  We feel sure the Mayor and City staff would not support such a course change at this juncture, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in future if the situation in the parks does in fact become the "absolute disaster" that Mayor Bennett described it as Monday night.  This blog will be updated when more is known about the agenda for the November 9 Council meeting. 

10/29/20 update:  earlier this month, Poole gave the same presentation to SCAN, who last week passed a resolution claiming there had been "severe damage" to the parks to the point of destruction, and calling on the City Council to "begin a humane transition of unsheltered persons" out of the parks to some other, unidentified location.  The resolution helpfully advises:

To make this transition, the city should quickly identify the best practices for meeting the basic needs of unsheltered persons and implement those immediately—then monitor and improve upon those practices.  

The email from SCAN President Lorrie Walker, transmitting the resolution to the City, characterized the resolution as supporting "making some changes to camping in two of the city parks."  Perhaps Council should ask SCAN if they're now willing to allow the use of Pringle Hall as a temporary shelter?  See  "City Pleads with Pringle Hall Neighbors" (17 January 2020) (SCAN NIMBYs low-barrier shelter).  

10/31/20 update:  DJ Vincent with Church at the Park, which oversees the City's "Safe Parking Network" of vehicle camps and provides basic needs from its Turner Road location, told the Statesman Journal they "have a proposal in" to open a managed, 1-acre, 50-person tent campsite at an undetermined location.  Woodworth, W.  "Salem considers more options for 1,500 homeless as winter looms, COVID cases spike."  (31 October 2020, Statesman Journal.) 

11/5/20 update: Nordyke has a motion on Monday night's agenda 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).  Also Monday night, Council will be asked to consolidate its unsheltered emergency declarations and extend it for a year to October 26, 2021.  Staff report here.  Resolution 2020-49 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. 

News from the Continuum

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

City of Salem-approved vehicle camps

The City Manager reports that Salem now has, in addition to the vehicle camp at Church at the Park, four more registered vehicle camps.  The other four are at Salem Mission Faith Ministries (4308 Hillrose Street SE), Capitol Futbol Club (5201 State Street), Salem Indoor (4701 Portland Road NE) and West Salem United Methodist Church (1219 3rd Street NW).  The manager says the City needs more organizations participating in the program so police can enforce the ban on vehicle-camping at Cascades Gateway Park.  Under the pilot program, a maximum of 6 vehicles are allowed at one location, and a maximum of 8 locations are allowed.  It's estimated that the City has approximately 400 people living in their cars.  Find the vehicle camping registration form with more information here.

The Oregonian reported recently that camps around Portland have grown "exponentially" since the start of the pandemic.  Vinson, T. "As coronavirus rages, Portland’s homeless camps continue to grow."  (22 July 2020, Oregonian/Oregon Live.)  We asked Jimmy Jones, Executive Director of the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency, if the same was true in Salem.  This was his response.

Yes, the population is growing.  We don’t do official camp counts like some outreach models do throughout the year.  We do track active camping areas and it appears that the population has increased, especially in areas outside Wallace Marine and Cascade Gateway. Those two parks tend to have longer-term homeless residents and would not be the primary places you would expect to see increases and the newly homeless.  The East Salem homeless population appears to be growing rapidly.  The million dollar question is why.  It is it the virus?  Is it the normal summer swell we always see? Is it migration in from the counties and other places like Yamhill County?  The most probable answer for the increase is that it is all local and relates to two intertwined forces:  loss of income and the original lockdown with family members where there was strife.  The income piece probably led a lot of doubled up folks to exit.  There is a historically documented connection between unemployment and the rise in homelessness.  I do not think we have seen the full impact of that yet because of the eviction moratorium.  But it is coming.  

The federal moratorium on evictions ended last month.  Oregon's ends October 1, 2020.  Despite Oregonians having until March 31 to pay back rent, the potential for mass evictions in the coming months is what worries Jones.  See Cohen, J. "What Happens if 23 Million Renters Are Evicted?" (24 July 2020, Shelterforce.)  While "the vast majority" of Oregon renters have continued to meet their rent obligations during the pandemic, (Goldberg, J. "Oregon lawmakers extend commercial, residential eviction moratorium through September." (29 June 2020, Oregonian/OregonLive.)), the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that Oregon will need $1.2 billion to help people with very low incomes (<51% AMI) pay rent to make it through the next twelve months.  Marion and Polk counties have $5M to get renters through the end of the year, by which time the funds have to be spent. 

