WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2022 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Todd, Clarkson vie for Marion County DA
Virginia Barreda
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
For the first time in 38 years, the race
for Marion County’s top attorney office
will be contested.
Salem-area Spencer Todd announced
his candidacy for Marion County District
Attorney last summer against incumbent
Paige Clarkson in the upcoming May 17
primaries in Oregon.
Clarkson was appointed by Gov. Kate
Brown when her predecessor, Walt Be-
glau, announced his retirement in 2018.
She ran unopposed the same year and
was elected into office in January 2019.
Clarkson says she believes in “law and
order and holding people accountable.”
She says her two dec-
ades of experience as a
prosecutor, as well as her
tough-on-crime philoso-
phy, is “trusted and tested
and tried” — and they’re
Clarkson
things her 33-year-old op-
ponent lacks.
“I am not the soft-on-crime-candi-
date,” she said. “I am not the candidate
who is going to coddle criminals.”
Todd said the “experience argument
isn’t a good one.”
He plans to bring his eight years of ex-
perience as a trial lawyer to help protect
victims and prosecute cases. His career as
a public defender, he says, allows him to
bring an understanding of the “other
team’s playbook,” to the District Attor-
ney’s office — the ability to
better anticipate what a
defense attorney would
do.
Todd says there needs
to be a reinvention of the
Clarkson
way the District Attorney’s
office handles many cases.
While prison may be the answer to high-
level crimes, Todd says, more funding
should be devoted to helping offenders
address their problems, including treat-
ment for drug addiction and mental ill-
ness. This approach can help keep people
from reoffending and keep the communi-
ty safer.
“Not everybody is just a villain. Some
people, if you give them a chance, are go-
ing to be back as productive members of
society,” Todd said. “We need to do a bet-
ter job.”
Paige Clarkson: ‘If not me, who
else?’
Between the COVID-19 pandemic, so-
cial unrest, as well as legislative and gov-
ernor decisions that have “reduced law
enforcement’s toolbox,” Clarkson said her
last three years have been the most chal-
lenging in her 20-year law career.
“It’s hard to think of a time that rivals
this,” she said.
But Clarkson, who lives with her hus-
band and four children in South Salem,
says she has a vested interest in the safety
See DA, Page 4A
Homeless women
outnumber men
locally, but
services lag
Virginia Barreda and Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
Ruth Patching, an Oregon Crafters Market member/vendor, moves some of her market sale items into a
temporary storage area at the market, 215 N. Water St. in Silverton. At right is OCM manager Joy Ewing.
GEOFF PARKS / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Crafters Market ready to
bring funky wares to Silverton
Geoff Parks
Special to the Statesman Journal
Sandwiched between the newest/oldest restau-
rants in Silverton and a food truck pod/bake shop, the
welcoming little streetside space at 215 N. Water Street
will — beginning the weekend of May 6-8 — once
again host the summer-long Oregon Crafters Market.
The site of the third-year event may end up becom-
ing a town square of sorts during weekends from May
through October.
Visitors will be able to walk the town center, eat in
one of several downtown restaurants or grab some-
thing from the bakery, food trucks or the market’s own
new on-site restaurant, The High Water Grill.
Then, while enjoying live music, they can take a lei-
surely spring stroll around the market’s 42 vendor
spaces to seek out items as wide-ranging and esoteric
as Funky Fish, tie-dyed shoelaces, massage stones —
even Grammie’s Drawers.
Oregon Crafters Market manager Joy Ewing said in
late April that she already had “well over 60 applica-
tions” for the available vendor spaces. She said she an-
See CRAFTERS, Page 2A
Cindel Mikesell has been told she doesn’t act like a
“homeless person.”
“I mean, I know what they mean,” Mikesell said. But
“that’s not necessarily a good thing.”
The word “homeless” often conjures images of a per-
son sleeping on the sidewalk, standing at a street cor-
ner asking for change or camping in Oregon’s parks.
Mikesell, 42, of Salem, has never slept on a sidewalk
or asked for money from passersby. But it doesn’t make
her situation any less dire.
“I am invisible,” she said.
Mikesell has faced homelessness on multiple occa-
sions while working to manage health issues, including
Type 2 diabetes.
She is among the thousands of more invisible home-
less sleeping in their cars, in motels or on friends’
couches. They often flow in and out of homelessness as
they struggle with employment, health issues or other
challenges. And many of them, particularly in north-
west Oregon, carry an additional layer of invisibility —
they are women.
In Oregon’s Marion and Polk counties, women made
up more than half of the homeless population in 2021.
According to the Marion and Polk Coordinated Entry
data, which surveys people trying to get housing and
other services, there were 1,318 adult homeless women,
compared to 1,239 men.
Nationally — both in most other specific areas
across the nation and nationwide overall — the gender
breakdown in recent years has remained consistently
about 70% male and 30% female. Individuals who
identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming
make up about 1% of the U.S. homeless population.
While women make up a majority of the region’s
homeless, their needs remain largely ignored.
They often carry trauma from abuse or domestic vi-
olence, but mental health services are lacking. They are
significantly more likely to be abused or assaulted
while on the streets than their male counterparts, and
yet there are fewer shelter beds available to keep them
safely off the streets compared to those for men in the
region.
There is a growing population of aging women
struggling with homelessness and significant health is-
sues. The lack of affordable child care, the wage gap
and rising rents put families, especially those led by
single mothers, at another disadvantage.
Number of homeless women is growing across
US
Joy Ewing, manager of the Oregon Crafters Market
(left), stands with Glen Damewood, property owner,
and Ruth Patching, an OCM member/vendor. GEOFF
PARKS / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Homeowners host
micro-shelter for homeless
While the Mid-Willamette Valley is an outlier for
having more documented homeless women than men,
it may not be for long. Women make up the fastest-
growing segment of the U.S. homeless population, ac-
cording to multiple studies and papers analyzing
homelessness data.
And national data indicates women typically end up
homeless for different reasons than men, reasons often
connected to domestic violence and their economically
vulnerable roles as single parents. The vast majority of
See HOMELESS, Page 3A
Capi Lynn
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
At a time when others in the community are saying
‘Not in our neighborhood’ to micro-shelters for the
homeless, one South Salem couple is saying ‘Yes, in
our front yard.’
Lisa Arana and Brenda Chandler wanted to install a
micro-shelter on their property. They informed their
neighbors, gathered community support, then
worked with the designer to prepare the site and with
the manager at SafeSleep United to choose their first
See MICRO-SHELTERS, Page 2A
Neighbors Cindel Mikesell, Lisa Arana and Brenda
Chandler spend time in their yard on Friday in
Salem. ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
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Pennie Vandewarkerhansen, 62, spends time in her
car or a friend’s house when she’s not at the
homeless shelter.
ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL