PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 31, 2019
CRISIS,
continued from Page 1
which translates into homeless-
ness being the result of poor
choices like becoming addict-
ed to drugs, living a lazy life or
pursuing criminality.
“If it’s a moral crisis, we get
you right with Jesus to solve the
problem,” said Jones, a man of
faith himself.
Even if one isn’t inclined
toward faith in higher powers,
believing homelessness is the
result of choice leads to another
solution in a places like the U-S-
of-A where people have proven
able to overcome adversity, and
transition to success, by simply
pulling themselves up by their
bootstraps.
“But what if you were
born without boots?” asked
Hamilton.
Another possibility is that
homelessness is an outgrowth
from socioeconomics, which
would mean there are systemic
issues that need to be rejiggered.
If that were the case, then
we should just create better
systems that allow people to be
upwardly mobile, something
that isn’t happening at the rate
it once did in this country.
“But there are people who
are forced to occupy the lower
rungs of society, everything of
value is priced at a premium
and, without a social safety net,
there is nothing to catch them,”
Jones said.
The more effective way to
treat homelessness would be
through the lens of a public
health crisis, according to Jones.
By choosing to approach the
issue this way, it allows the
actual costs of homelessness to
be more accurately calculated
and focuses treatment on the
condition of homelessness
rather than the symptoms.
“At the end of the day, we
have individuals trapped in
situations that are detrimental to
their health and, in the process
of that, are creating public
health problems for others in
society,” Jones said.
The
condition
of
homelessness places strains on
almost every other conceivable
public domain service: police
and justice systems, emergency
medical assistance and health
care and environmental clean-
up. Aside from burdening the
people working in those roles,
the bills associated with them
are enormous and paid for
through taxes.
“The affl iction isn’t drugs or
mental health or the affordable
housing crisis, the affl iction
here is the lack of a basic need.
That basic need is housing.
If you treat the affl iction of
homelessness with housing the
problem begins to go away, but
it’s so counter to our ways of
thinking,” Jones said.
The cost to house someone
in the Willamette Valley and
provide case management
services? $17,500 a year, and
then the other costs begin to go
down as well. ■
STEP 3
CHECK THE DATA
AND YOUR PRIVILEGE
“I
love being reduced to a
statistic,” said No One
Ever.
Nevertheless, time and again,
homeless people fi nd themselves
represented by numbers on a
chart presented in the meeting
rooms throughout the area in
hope that it makes a dent in the
compassion of policymakers.
These are the facts:
• Homelessness is on the rise.
In January, the annual point-
in-time count of the area’s
homeless revealed a 20 percent
increase from 2018, 1,462
people to last year’s 1,218.
• Between July 2017 and the
end of the fi rst quarter of 2019,
ARCHES put 1,024 families
and individuals into housing
of some sort. There were 1,139
adults and 817 children among
those families.
• Since 2016, ARCHES has
performed housing assessments
on 5,869 individuals.
• More than 2,825 individuals
remain on the waiting/interest
list.
• The ARCHES day center,
which serves a dual purpose
of connecting individuals with
services and simply offering
respite from the outdoors,
receives about 100 unique
visitors a day. Visits peaked last
October at 177 people in a
single day between 8:30 a.m.
and 4:30 p.m.
• ARCHES distributed more
than 17,000 sack lunches last
year alone.
• ARCHES opened warming
centers during the 42 coldest
nights of the past winter season
and 922 unique individuals
made use of the service.
ARCHES
uses
two
assessment tools to determine
which homeless people are in
the most dire straits and which
might benefi t most from some
sort of targeted intervention.
The fi rst tool deployed is the
Vulnerability Index – Service
Prioritization
Decision
Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT). If
someone scores in a troubling
range after the VI-SPDAT,
ARCHES
case
managers
will run them through the
Vulnerablity Assessment Tool
(VAT).
Hamilton likens the two
methods to the difference
between a single picture, the
VI-SPDAT, and a photo album,
the VAT.
“Assessment seems like such
a heavy word sometimes. It’s
about having the conversation,”
Hamilton said.
The VAT is so effective it
can identify which homeless
individuals are most likely to die
on the streets at age 52.
Given the choice, Jones
would VAT every client
ARCHES encounters, but it’s
too resource intensive. A VAT
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Ken Houghton speaks with a homeless resident about what
she needs to keep going.
interview can take 20 minutes
or two hours depending on the
client and then has to be vetted
by a supervisor or colleague.
Either
assessment
can
debunk a long-held myth about
homeless people: that offering
quality support services attracts
more homeless people to the
area.
“A lot of them weren’t
born in Oregon. They came
to Oregon at some point in
their life, but it wasn’t the
homelessness life that drew them
here. They came here for a job
or family and then something
happened,” Hamilton said.
“Most of them have been
in Marion County for decades
and this is their community and
home. They are Marion County
residents and our responsibility,”
added Jones.