The Statesman Journal has added "Homeless" to its online news categories

SEMCA was back at City Council last week with concerns about the campers at Cascades Gateway Park.  See "Has Council 'moved the needle' on Homelessness?" (2 May 2020.)  SEMCA's chair, Cory Poole, argued it was unfair to concentrate camping at Cascades Gateway and Wallace Marine parks and that the City should instead open all City parks to camping.  During his remarks, Poole stated that the code enforcement workers had told him they were spending five hours a day at Cascades Gateway.  We asked the Neighborhood Enhancement Division Administrator, Brady Rogers, about that, and he confirmed what Poole had said.

Rogers explained in an email that much of code enforcement work involves face-to-face contact.  The pandemic and the Governor's "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order effectively limited that work to priority cases.  When the City opened Cascades Gateway and Wallace Marine parks to comping, some of his staff volunteered to help out.  They did such a good job, Rogers told us in an email, that Parks wanted them to continue.  "We eventually got to the point where as many as six of the Code Officers were helping with this", he wrote.  After a couple of months, the situation had improved, and the Code Officers returned to their usual work.

Jones agreed conditions at the parks had improved considerably, adding that, "from the client perspective they generally prefer to deal with a 'code guy' than someone with a badge and gun, because of institutional trauma."

The West Salem Neighborhood Association (WSNA), however, continues to push the City for more of a police presence, claiming without evidence that "increasing criminal activity since the establishment of a homeless camp here in West Salem", and that "the radius of this criminal activity is increasing."  WSNA  Chair Kevin Chambers reported on Friday that Polk County Sheriff's Department "will now be increasing patrols in West Salem at night, specifically around Wallace Marine Park."  

9/14/20 update: City Council authorized $312K to be allocated from General Fund to security services in Wallace Marine Park (in addition to Marion Square Park).  Two personnel, 8am to 12am, through 2021.

9/28/20 update: Governor Brown extended the residential eviction ban to 12/31/20.

News from the Continuum

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

"Mayor Bennett's Monday Message 7/13/20" (a 5' risible video about City's homeless response)

The outreach position Salem Housing Authority asked for back in February has been funded by the remnant of Willamette Valley Community Health (the area's CCO before Pacific Source took over) and filled, and Redwood Crossings is expected to open August 1. 

The State of Oregon gave Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency (MWVCAA) a way around an uncooperative Marion County with new rules that allow the City (vs. the county) to request about $400K reimbursement for sheltering approximately 100 medically fragile homeless households in motel/hotels during the spring.  Only ~10% or so of participants exited to housing.  Since the program ended, the number of infections statewide has tripled.

The City estimates up to 200 of Salem's unsheltered are known to be camping in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  By all accounts, the City and ODOT are adhering to guidance/instructions not to clean up or remove camps elsewhere because of the pandemic.  This is known about ODOT because the City asked ODOT to conduct one or more clean ups in a state right-of-way and was told, basically, no.   

As with the protests, the City seems helpless and somewhat fixated on the negative effects of the camping on City services/resources.  Parks operations generally "continue to be strained", according to the City Manager, because of the pandemic.  Staffing and volunteers are down, inmate crews are not available, and restrooms, drinking fountains, and playground equipment have to be cleaned more frequently. See Public Works Operations Manager Mark Becktel's 6/11/20 report to the Salem Parks and Rec Advisory Board (SPRAB), below.

Back in May, we reported on SEMCA's concerns about camping at Cascades Gateway Park (see "Has Council 'moved the needle' on Homelessness?" (2 May 2020)).  A couple of weeks after that report was published, the West Salem Neighborhood Association (WSNA) (which  voted last December 2019 to "oppose use of West Salem parks as official designated locations for homeless camping") created a "homeless committee", to be chaired by Fay DeMeyer of "Hope Crest" fame (see "Zombie Hillcrest Project Revives" (29 November 2019)).

