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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2019)
A10 OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian Tuesday, December 3, 2019 Homeless: ‘Our mission is to keep them from freezing to death’ Continued from Page A1 much, he said. Last winter he holed up in a friend’s garage, he said. Three walls and a roof pro- vided warmth and safety. But he no longer has that spot. This year he and many others, he said, were wait- ing for the Union County Warming Station to open. “I was honestly plan- ning on it,” he said. “To hear it was delayed due to being appealed — I’m very disappointed.” Community pours out support for station The station’s board on Oct. 8 received approval from the La Grande Plan- ning Commission to oper- ate at 2008 Third St. Ten days later, La Grande busi- nessman Al Adelsberger appealed the decision with the support of several locals. Thursday, he said the shelter comes with the high- est of stakes. “When you do some- thing, you got to do it right,” he said. “And human life is a very important issue.” The La Grande City Council takes up the appeal at a public hearing Wednes- day at 6 p.m. at La Grande Middle School, 1108 Fourth St. Cody Vela is hopeful the council denies the appeal. The chair of the warm- ing station board, he said the need is evident and the community agrees. The city received three letters ask- ing the council to side with Adelsberger in the wake of his appeal. But approxi- mately 60 letters and emails, primarily from locals, came in urging the council to deny the appeal and allow the shelter to open. “We really felt a positive showing from the commu- nity,” Vela said. Bruce Rogers, owner of Local Harvest Eatery and Pub, La Grande, in a Nov. 13 email to the city stated the shelter last year was 50 feet from his business and that prompted initial con- cerns about the safety of employees and clientele. “We had absolutely zero incidents with this pro- gram,” he wrote. “The staff and volunteers operated this facility with the utmost pro- fessionalism and concern.” Rachel Edvalson, owner of River Wynn Photogra- phy, La Grande, in a Nov. 14 email to the city stated, “A community that takes care of its vulnerable is a community that I would be proud to call my home for many years to come.” The permit applica- tion to operate the shelter, the appeal and the letters are available online here: www.cityof lagrande.org/ muraProjects/muraLAG/ lagcity/index.cfm/city-of- fices/community-develop- ment/planning-division / union-county-warming-sta- tion-appeal/. Pendleton shelter serves as example Some of what is playing out in La Grande has a pre- cursor in Pendleton, where the nonprofit Neighbor 2 Neighbor has operated the Pendleton Warming Sta- tion since 2011. The station hit speed bumps, but it also helped kickstart the lives of the less fortunate, protected homeless from the cold and avoided major pitfalls, said Dwight Johnson, the execu- tive director of Neighbor 2 Neighbor. Johnson spoke with pride about a man who landed a La Grande Observer Photo/Phil Wright Someone left behind these belongings Sunday morning in Max Square in downtown La Grande, a popular spot for the homeless. La Grande Observer Photo/Phil Wright La Grande Observer Photo/Phil Wright One of La Grande’s homeless walks Saturday though downtown on Adams Avenue. The La Grande City Council meets Wednesday night to consider a land use appeal that prevented the opening of the local warming station, which provides shelter for the homeless during winter months. job interview while staying at the shelter in 2012. The man was disheveled and had nothing appropriate to wear. The warming shelter’s leaders stepped forward. “We paid for a pair of slacks, a haircut and new shoes,” Johnson said. The improved look helped at the interview. “He still has the job today,” Johnson said. The Pendleton shelter is in its second home after ini- tially opening near a grade school. Johnson, a part-time sergeant with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office, said neighbors and parents of schoolchildren expressed concerns that homeless peo- ple might pose a threat and create messes in the area. The warming station per- sonnel met with neighbors and addressed concerns, such as prohibiting loiter- ing around the shelter until 15 minutes before open- ing and banning registered sex offenders. The warm- ing station repeated the out- reach when it moved to its second home in 2015. Johnson is one of two law enforcement officers serv- ing on the station’s board. He said having two people with police backgrounds is a plus because they are better able to detect and address potential problems. The shelter operates with volunteers and opens only when the combina- tion of temperatures, wind, rain and snow puts peo- ple outside at risk of freez- ing. Guests check in from 6:30-9 p.m., lights out is at 10 at night, and the wake-up call comes at 5 a.m. Every- one must be out an hour later. The shelter has about six minor incidents a year, John- son said, ranging from argu- ments to guests who refuse to leave. The worst incident occurred outside the build- ing when one guest knocked another to the ground. No one was hurt, but the skir- mish resulted in police arrest- ing one man for harassment. Johnson said guests are generally well behaved and obey the shelter’s rules. He said breaking the rules is grounds for expulsion, and “there is peer pressure” to toe the line. The Pendleton shelter bans alcohol and drugs, but volunteers don’t check to see if guests are under the influence. Johnson said he does not want the staff to have to learn how to do this. And rejecting those with drugs and alcohol in their systems would be contra- dictory to the shelter’s mis- sion of protecting people from the cold. The shelter’s staff also does not check to see if guests have warrants. Johnson said this would be a time-consuming and impractical process. He said law enforcement officers are welcome to come to the shelter, especially if they suspect