Reaching into the homeless
community on a deep level
requires
both
knocking
down barriers and depth
of understanding about the
human condition. That is why
ARCHES’ day center is an
important component of doing
the work.
“We want the day center to
be low-barrier, so anyone and
everyone is invited to use the
space. We have boundaries, but
everyone has an opportunity to
be at the center,” Hamilton said.
The space, which includes
couches and tables and a
television, is under renovation
right now, but it will add
amenities like a vanity where
women visitors will be able to
sit and put on make-up or dry
their hair. The number one
request from regular visitors is
shockingly simple: a place to sit
and eat the sack lunches handed
out every day.
“Some people just come
in and veg. We’ll still try to
connect them to services or
help them navigate the ones
they are already part of, but we
all have Netfl ix days,” Aguirre
said.
In addition to respite, clients
can pick up personal hygiene
products
like
deodorant,
toothbrushes and incontinence
underwear, and use the site as a
mailing address when needed.
One of the more recent acts
of ingenuity on the part of the
staff was to begin collecting the
handbags sent to those with
monthly cosmetic subscriptions.
ARCHES
employees
fi ll
the bags with feminine care
products and, when the clients
return to the day center, all they
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need to do is hand over the bag
without asking for what they
want in it.
“That’s another of those
dignity pieces that we try to
offer all of our clients,” Aguirre
said.
The most important thing
ARCHES employees do is
persist regardless of initial
reception on the part of
clients, Aguirre added. As an
example, she talked about one
client whose primary form of
transportation is a skateboard.
He lost one in a near-collision
involving a vehicle about a year
ago. After ARCHES helped
replace it, the newer one was
stolen recently. This time while
out shopping with him, the
man’s contact at ARCHES
had proven the desire to help
and he, in turn, was willing to
sign up to begin the process of
fi nding permanent housing.
This
is
where
the
homelessness crisis intersects
with one in affordable housing.
ARCHES
doesn’t
own
properties to rehouse clients,
it relies on the participation
of local landlords in affordable
housing programs to meet the
local need. Some only want to
work with certain subgroups,
like veterans, and others would
prefer to have only the highest
functioning renters available.
“We do have landlords that
go way above and beyond the
call of duty to learn how to
work with our clients and we
offer tenant education classes
for the clients who have never
had stable housing before,”
Aguirre said. “The thing we
want the landlords to know is
that our case managers work
very closely with the clients
and it’s not like we’re turning
them over to supervision by the
landlord.”
For Jones, a landlord’s desire
to help only the low-need
clients among the homeless
population is indicative of
how America gets the problem
wrong. Housing the lowest
need individuals gives a false
sense of accomplishment – and
looks good when reporting to
the entities funding the work –
but it never gets to the root of
the problem.
“The right outcomes would
be the ability to statistically
prove that we’ve drawn down
the number of outside, camping
homeless population and create
systems, resources and service
locations that make being
homeless less dangerous,” Jones
said. “We moved downtown
without a full, realization of how
bad things were and the harm
being caused by homelessness.
We need to provide pathways
and education and make
homelessness survivable.
“It’s a fi ght just to do the
work the right way.” ■
STEP 4
CARRY YOUR PART
OF THE BURDEN
R
iding in a car with
Houghton, Hamilton and
Jones is not like riding in a
car with other people. As they
travel, they choose to see the
people that thousands of others
traveling the same roads will
purposefully ignore, or worse,
dehumanize in thought or out
loud to passengers.
They look for familiar faces,
tell-tale signs of homeless
encampments large and small,
and spaces where the grass has
been worn down creating trails
to places not as visible to the
passersby. The changing of the
seasons isn’t always the boon
one would think.
“This time of year they go
nomadic,” said Houghton. Aside
from weather making travel
from one space to another
more appealing, the onset of
the construction season forces
some homeless people out
of spaces once considered
relatively safe. Sometimes it
means that relationships and
trust ARCHES employees have
spent months developing are
lost and will need to be rebuilt.
Houghton parks next to a
fi eld and the trio starts loading
their arms with sleeping bags,
blankets, tarps, socks, underwear
and toiletries. The fi eld appears
vacant aside from a growing
trash pile and a few people
crossing the fi eld seemingly on
the way to somewhere else.
As they begin walking, the
well-trod trails crisscrossing
the entire property in every
direction become more evident.
Then, more and more people
started emerging from places
not readily visible.
The group takes a path lead-
ing to hedgerows separating the
fi eld from another property, 10
yards from the main road along-
side the property, the fi rst camp
comes into view, this one aban-
doned. The second one is only
10 yards beyond that and two
men emerge when Hamilton
announces who they are.
They pass out toiletries.
Houghton gives them drymats
to put sleeping bags on and
gives them his card after a short
pitch about what other services
ARCHES can offer them.
“They’ve probably only
been out here a few months so
far, but you can see how it’s all
designed to remain invisible as
much as you can,” Jones says.
Another 10 yards and they
pass another abandoned camp.