The May minutes don't reflect how or why the committee was formed, but DeMeyer stated at the June WSNA that the committee had "a mandate to look at not allowing our parks to be a homeless shelter."  She also said, however, that "any temporary move from the park would be detrimental to future plans."  What "future plans" she didn't say, but she talked a good deal about Hillcrest at the May meeting, and she mentioned it twice at the June meeting.

DeMeyer indicated that the committee planned to consult campers and come back to WSNA with a proposal that DeMeyer said would need to be executed in the next three months.  The WSNA chair asked her to coordinate with WSNA Parks Chair Micki Varney (see WSNA June meeting minutes). Varney represented SPRAB on the City's Food Task Force (see "Should the City Regulate Homeless Meal Distributions?" (9 May 2019).  As of the June meeting, DeMeyer's committee had not identified a funding source for any endeavor.

The U.S. District Court for the District Court of Oregon last week granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment in Blake v. City of Grants Pass on a number of issues that have implications for the City of Salem's camping and sit-lie bans. See Green, E. "Houseless plaintiffs win in lawsuit against Grants Pass."  (23 July 2020, Street Roots.)  It should be discussed at the Council work session on Police Department "responses to, and resources for, non-criminal status and behaviors (persons in mental health crisis, unsheltered persons)", which has been scheduled for September 21.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Clarke's opinion is informative, despite the surfeit of dicta, and worth the read ahead of the work session.  The decision is one more reason to believe conditions will not allow the City to enforce the camping ban at Wallace Marine or Cascades Gateway before March 2021 at the earliest.

The City is still planning to use 2640 Portland Road NE as a warming shelter for up to ~75 people, possibly in conjunction with a small (10-25) tent camping program in the parking lot, to be run by MWVCAA's The ARCHES Project.  The current plan calls for a seasonal (November-March) shelter at Portland Road and Church at the Park, supported by the Salem Warming Network.  The network consists largely of volunteers and some paid lead workers and is run by MWVCAA's outreach coordinator Ranette Gonzales, who replaces KayLynn Gesner.  See "MWVCAA's Cold-Weather Shelter 2019-2020."  (16 May 2020.)   

Pre-pandemic, the network had four locations, but not enough workers to use them all.  This season, the risk of coronavirus infection may mean even fewer volunteers.  The need to maintain social distancing certainly will reduce shelter capacity and require the use of partitions and a lot more cleaning.  So, more work, more resources, fewer workers, fewer bed nights. Weather is another unknown.  Last winter was mild; the network was "activated" for only 17 nights.  Early forecasts for the PNW this winter call for above-normal snowfalls, but MWVCAA has lowered the activation threshold for this winter to 35 degrees Fahrenheit, up from 32 degrees last winter. 

Funding is always an issue.  Although the City continues to suggest publicly that state shelter funding is a near-term possibility, the sharp drop in the state's lottery income due to the pandemic made impossible the sale of $273 million in state bonds needed to pay for such projects (e.g., affordable housing preservation ($25M) and affordable/market rate housing acquisition ($15M)).  "Funding for 37 Oregon projects killed by economic downturn from coronavirus pandemic."  (9 July 2020, AP/Statesman Journal.)  

 

12/5/20 update:  Harrell, S. "Housing Authority’s navigator acts as a bridge, connecting people on the street to help." (5 December 2020, Salem Reporter.)

Has Council "moved the needle" on Homelessness?

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Councilor Nordyke sure thinks so.  Monday night, she praised City Council and staff for "helping move the needle on a crisis that has been decades in the making" by prohibiting loitering and public gatherings of three or more, opening Cascades-Gateway and Wallace Marine Parks to overnight camping, and passing a sit-lie ordinance.  See "COVID-19 Returns Campers to City Parks."

"If you look at our downtown streets, you can clearly see the results", Nordyke told Council.  "You can tell by how clean the streets are."  (Find a transcript of her complete statement at the end of this post.)     

Nordyke's comments were made during the opening segment of Monday night's meeting of the City Council, the first meeting since sit-lie was enacted (March 23), just as the City was going in to "lockdown" under a statewide order to "Stay Home, Save Lives."  Monday night's meeting was the first to occur in novel corona virus format:  the video conference.

