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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MARcH 19, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
SHANNON ARLINT
circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
BEHIND THE NEWS
‘There’s no cookie-cutter approach to homelessness’
K
enny Hansen has a street-level
view of the changes in Asto-
ria over his 33 years as a police
officer.
For the past several years, he has
served as the police department’s home-
less liaison, building trust and relation-
ships out on patrol.
While there are success stories,
homelessness has become more visible
downtown and the city is under increas-
ing pressure to take
action.
“I think it’s import-
ant to let the commu-
nity know that as a city,
a police department, we
are doing everything we
can within our power,”
DERRICK
said Hansen, a detective.
DePLEDGE
“I totally understand the
frustration. I have expe-
rienced some of the frustration on a per-
sonal level myself.
“I can totally relate to where the com-
munity is coming from.”
But Hansen knows it can be a slow,
uneven process.
“We are very open to suggestions if
the community has suggestions. We are
very open to listening, because we’re
looking for answers ourselves,” he said.
“And in a broader term, the state, the
country, is looking for answers, because
it’s not unique to just Astoria, Clat-
sop County. If you look around, it’s the
entire country.”
In an interview, Hansen discussed
what he has learned about homeless-
ness, the challenge of responding to
bad behavior downtown and some of
the tools the city is exploring to address
quality of life concerns.
Q: As the homeless liaison officer,
what have you learned about home-
lessness that you did not know before?
A: I learned that everyone has their
own story.
Everyone has a reason behind where
they’re at today. Some are similar. Some
are not so similar.
I look at each person as their own
book. And in their book, they have dif-
ferent chapters in their lives.
I look at each situation on an indi-
vidual basis. There’s no cookie-cutter
approach to homelessness.
Q: Over the past several years,
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Kenny Hansen is a detective with the Astoria Police Department.
we have increasingly seen home-
less camps move from the woods and
along the Astoria Riverwalk to down-
town. What is your perception of how
the city’s homeless population has
changed?
A: They were up in the woods for
some time, and then, a couple years ago,
we made an effort to move them from
the woods because of issues and things
like that that were happening up there.
So when that happened, it displaced
them, to where then they’re moving into
the downtown area and other locations.
I think that was unforeseen at the
time — not realizing what was going to
happen, what it was going to be like.
Because it’s something we’ve never
experienced before in this community.
It’s something new. Today, even, we’re
still learning as we go along.
We learned what works, what doesn’t
work, and always, always open to trying
new ideas.
Q: The count hasn’t been exact,
but do you sense it’s larger than it was
a few years ago?
A: I think it is larger.
And that’s based on seeing more peo-
ple in RVs, more people in regular vehi-
cles, and just more people camping in
general.
Q: Police have struggled to respond
to bad behavior downtown. Some of
this behavior is linked to homeless-
ness, mental illness and drug and
alcohol abuse. What do you say to
business owners and residents who
are frustrated by what they see?
A: I try and explain to them that
we’re doing everything we can.
In some situations, we’re only able to
do certain things that the law allows us
to do. We work with the person or peo-
ple who are causing problems down-
town to try and help them understand
their behavior is not acceptable and offer
them resources, offer them help to try
and turn their behavior around.
Q: It seems the approach Asto-
ria police have taken to this issue has
diffused a lot of the challenges that
we have seen in other cities. Is this a
deliberate approach?
A: I think what we’re doing is a
deliberate approach, because we’ve seen
what works and doesn’t work in other
cities.
Like anything, we try and take the
things that work and maybe tweak them
around a little bit to fit our community
and what would work there.
Q: The city is looking at several
tools to address quality of life con-
cerns. One option would be to tem-
porarily exclude people who have
repeatedly committed crimes or
engaged in bad behavior from the
Garden of Surging Waves, the River-
walk and other places. From a police
perspective, how do you think this
would play out?
A: I think it would play out in a pos-
itive way.
A lot of the people we deal with in
like the Garden of Surging Waves area,
I’ve noticed that they have lacked struc-
ture maybe growing up — they never
had it, or they have lost it, which has led
to them having a feeling of maybe they
can do whatever they want to do with no
accountability.
I think with structure — like the
exclusion zone — it’s kind of like giv-
ing them a timeout. You behaved this
way so many times, so at this point you
cannot come back here for this amount
of time.
