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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Homeless: A shift of a few degrees can change everything
Continued from Page 1A
the homeless. For groups and
individuals that have stepped
forward in the last two years
to try to answer the questions,
this winter is a testing ground.
For others, it is an opportu-
nity to reopen old inquiries
and evaluate how much more
needs to be done.
What’s the game plan?
In early October, a woman
who works with the local
homeless and local businesses
asked the Astoria City Coun-
cil to come up with a strategy
for addressing homelessness.
She could see both sides
of the debate. Business own-
ers are tired of the homeless
sleeping, urinating and def-
ecating in their doorways,
leaving litter behind, asking
passers-by for money. On the
other hand, there are people
who truly need help.
“So I ask you guys: ‘What’s
the game plan?’” she said.
That same night, just down
the sidewalk from City Hall,
two men set up sleeping bags
in the sheltered alcoves of the
dilapidated Waldorf Hotel.
They had been camping there
for days.
Several weeks later, tall
metal fencing was bolted
across the front of these
alcoves and Astoria Mayor
Arline LaMear began to res-
urrect a city task force to
look at local issues around
homelessness.
A similar task force,
formed in 2015, prompted
valuable and open conversa-
tions between mental health
and social services, religious
groups, businesses and law
enforcement about the chal-
lenges they all face in address-
ing homelessness.
But it had only one con-
crete recommendation going
into 2016: The city should
invest in a public restroom.
The rest of its recommenda-
tions were directed toward
the community. The new task
force hopes to build on this
foundation and continue the
conversation.
“One of the most import-
ant things we can do is make
sure we’re all speaking the
same language,” said Interim
Police Chief Geoff Spald-
ing. “To really make sure we
have a good understanding of
the problem, the issue or the
concern.”
‘I love them’
LaMear has already asked
Mary Docherty to serve on the
new task force. Docherty runs
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Dan Parkison and Ramon Navarrete build a new bike rack for the Astoria Warming Center at the First United Methodist Church.
the nonprofit organization
Riverfolk that works to get
homeless people birth certifi-
cates, identification cards and
other documentation.
Docherty’s own thinking
around the issues of home-
lessness has changed substan-
tially, she said. Two years ago,
she started passing out warm
coats on the Astoria River-
walk. She was committed to
the idea of accepting homeless
individuals as they were, pass-
ing no judgment, never urging
people to seek out religion or
go to treatment or meetings.
“Well that changed,” she
said.
As she’s settled into her
niche — she has clients
referred to her from state and
county human services orga-
nizations — she has also
changed her approach.
Religion is still off the
table, unless someone asks her
about her own Buddhist faith,
but drug, alcohol and mental
health treatment are not.
“I want everybody to go
to a meeting,” she said. “I’m
not even bashful about it any-
more. … I love them, and I
care about what they feel, but
I can’t, in good conscience,
just enable them.”
She is part of a group —
primarily women — who have
taken on the task of address-
ing homelessness themselves
in sometimes very different
ways. They have strong com-
munity support; they also have
Thompson: ‘I’m not
interested in inflating
anybody’s budget’
Continued from Page 1A
“At no time will the board
engage in travel that will result
in costs beyond what is pro-
vided for in the current year
budget unless the travel is
specifically approved by the
board and additional resources
are authorized pursuant to
Oregon Budget Law,” the
board’s travel policy, which
was revised in 2014, reads.
Thompson responded by
insisting that her trips to con-
ferences and training are
attempts to build relation-
ships and bring resources to
the county. It was also part of
an ongoing effort to spur other
commissioners to develop
specific long-term goals.
“I’m not interested in
inflating anybody’s budget,”
Thompson said. “This is to do
work, this isn’t out partying. I
believe in budgets, but I also
believe in a plan.”
But Commissioner Sarah
Nebeker questioned the value
of the trips.
“I can’t seem to measure
anything that you have done
that would make a difference
other than what staff already
does,” Nebeker said. “We
have an overall budget, and I
think we need to adhere to it.”
The discussion came after
infighting between Thomp-
son and other commission-
ers. In October, Lee urged
Thompson to resign due to the
expense issue, as well as an
incident in June in which she
placed her hands on a county
employee. Thompson has
fiercely resisted Lee’s call to
resign and affirmed her desire
to remain on the board.