We asked Jimmy Jones, Executive Director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, if he thought sit-lie had cleaned up the downtown streets, or that "the needle" had been moved, as a result of the City's recent actions.

Jones told us by email that "[s]it-lie had nothing to do with cleaning up the downtown" because it isn't being enforced and that "giving people a place to go cleaned up the downtown streets."

By "place to go", Jones was referring to the parks, because the pandemic shrunk all available shelter spaces and torpedoed the City's plan for a tent day shelter in Marion Square Park.  "We asked the city to open the parks for camping because of public health concerns centered on COVID", he said, explaining that, up until summer of last year, authorities had tolerated camping in Wallace Marine and Cascades-Gateway Parks. 

So what about the idea that clean streets show that the City's "moved the needle"?  There might be fewer complaints from downtown businesses, Jones responded, "but nothing fundamental has changed."

The City has, however, received dozens of new complaints from SEMCA and residents of Paradise Island Park, a 55+ manufactured housing park with 214 homes located on the southern end of Cascades-Gateway Park.  See their written comments here, summarized in a letter from Cory Poole, SEMCA's Chair and the park's owner-operator:



The letter urges Council to make five changes to "the current camping policy", including the immediate establishment of a "post-pandemic homeless camping policy."

Monday night, Council briefly discussed the situation in the parks before voting unanimously to extend the City's emergency declaration.  See here at ~1:20:00.  As usual, the discussion focused on the City's response to complaints. 

Hitherto, City Manager Steve Powers typically would call on Kristin Retherford, Director of the Urban Development Department, to give Council a status report on the City's response.  But ever since the state of emergency went into effect, the City's homeless point person has been Gretchen Bennett.  Bennett works in the Mayor/City Manager's Office and is not related to the Mayor.

Before Bennett gave her report, Powers told Council that Bennett, Parks and Transportation Services Manager Mark Becktel and Police Chief Moore made regular inspections of Cascades-Gateway and surrounds.  They had arranged to tour Cascades-Gateway Park with Poole on Wednesday, and Mayor Bennett asked to go along, as did SEMCA's three councilors (Andersen, Nanke and Leung).

As part of her new responsibilities, Bennett has been writing formulaic, empathetic-sounding emails to individual complainants.  Councilor Lewis praised Bennett for her "personal touch."  Example:

  
Councilor Lewis told Council that the situation in Wallace-Marine Park "necessitated bringing the police army vehicle over to Roth's West Salem parking lot last week."  Mayor Bennett said he wanted to send the "command vehicle over to Cascades-Gateway and give it a couple of days as well."  There were no questions about this "command unit" strategy, and it was not discussed further.

Councilor Hoy said he wanted "to remind folks that homelessness is an issue throughout the City", that the population had recently "exploded", with "people camping on the sidewalks on Market, on Lancaster, all over the place."  He exhorted Council to "be more assertive" and to "keep reminding our friends at the State that they created a lot of this problem through the de-institutionalization of folks without proper community support."  Councilor Kaser agreed with Hoy and said "We should be sending a letter a week", and "we should be bugging the dickens out of the state legislature to actually do something."

There the discussion ended.  If the City is working on a plan for the coming winter, they've given no indication of it.  In all likelihood, pandemic-related social distancing requirements are going to limit the availability of shelter space, including emergency warming, and the hoped for low-barrier shelter funding is nowhere in sight.   The City needs to prepare, now, to deal with this reality or people will die.

As for the park camping, Jones predicts that "[t]he same thing will happen here as has happened before, both in Salem and every other small town in Oregon."

A critical mass will be reached and the Council will react by evicting them from the park[s]. At that point, they will disperse again throughout the neighborhoods and in the downtown. New complaints will emerge. City government will consider how this could have happened again, and new plans will be crafted to deal with the same conditions again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And not just in Oregon ------->

Jones says "command unit" strategies, like the camping, loitering, gathering, sitting and lying bans, don't work because they don't house anyone.      
 
"There is one undeniable fact here", Jones told us by email.  "No criminalization approach stands any chance of succeeding.  The Council can rule as they like and the Police can enforce as they may, but that will not reduce homelessness so much as one person in this city."

