DJ Vincent, founding pastor of Church at the Park, said that his organization will take steps to better prepare for winter storms at micro shelter sites following complaints from residents about unsafe conditions and a lack of bathroom access due to icy weather.
Those steps include adding extra wrapping to insulate water pipes, replacing a broken community tent at the Village of Hope on Northeast Center Street and having employees prioritize salting and shoveling pathways to bathrooms and services should another winter weather event occur.
On Tuesday, Jan. 16, three days after ice coated all of Salem, residents at the city’s oldest micro shelter village said that they’d gone without running water for days and that people with mobility challenges had no access to bathrooms, describing the situation as a “nightmare.”
Residents say some pods didn’t have any clear path to bathrooms which made it impassable for people using walkers or wheelchairs, and a large patch of ice blocked the way to the majority of portable bathrooms. They said some residents resorted to using trash cans in their pods, which they said was an unhygienic health concern.
Church at the Park operates three micro shelter sites in Salem, providing temporary shelter and case management to hundreds of homeless Salemites. The Village of Hope site has 74 residents and is run under a contract with the city of Salem, which budgeted $2.1 million for operations this year.
City Manager Keith Stahley said that, should another ice storm happen, they’ll bring city homeless liaison Gretchen Bennett into the city’s emergency response meetings earlier to identify services and facilities city leaders should pay attention to.
Bennett had seen the Village of Hope site on Saturday, Stahley said. He said he was not made aware of resident complaints until Salem Reporter called Mayor Chris Hoy on Tuesday.
“We got very internally focused there, and bringing Gretchen into that conversation will allow her to have her voice at the table and be able to communicate with police, fire, public works about what the constraints are and what the challenges are for our service providers,” he said.
Stahley said that the city doesn’t provide the service, and as the contractor looks to Church at the Park to address resident concerns. The city’s 2022 contract with Church at the Park did not include any stipulations about preparations for extreme weather.
When asked if they met the city’s expectations, Stahley said, “It’s unfortunate, but it’s understandable.”
“I understand the challenges of trying to operate a facility like that, under the conditions they were extraordinarily challenging given the type of precipitation and then the temperature change,” he said.
Vincent said that employees on shift were overloaded with responsibilities and being shuttled between sites with two vehicles. The organization only had essential workers to report because of the weather conditions, so Village of Hope had only two employees working.
“Part of the tension here is that some of our most gifted staff at just hearing residents well, and taking that extra time with them: case managers, peers, chaplains, those folks were not asked to report on site because they were not essential service,” he said.
At the Village of Hope site, he said there were issues getting supplies from a shed that had frozen over. Vincent said that some staff members, but not all, were working to address the mobility issues which he said they should have been doing in hindsight.
“Instead of calling it good as a staff person, that there was a bathroom, like let’s just keep working until all bathrooms are available,” Vincent said.
Saturday morning, residents at the site said a community tent that provides TV and hospitality services collapsed and staff acted quickly to unplug heaters and make sure that a fire wouldn’t catch. That day, wheelchair accessible ramps froze over leaving people with disabilities unable to leave their pods, and there was no running water by Sunday.
Toni, a resident who asked to be identified by first name to protect her privacy, said she had a lot of patience on Saturday, but after seeing several people fall and get injured and no signs of adequate deicing efforts ahead of another storm Tuesday afternoon, she decided to reach out to city leaders, the Marion County Health Department and the media trying to share residents’ experience at the micro shelter site.
She said it wasn’t until Salem Reporter published an article about resident concerns on Tuesday that a staff member and volunteers began shoveling a pathway to the bathrooms using shovels brought from home.
“They had no equipment on site for all of these days to take care of this, and an employee did it of his own accord,” Toni said.
She said Church at the Park management left employees at the site to fend for themselves when it came to the snow response.
Residents helped to the best of their ability, but were hindered by a lack of supplies and mobility issues. She said a couple who both use walkers cleared the ice on their pod’s ramp and worked to help clear their neighbors’ ramps.
“We never wanted this to be adversarial. We wanted to be heard, and we wanted our needs met,” Toni said. “And we have a right as constituents in this community, to raise our hand and say that we are not getting what we are entitled to in regards to safety and our well being.”
Residents said that the shelter should have done an in-depth risk assessment, prepared the water supply and checked inventory before the storm came.
“If you’ve lived in Oregon for more than five years, you know we get lots of snow storms. I’ve lived here my entire life, save for one year. I know we get massive snow storms. You have to plan for the worst. That is your job as a shelter, that is your job as a business, period,” said Morgan, another resident who asked to be identified by first name to protect her privacy.
Toni said one resident was injured trying to move down her ramp, and that several other injuries took place before a concerted effort was made to improve the situation. She said the water jugs Church at the Park provided froze over by late Sunday.
Vincent said the whole city was going through a tough time with the storm.
“Lots of things in places just literally shut down because they could and we could not shut down, and we needed to take a lot of extra effort to get on site and just try to make things as comfortable and safe as we can,” he said. “I just want to recognize that those 70+ people may not have had any place to be and we were able to provide a safe and supportive space.”
On Wednesday, he posted a note on the Church on the Park Facebook page thanking employees for their work.
“I am filled with gratitude and pride for the way the Church at the Park staff responded through our weather event over the past five days,” Vincent wrote.
A separate post on the organization’s page in response to Salem Reporter’s article said, “We take any feedback, criticism, and complaints seriously. The goal for each of our sites is that the space will be safe, sanitary, and supportive. Any feedback we get on how we are falling short or how we can better reach that goal is valuable to us.”
Residents told Salem Reporter they just wanted the bare minimum for health, safety and accessibility as with any tenant situation.
“It’s like because we don’t pay with currency, we’re not given the same rights as other residents,” Toni said.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