So with their actions come conse-
quences and, hopefully, they can correct
their behavior. And during that exclusion
time they can jump into getting some
resources for what caused their behavior
and things like that.
That’s something that I always look
at: What’s going to correct this behavior
on a permanent basis? Not what’s going
to fix it for this moment. I look at the
long term.
I try to get people connected with
treatment, mental health, things like that.
I am probably one of the biggest advo-
cates of the crisis response team from
Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare. I prob-
ably use them more than most of our
other officers. They’re a great resource
to get people into their system and
things like that.
derrick dePledge is editor of The
Astorian.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Location, location, location
L
ocation, location, location. We can all
agree that for the safety and resilience
of our community, it is essential that our
critical infrastructure be located safely out-
side the tsunami inundation zone.
Back in the 1950s, when the Gear-
hart fire station was built, less was known
about the unique hazards and risks we face
on the Oregon Coast from earthquakes and
tsunamis. We now find ourselves with a
big problem — the current fire station sits
squarely in the inundation zone of even a
small tsunami.
Dedicated citizens of Gearhart have
come together and carefully considered
numerous possible locations for a new,
resilient fire and police station. We are for-
tunate to have a location available at the
highest elevation of all the proposed sites.
A station located on this high ground
will likely survive all but the largest tsuna-
mis. As an added bonus, the land does not
have to be purchased; it is being given to
the city, helping to lessen the overall cost
of the project.
We can make our families safer and
more protected when we come together
and vote “yes” on Measure 4-213 for a
new fire and police station in Gearhart.
ERIC HALPERIN
Gearhart
Very happy
was very happy to read in the news-
paper that our current Warrenton and
Hammond area representative on the Clat-
sop County Board of Commissioners,
Mark Kujala, is asking to be reelected in
our May election (“Election lineup set for
May,” March 10).
Our Warrenton and Hammond area is
grouped with a small slice of Astoria in the
county representation districts, but the vast
majority of the population of that voting
district reside west of Youngs Bay.
Mark has always tried to do his abso-
lute best for our people, and for him to be
chosen as the county commission chair-
man acknowledges that the other commis-
sioners believe he is doing a good job.
I ask for you to please vote for Mark
in the May election so he may continue to
represent our interests.
RICK NEWTON
Warrenton
I
Do the right thing
A
s a result of Jack Zimmerman and
Harold Gable, the community of
Gearhart was robbed of the opportunity to
pass the bond to finance the fire and police
station in November. When the judge
reviewed their objections to the ballot lan-
guage, not one argument was deemed
legitimate.
Gearhart cannot continue to delay crit-
ical infrastructure in our community.
Because of this delay, we are looking at
increased construction costs and bond
interest rates. Can you trust Gable and
Zimmerman on this issue?
The state provides the Oregon Property
Tax Deferral for Disabled and Senior Cit-
izens program, which allows you to delay
paying property taxes on your residence.
I encourage anyone 62 years or older, dis-
abled and receiving, or eligible to receive,
Social Security Disability Insurance, to
explore this option if the increase cost is
an impediment to voting “yes.”
What Gearhart will be faced with if you
do not vote in favor of Measure 4-213 is
further increased costs. If we do not have a
fire station equipped to meet the key stan-
dards of our various homeowner insurance
companies — guess what? We can join
the communities who are unable to insure
their homes or pay excessive premiums.
The lives our volunteer first responders
save may be your own, or that of a loved
one. Do the right thing — support the
safety of our community. Vote “yes.”
SHEILA NOLAN
Gearhart
Clearing the streets
T
he best way to clear our downtown
streets of the disturbing sight of the
homeless is … to house the homeless.
When homeless, you can only focus
on immediate needs: On finding food,
tonight’s shelter and hygiene. Housing
provides, instead, the stability one needs to
focus on and address the problems that led
to your homelessness in the first place —
unemployment and physical, mental and
addictive health issues. It takes time. But
studies show that it works.
Studies have also shown that housing
the homeless reduces such public costs
as emergency room visits, in-patient hos-
pitalizations, emergency shelter costs
and emergency mental health and police
responses.
Why not let Astoria be known for the
beauty of its riverfront, not the distrac-
tion of its homeless population. The down-
town housing project under consideration
is a good deal financially, and will address
multiple issues. So let’s do it!
JULIE SNYDER
Astoria