Such approaches also don't make people leave town, Jones told us.

"We can gravitate toward a law-and-order approach as they have in Grants Pass, but it will not drive anyone out of Salem to Eugene or Portland.  Eventually someone is going to have to realize that these are American citizens and they are in need. Our proper response is to serve and house them, not scapegoat them for their poverty." 

About the impact of the camping on the parks, Jones feels the "concern over the environmental impact of poverty" is "telling."

"When people are cold, they make fires.  When people are hungry, they cook food.  When they are wet, they build shelter.  All of these things have an impact on the lived environment the same way as our cars, factories, and landfills do for housed people."

Salem Reporter is running a series on the May election.  As ever, homelessness is the top issue in Ward 1.  See Harrell, S. "In downtown Salem ward, council candidates cite homelessness as defining issue."  (30 April 2020, Salem Reporter.)  Jan Kaluweit says he "envision[s] the city’s role as that of a strategic partner and collaborator coordinating and streamlining services between government, nonprofits and the business community."  Virginia Stapleton believes "Councilor Kaser has been a terrific councilor in Ward 1" and that, "[a]s we care for those less fortunate than us we create a culture as a just and caring community and this will have a positive effect on all our residents."  Kaluweit can be held accountable for progress toward his vision.  It will be much more difficult to hold Stapelton to account for hers.         

& & &   

Councilor Nordyke's comment Monday night:

I want to say that it's been a little over a month since we declared a citywide state of emergency [March 17, 2020] and about a month since we passed the sit-lie ordinance [March 23, 2020].  If you look at our downtown streets, you can clearly see the results of passing the ordinance and you can clearly see the results of having passed our citywide state of emergency.  I still firmly believe that our sit-lie ordinance strikes a balance between the needs of our unsheltered and the needs of our business community.  And you can tell by how clean the streets are that you can tell that difference.  We have a number of folks who are in shelter or in camping areas because we've been working diligently with our community partners, with business owners, talking to all kinds of stakeholders.  Do I feel like we have the problem solved?  No, but this is a step in the right direction and I want to commend my colleagues and our city staff for helping move the needle on a crisis that has been decades in the making so I thank my colleagues for their support of these programs.  I look forward to addressing our next steps in addressing homelessness in our city. 

Jimmy Jones' email reply to our question:

Sit-Lie had nothing to do with cleaning up the downtown. It isn’t even in effect yet.  We asked the city to open the parks for camping because of public health concerns centered on Covid, as they had unofficially been for years until the Summer of 2019.  Giving people a place to go cleaned up the downtown streets.  If at some point in the future they reverse course and close the parks we will have the same outcome (people living on the streets in the downtown, whether sit-lie is in effect or not).  The needle may have been moved for some interests, but nothing fundamental has changed.  This nearly year long debacle wasn’t caused by our homeless. It was caused by poor policy decisions.  If Salem doesn’t learn from its mistakes they will repeat them again and our homeless community will again suffer for it.  The best course of action is to leave them be and for government to practice enough patience to give our evidence based efforts the time to work.

5/3/20 Update:  The City Manager's "Update" for 4/28 states:

Staff continues to work on being ready for state funding for a navigation center to serve homeless individuals. The state funding is expected to be considered when the legislature holds an emergency session.  If the funding is provided to the City, there will be an urgent need to begin implementation of the shelter and coordination of services in one location.  Staff will have updates and recommendations for council consideration this summer (timing will be guided by when the legislature meets) for an interim (90 day) and a permanent location for a navigation center.

COVID-19 Returns Campers to City Parks

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Wallace Marine Park after September 2019 bulldozing, photo courtesy Statesman Journal

Six months after the City cleared homeless camps in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks, campers have returned.  See Bach, J. and Ranovich, C.  "Recent evictions, police activity could end decades of homeless camps in Wallace Marine Park."  (15 September 2019, Statesman Journal.)  In a desperate effort to remove 30-50 people living on the sidewalks outside Rite Aid and along Center Street, City Council this week held an emergency session, 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."