As commissioners spoke
Wednesday, a spectator repeat-
edly held up a sign that said
“resign” on one side and “cen-
sure” on another to express his
displeasure with Thompson.
Thompson briefly stopped
her remarks and asked Lee to
call the meeting to order. The
chairman obliged, instructing
the man to put the sign away.
The scene reflected an
attempt at civility, and it was
not the only one.
During Wednesday’s dis-
cussion, Thompson repeatedly
offered to pay for her own
travel expenses, an idea that
Lee said was a good potential
solution.
In September, an investiga-
tion into the incident involving
Thompson touching a county
staffer revealed she claimed
to be “the only commis-
sioner who worked.” Pressed
by Nebeker on the statement
Wednesday, Thompson clar-
ified she was referring to
her efforts on housing issues
rather than condemning com-
missioners’ work ethic in gen-
eral. Nebeker thanked her for
the explanation.
“I would like us to call it a
truce,” Commissioner Kath-
leen Sullivan said. “I really
would like to move forward in
a positive way, so I hope we
can do that.”
like to see a concentrated,
communitywide effort to
answer the questions a home-
less population raises and fill
service gaps.
Volunteers
desperately needed
Volunteers are busy getting the warming center ready to
open at the First United Methodist Church in Astoria.
critics. But homelessness is a
question that the community
must wrestle with, they say.
They have all found their
particular areas to focus on.
Corri Buck, for instance, pro-
vides regular lunches at the
Peoples Park along the Riv-
erwalk, while Docherty has
stopped serving weekend
brunch at Astoria Armory so
she can focus on the work
of getting people identifica-
tion. When Buck can’t make it
down to serve lunch, though,
Docherty will step in to do it
for her.
When someone Docherty
has been working with to get a
birth certificate or a state iden-
tification card goes missing,
they all come together to form
a search party. When certain
homeless people cause trou-
ble in the city, they tell them
to knock it off.
While similar alliances
and networks exist across
some social services in Asto-
ria, Docherty and Buck would
The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration’s Climate Predication
Center says a cooler-than-nor-
mal winter is possible this
year. The prediction could
mean a difference of just a
few degrees, not necessar-
ily abnormal winter condi-
tions. But for Astoria and
Warrenton’s warming cen-
ters and the homeless people
who depend on the beds there,
a few degrees can change
everything.
Astoria’s warming center
has been open several years
now. Warrenton’s warming
center first began operations
last year.
This year, the Warren-
ton center’s organizers plan
to open on Wednesday, too.
They also follow similar tem-
perature, wind chill and rain-
fall parameters as Astoria
to determine when to open.
Both centers desperately need
volunteers.
“We have a location and
money and a plan,” said War-
renton City Commissioner
Rick Newton, who serves
on the center’s board. “The
only thing we’re short is
volunteers.”
The Astoria center requires
more than 100 volunteers to
operate. Newton estimates
Warrenton needs around 70.
Like the Astoria center, their
one goal is to “keep people
from freezing to death,” he
said.
As of yet, the Warrenton
center has not had to jump
through the hoops the Asto-
ria center has had to navigate.
It also has found a home in a
church. Organizers are work-
ing to develop relationships
with local police and Clatsop
Behavioral Healthcare. Like
the Astoria center, they oper-
ate as a low-barrier organiza-
tion and seek to connect the
homeless to outside organiza-
tions for housing, work, men-
tal health and other related
needs.
Dan Parkison, president
of the Astoria Warming Cen-
ter board, has spent the last
month getting the First United
Methodist Church’s basement
ready for winter. When the
Astoria Planning Commission
issued the conditional use per-
mit, it came with a list of con-
ditions. Neighbors had tes-
tified about trash and noise
outside the basement when
the center was open.
Parkison and his board
have since implemented new
security measures, landscaped
the area, established a volun-
teer handbook and a system of
responding to a variety of sit-
uations, among other changes.
A neighborhood meeting is
scheduled for Tuesday. It will
be the first of several meet-
ings Parkison and board mem-
bers plan to hold in the win-
ter and spring to check in with
the community about inter-
actions between the neigh-
borhood and the people the
center serves. After all, the
center will have to go through
the permitting process again
when their permit expires next
year.
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