A short distance later, another
camp probably in use but no
one is home. Roughly 20 yards
pass without seeing anything
more, but the group is now
far enough in to be able to see
where other camps are located
in other spaces around the fi eld.
At least half a dozen are visible,
which likely means at least
double that number aren’t.
As the hedgerows begin to
taper off, a larger encampment
with two larger tents and
something like a living space
come into view. Hamilton
announces our presence and
two women step out of a tent
to meet us.
Houghton begins speaking
with one of the ladies, Hamilton
and Jones begin talking with
Lorna (not her actual name).
Jones asks how long Lorna
has been living outside. Her
answer is mostly inaudible, but
an eviction led to the current
To an outside observer, it
would be easy to dismiss Lorna’s
tears as an attempt to elicit
sympathy. For the ARCHES
team and anyone with slightly
more experience interacting
with homeless people, the
tears have nothing to do with
ploys for compassion. The tears
come as the result of being seen
as human beings in a world
that has otherwise cast them
aside. Being able to share the
burden of being homeless with
someone legitimately willing
to listen is a mostly foreign
experience, and heartrending.
“There is an emotional
response, but most people are
overjoyed to be seen as people,”
Jones says.
After departing the women
and heading back to the car for
additional supplies, Jones offers
another quick assessment.
“What you’ve got there is
some substance abuse, likely
meth. She’s bounced around
places looking for protection.
She’s not able to access medical.
You start adding all those other
things onto it and it’s virtually
impossible to get a job and
make smarter choices,” Jones
said.
It would take $17,500 a year
to start her back on a more
healthy path.
After reloading supplies back
at the car, the group heads back
into the fi eld. Houghton tries
some one-on-one engagement
with another camp, but the
residents won’t leave their space.
On the next leg, the group passes
a younger man and his wife and
there are multiple conversations
happening at once.
They’ve been outside for
about six months, their child is
living with one of their parents.
They were renting a room from
a friend, but the relationship
went south. After passing out
socks and toiletries, the groups
begin to separate when the man
remembers something.
“Hey, before you go, I
found this guy’s ID out here
and I don’t know who to give
it to. You might be the right
people,” the man says. The three
ARCHES reps huddle quickly
around the ID to see if anyone
recognizes the face. Houghton
does. “I lost my wallet a few
months ago and it was a huge
pain,” the man says. “I hope you
can get it back to him.”
Hamilton notes that things
like this happen frequently,
and the people ARCHES
encounters in the fi eld or
in the day center often defy
“ It’s not like there is an epidemic
of homeless people attacking
each other or anyone else.
But people hear one story and
then that becomes the truth
for everyone.”
— Jimmy Jones, Executive director
of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community
Action Agency (MWVCAA)
stint outdoors, she has a lot of
debt, she says, and begins to cry.
“I’m tired, I’m 43. I can’t do
this,” she says as tears overwhelm
her.
From that point on, the
report of her troubles roll in like
tidal waves, one after another.
She’s been physically abused by
partners although she tries to
accept some blame for it and
how it started. She’s at least four
months overdue for a follow-up
exam on a cyst on her pineal
gland. A woman she knew, a
fellow homeless person, was
hit by a train nearby a month
prior. She shows off two other
spots that Jones said appear to
be spider bites. She went and
got an emergency food box two
days prior and it’s already been
stolen.
“I can’t do it. I need help,”
she says.
The entire time she and the
other woman are talking, a man
also living in the camp won’t
come out of one of the tents.
As Hamilton, Jones and
Houghton begin to part ways
with Lorna and the other
woman, Houghton begins
making plans to come out
later in the day with additional
supplies.
“Is there anything else we
can bring you?” Jones asks
Lorna.
“Chocolate. Could I get
some chocolate?” Lorna replies.
“I think we can take care
of that,” Jones answers. Lorna’s
chest heaves at this small
promise of mercy. The other
woman asks for pair of reading
glasses.
expectations.
“It’s not like there is an
epidemic of homeless people
attacking each other or anyone
else. But people hear one story
and then that becomes the truth
for everyone,” Jones said.
Thirty yards away, another
woman comes out to greet the
group and she receives what
remains of the supplies, but
she reveals one of the more
troubling developments in
recent years – her son is living
outside just down the way. For
Jones and others, news like
this means homelessness is
becoming generational.
“In the same way we want
to end poverty, we have to end
homelessness so it isn’t passed
from generation to generation.
We do that one person at a time,
too. Yes, we are successful, but I
don’t think that’s good enough.
Until homelessness is survivable
not enough is being done,”
Jones said.
Each member of the small
team in the fi eld admits to failing
at their job every single day.
There’s always one hardcase that
will refuse to accept help when
it is offered. Always one person
who will escape notice. Always
one person that will relapse
after making tremendous strides
in more positive directions, but
the failing is not just theirs.
“What you see out here is the
symptom of a failed civilization,
a failed government and it’s a
failure of the moral obligation
of an entire community, too,”
Jones said. “We don’t need to
win every battle, we just need
to win enough of them.” ■