News of the temporary policy shift spread quickly to campers and other homeless individuals living less visibly throughout Salem's 18 neighborhoods, and by week's end, there were reportedly about 100 camps in Wallace Marine Park and 30 in Cascades Gateway Park.  No one, including the City, has any idea how long they will be allowed to remain.  Right now, everyone and everything's focused on controlling the spread of COVID-19.  Update:  Harrell, S. "Homeless person in Salem quarantined in motel after testing positive for COVID-19."  (26 March 2020, Salem Reporter.)  Dave Miller Think Out Loud interview with Jimmy Jones.

Monday night, Council will conduct the second reading of Ordinance Bill 6-20, which bans sitting and lying on sidewalks and City rights of way.  "See Sit Lie Passes, But Will Cost."  The ban is effective immediately, but may not be enforced "until the opening of additional daytime space that is protected from the elements and includes access to toilets. This space must be open during all periods the restrictions in this ordinance are in effect (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday)."  See Section 2(r).

So long as its loitering-gathering ban remains in place, the City doesn't "need" sit-lie to control the homeless downtown.  But, once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, say a year from now, Council will face exactly the same situation it faced so disastrously last fall:  breaking up the camps in the parks and surrounding areas means driving campers into downtown and nearby neighborhoods, unless in the mean time providers have managed to house a significant number of campers, stand up a permanent low-barrier shelter, and open a 24/7 navigation center.

None of those contingencies seems likely in the aftermath of the pandemic.  The special session that  Mayor Bennett was hoping would focus on "the homeless package" will now be focused on the COVID-19 response.  And the $45 million the legislature was ready to commit to ending homelessness has basically dried up, as the state, if not the world, hurtles into an economic recession.  And with it, any hope Salem had of standing up a permanent low-barrier shelter or 24/7 navigation center by this fall.

If anyone's wondering whether Council might resort to its big tent solution as a fall back low-barrier shelter (see "Sit Lie Could Cost $30-$75K a Month"), that seems even less likely.  Monday night, Council considers Resolution No. 2020-19, withdrawing the referral of Ordinance Bill No. 11-19 (creating an employee-based payroll tax) to Salem voters at the May 19, 2020 election.  It will doubtless pass.  That means no payroll tax revenue in the City's immediate future, which means no City funds for a big tent shelter this fall.        

The City is reportedly upset to discover so many campers at the parks.  For some reason, they didn't believe what Jimmy Jones repeated ad nauseum about their significant numbers and dispersal throughout the City.  But, what the City should be concerned about is the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on providers and the implications for their clients.  The ARCHES Project has had to close its mobile shower service and day shelter.  Staff are conducting outreach to the camps and downtown (yes, there are still people living in the streets downtown) and  clients will still be able to use the restroom and pick up mail and a sandwich.  The Union Gospel Mission reportedly has stopped doing intakes (Men's Mission and Simonka House) and is otherwise serving only those enrolled in a program, except that the Men's Mission is still providing bagged lunches.  Only HOAP (Northwest Human Services) is providing day shelter, showers and laundry.

The time will come when the City again decides it's time to clean up the camps in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks.  It's unrealistic, perhaps, to expect the City to begin planning for that day now, with such uncertainty affecting so many aspects of daily life and no immediate end to the uncertainty in sight.  Nevertheless, the question should be in the back of everyone's mind.  What is the plan?  Because the day will come, and the question must be asked -- and answered satisfactorily -- before action is taken to break up the camps and sweep people out of the parks.  If the City is to avoid what happened in 2019, the City must be "pro" active.  That means, before the situation becomes a public health emergency, the City should develop a plan with providers, and share it with the community, and begin as soon as possible.

In the mean time, it will come as a surprise to no one that, aside from moving homeless off of downtown streets, that the City is not enforcing the ban on gathering and loitering.  See Woodworth, W. "Q&A: How do Salem's new rules on gatherings, camping in parks affect residents?" (20 March 2020, Statesman Journal.)  Talking to people who've gathered in chairs outside Starbucks and elsewhere around downtown and Bush Park, we find people are generally aware of the ban and social distancing guidance, and simply don't care.  Salem Health has closed the Let's All Play Playground.  If the City Council was serious about wanting to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it should take similar actions.

Bush Park, March 21, 2020