JANUARY 6, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
WARM,
continued from Page A1
I’m given a tour of the fa-
cility which is mostly open
space and a few rooms off the
main fl oor where supplies,
donated items and the bags of
visitors are kept. There’s also a
common area where visitors
can eat, drink and keep com-
pany.
There will be a full orien-
tation at 7:30 p.m. with the
other people on my shift, but I
get enough to know the lay of
the land and then help unpack
some of the evening’s supplies.
Shortly before we start
checking people in, a mem-
ber of the community pulls up
in a truck with food and fi ve
still-in-the-box, cold-weather
sleeping bags. Organizers ac-
cept the sleeping bags, but
decline the food. The ODE
Warming Center hours have
been set up so that homeless
individuals can get a meal at
Union Gospel Mission and
then walk over to one of two
warming centers, the other is
located at an old car dealership
a few blocks away.
As the doors open, I am
posted at the bag check-in sta-
tion. Visitors to the center are
only supposed to have a small,
transparent bag of personal
belongings at their sleeping
space. Everything else – in-
cluding sleeping bags, blankets
and pillows – gets put in draw-
string trash bags and labeled
with a name and number for
pick-up when the warming
center closes in the morning.
I’m told by a volunteer
who worked the night be-
fore that we should ask if they
were here the previous night
because they may have a bag
with a blanket already stored
at the site. If not, they get a
new one. The wool blankets
we dole out work fi ne in-
doors, but fare poorly in the
elements.
I work my way through the
fi rst couple of visitors and feel
as though I need to be more
welcoming. I start trying to
initiate something more like a
conversation and immediately
shove my foot halfway down
my throat.
I ask one visitor as he puts
his backpack in a trash bag if
he has everything he needs for
the night. “Not a dang thing,”
he responds with disbelief at
my out-of-touch question.
I try again with the next
visitor as I collect his belong-
ings, “How are you doing?”
He was checking into a warm-
ing shelter, and if I’d given it a
second’s thought I would have
nixed that question, too.
By the fourth or fi fth try, I
fi nally settle on, “How are you
holding up tonight?” Some
visitors barely respond while
others engage me in small talk.
A couple thank me for taking
the time to volunteer, which
makes me feel like a fraud. To
my mind, four hours is such a
small sacrifi ce to make in the
face of a mounting problem
throughout the area.
All the while, I’m having
to enforce the
rules
about
what is al-
lowed in the
sleeping area.
Small trans-
parent
bags,
nothing else
but the clothes
on your back.
Make sure you
have your cell phones, ciga-
rettes, and medication if you
need them close. I’ve become
the TSA agent of the down-
and-out.
Regardless of how it makes
me feel to be an enforcer, the
rules are in place for a reason.
Keeping personal belongings
in a secure area means no one
will be tempted to rummage
through another person’s stuff,
which reduces confl ict and
the need to push anyone back
out onto the street on a frigid
night.
Somewhere around this
time, I remember what Cyndi
told us right before we opened
the doors, “We’re here tonight
so someone isn’t freezing to
death on the street.” Within
that context, asking someone
to surrender all their worldly
possessions in return for a
night of shelter is enough of a
prod that I keep going.
About an hour into my
shift, intake slows to a trickle.
Until the lights shut off
at 10 p.m.,
I spend the
time visiting
with fellow
vo l u n t e e r s
and some of
the
night’s
visitors. Sev-
eral of the
vo l u n t e e r s
are looking
for ways they can get involved
during the rest of the week,
either through donations or
additional shifts, while visi-
tors seem more keen on just
fi nding a friendly ear. Mostly,
however, they keep to them-
selves. Not long after the lights
dim, I realize that the primary
myth of the warming center
is that it’s not what anyone
with regular access to a central
heating system would consid-
er warm.
The front door has been
held open by the line of visi-
tors for the better part of the
night and the temperature
seems to drop several degrees
as people stop moving around
and settle in. It’s a good bit
warmer than the outside tem-
perature of 33 degrees, but its
closer to the times when my
family has awoken to some-
thing having gone wrong with
our furnace and the tempera-
ture inside is somewhere be-
tween 55 and 63 degrees.
On top of that, most of
our visitors have only a thin
sleeping pad and a blanket to
ward off the chill. They’re also
trying to sleep in a cavernous
room where any warm air is
rising well above them. Those
days my family has endured
without indoor heating were
spent with blankets piled atop
us at night, and sometimes it
didn’t feel like enough.
