The boulevard pictured along Commercial Street Northeast where tents had been staked in December.(Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter)
Salem city councilors on Monday voted to erect a canopy and install portable restrooms in Marion Square Park as a ban on sitting or lying on sidewalks during the day takes effect.
The 7,000-square-foot cover to provide shelter for homeless residents is estimated to cost $5,200 a month. The city also intends to post security at the park from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., costing an additional $19,150 per month.
City Manager Steve Powers said the cover could accommodate around 70 people and would be available during the hours a ban is in place – from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Councilor Cara Kaser proposed the idea of providing day space in conjunction with an ordinance intended to move homeless people from downtown streets.
Councilors voted 7-1 to move forward with the sit-lie ban. Councilor Jackie Leung was the sole no vote, citing concerns about who would be asked to move under the ordinance. Councilor Matt Ausec was absent.
The council by procedure has to vote again March 23 to impose the ban.
Kaser’s plan also keeps the ban from being linked to the city’s crime prevention districts, also known as exclusion zones, so anyone violating the sit-lie restriction wouldn’t face criminal charges.
Councilor Jim Lewis supported the ban but said that eliminating the exclusion penalty took the teeth out of the ordinance.
“An ordinance you pass that you can’t enforce is useless,” Lewis said.
Councilor Brad Nanke agreed.
Expanding the day hours at ARCHES, a nonprofit provider of services to the homeless, was estimated to cost $74,333 per month, but that will depend on getting state funding, city officials said.
One of the other contingencies of Kaser’s plan included adding permanent, public restrooms downtown.
Powers’ report to the council said cleaning city-owned portable toilets in Marion Square Park would cost the city about $5,000 a month. The toilets would be available at all hours unless damage required them to be locked overnight.
Both the outdoor cover and toilets could be ready within two weeks, said Mark Becktel, the city’s public works operations manager.
The city has struggled to maintain portable toilets downtown because they’ve been burned and littered with hypodermic needles.
Nanke said his biggest concern was portable restrooms because of issues the city has had in the past.
Mayor Chuck Bennett said the portable bathrooms were an interim solution while the city looks at buying a single-stall restroom called a Portland Loo for $185,000. Those restrooms are considered more resistant to vandalism, but a backlog means installation would be seven months away.
“Everyone who’s tried Port-O-Potties has had enough problems they quit using them downtown,” Bennett said.
The city can use urban development funds to buy the Portland Loo, but has to include a $125,000 maintenance cost in next year’s budget to pay for cleaning.
The sit-lie ordinance drew more than 100 pages of written comments and 45 minutes of public testimony at Monday’s meeting.
Melissa Ball said in her written testimony that she saw a man’s genitals while driving her daughter to Capital Christian School, across the street from Rite Aid’s building where homeless have been camping.
“No children should be left in our city to look out the window of their daycare or school and see these things. Over the years there have been times where the students see things they should not but this is now a daily issue thanks to the homeless living on this side walk. Please protect our children,” Ball wrote.
John and Nada Gross, owners of John Gross Interior Design, said they have cleaned feces, urine and vomit off their building and on the sidewalk in front of their business many times.
Lynelle Wilcox, who works at the Safe Sleep women’s shelter, said she opposes the ban because day centers and a tent in the park won’t meet the need of the area’s homeless. She proposed repealing a portion of the camping ban to solve the homeless problem downtown.
“The proposed options are sooo fiscally expensive, and the problem will mostly be resolved as a lot of projects come to fruition in the next few months anyway. I wish for my city to invest our money more responsibly than spending so much money to *manage* homelessness, when prior investments to *solve* homelessness are about to pay off,” she wrote.
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