By the time my shift ends at
11:30 p.m., I’ve put my jacket
back on and I’m fi ghting the
urge to put up the hood on
my sweatshirt. I bathe in warm
air from my car’s heater the
second it warms up to an ac-
ceptable temperature and then
take a steaming shower to fi n-
ish the job before falling into
bed.
The temptation with sto-
ries like these is always to
wrap them up with a tidy
bow. A signifi er that things
are rough, but there are good
people trying to make a differ-
ence. That is true, but it’s also
true that the need for services
like warming shelters isn’t go-
ing away. We can’t wish them
into oblivion, and someone
is always going to be needed
to collect personal belong-
ings as our area’s homeless
residents check-in at shelters
and warming centers. Anyone
who can make it through such
a task without feeling a twinge
of shame at their indulgences
is tougher than me.
At the same time, lo-
cal government leaders have
been collaborating on a task
force for the past year trying
to fi gure out a better approach
to tackling the problems of
homelessness. The task force
stops meeting in February and
concrete plans for the way
forward are still somewhat
sketchy beyond endorsing
the work of some nonprofi t
groups dealing with the issue
in their own ways.
The worst possible out-
come is to end up yet with an-
other plan/study/pamphlet of
services that sits on a shelf for
the next decade and collects
dust while waiting for funding
that never materializes.
The warming centers may
prevent someone from freez-
ing to death on the streets, but
it a far cry from restoring any-
one’s dignity. It’s incumbent
upon all of us to fi nd a better
way to do both.
As of press time, Wednesday,
Jan. 4, volunteers are still needed
for the remaining warming cen-
ter shifts. Visit www.mwvcaa.org
to sign up. The warming centers
can also use donations of Clorox
wipes, large black garbage bags
with drawstrings, thick masking
tape, powdered creamer, sugar,
bouillon, and the following cloth-
ing items in adult sizes: warm
coats, gloves, knit caps, socks, jeans
and sweatshirts.
PARKS,
continued from Page A1
more park spaces and ame-
nities is stretching resources
thin.
The “Match” portion of
the campaign refers to sys-
tem development charges
(SDCs) collected by the city
when new residential con-
struction begins in Keizer.
The city has nearly $800,000
in SDCs already collected,
but those funds can only be
used for 13.6 percent of any
new project. For example,
if the city wanted to build a
new $100,000 indoor sports
facility, only $13,600 of SDC
money could be used to fund
the project. The city would
have to come up with anoth-
er $86,400 from other sourc-
es. To spend down the entire
$800,000 in already-collected
SDCs, Keizer would need to
come up with $6.1 million.
Limits on how much SDC
money can be spent on any
given project are set by the
state.
“Moving Forward” re-
fers to the city’s ability to
act upon a parks master plan
that was crafted with resident
input almost a decade ago.
While some projects on the
list have come to fruition –
primarily through grants and
donated material and labor –
many more are still waiting
for funds to become available.
The parks survey can be
completed online, visit www.
keizer.org and click on the
link at the top of the page.
There is also the option of
printing dead-tree copies and
returning them to the Keizer
Civic Center. Surveys are be-
ing included with utility bills
in December and January.
“I’ve become
the TSA agent
of the down-
and-out.”
at 5:45 p.m. at the Keizer
Civic Center.
The parks board has
spent the better part of eight
months developing and hon-
ing the survey that asks resi-
dents about their park priori-
ties and whether they would
support a fee to create a dedi-
cated parks fund.
Parks board members will
present the survey and a pow-
erpoint presentation to the
council and answer questions
from the public and council
at the meeting. Fee options in
the survey range from no fee
to $8 per month.
The theme of the cam-
paign is “Maintain, Match
and Move Forward.”
Keizer’s 19 parks, which in-
clude 240 acres of the city, are
in a funding crisis. Without
additional funds, some ame-
nities are likely to be closed
or removed as they reach the
end of their lifecycle. Even
things like regular mowing
and maintenance could suffer.
The city has been making
do with two full-time parks
employees and a few seasonal
employees for the past sev-
eral years, but the addition of
Have You
Asked Yourself…
Real Estate Professionals
What’s my home
worth in today’s
market?
TALK TO BOB
Call or Text
Bob Shackelford
503-983-4086
1220 20th St SE, Salem
bobshack 1 @gmail.com
Bob Shackelford is a licensed real estate agent in Oregon.
BOB SHACKELFORD
Broker
Ask me about
my 1 - Day
Listing Program