someone of hav- ing a warrant. He said there have been several such arrests at the shelter. The Pendleton shel- ter can host 28 guests and last winter often was filled to capacity and sometimes beyond. Johnson said the shelter had as many as 34 people on some nights, a far from ideal situation. “We had people sleeping on the floor,” he said. That crowding carries a greater potential for inci- dents. This season, the shel- ter has a strict limit of 28 per night unless there are extreme weather situations. All of those using the Pendleton warming station must be at least 18 years old. Families with children receive motel vouchers. “We do not feel it is a healthy place for children,” Johnson said of the shel- ter. “We do not want to put them in that environment.” Safety and families are top priorities Vela said the same peer pressure dynamic for fol- lowing the rules occurred at the La Grande shelter. And he and other board members met with La Grande Police Chief Brian Harvey to go over concerns. Harvey described those conversations as produc- tive. He said he generally made suggestions on how the Union County Warm- ing Station could improve policies and procedures. For example, he said, the shel- ter was tight-lipped about revealing anything about guests. Even if volunteers overheard guests talk about a robbery or sex crime, the chief said, polices prevented them from bringing that forward. “Basically, I made it real clear not to run the shelter in a way that it becomes a sanctuary for a criminal element,” he said. “They need policies to have leeway to keep the shelter and com- munity safe. If there’s some reason that brought us to come there, we want them to be free to talk about that.” Harvey emphasized the La Grande Police Depart- ment is not weighing in on how the council should vote on the appeal. He also said he would like to see the community organizations dealing with homelessness come together for a more comprehensive solution. While the Pendleton facility does not allow chil- dren, the La Grande shelter admits families with chil- dren. Audrey Smith, a mem- ber of the Union County Warming Station Board, explained the Third Street building has rooms individ- ual families can stay in. “We like to keep families together,” she said. Smith noted all of the school-age children who stayed at the station in 2018-19 were able to attend classes after spending a night at the shelter. If not for the shelter, she said, the children probably would have missed school because they would not have eaten a nutritious meal, had a good night’s sleep and been able to clean up. Sunday morning reveals more signs of homelessness in Max Square in downtown La Grande. One man, who is homeless, told The Observer he stays during nights at the square but would rather be inside the Union County Warming Station. The local shelter, however, remains closed pending the out- come of a land use appeal. The La Grande City Council takes up that matter Wednesday night. Smith said the Union County program provides adults with help to get them back on their feet, and the station recently won a grant for two counselors to work with guests to that end. Volunteers at the Pend- leton Warming Station also strive to help their guests get their lives on the right track. They not only pre- pare them for job interviews but help them obtain birth certificates and other docu- mentation to apply for jobs. But Johnson said this is not the most critical objective. “Our mission is to keep them from freezing to death,” he said. The Union County sta- tion was open each night during its first two sea- sons and would continue that plan if it is able to open at the Third Street loca- tion. Smith said being open every night provides a sense of stability to guests, which allows them to seek ser- vices and search for jobs. “It is hard to plan for the future when you are always in survival mode,” she said. Homeless are locals Vela said the majority of the people who have been guests at the Union County Warming Station have ties to the area. The same is true of the Pendleton warming station. Johnson said most guests indicate they used to live in Pendleton or have relatives there. “Nobody has admitted that they came (to town) because of the shelter,” he said. The people with no Pend- leton connections often are transients on their way to another city and rarely stay long. “They usually move on after about two weeks,” Johnson said. Whatever the La Grande City Council decides on the permit at the Wednesday night hearing, warming sta- tion supporters or detrac- tors have 21 days to appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. Adelsberger said he has not decided if he would take that route. Since filing the appeal, he said, there has been a “lot of talk and things happening” regard- ing the warming station. He said the key is to figure out the right solution and oper- ate the shelter in the best way possible. Vela said the Union County Warming Station Board is ready to do what- ever it takes to open the shelter, but the appeals pro- cess makes pinning down that date difficult. If the 21-day window closes with- out opposition, Vela said the work begins on getting the place ready, but that would be after Christmas, and contractors have not been willing to even give cost estimates because of the uncertainty caused by the appeal. “As soon as we can, our doors will be open,” he said. Another night in the cold That Wednesday night at the recycling center, the homeless man hauled a large canvas backpack con- taining a warm sleeping bag and a laptop computer. He also owns a tarp, he said, but tends to stash that where no one would look. He said he carries the mass of belong- ings everywhere he goes to protect them from theft. He said he uses pub- lic internet connections to communicate with friends and family via social media, and he watches YouTube before settling in at night among the bushes at down- town’s Max Square. When he wakes, he said, he will go looking for more cans and bottles to turn into money so he can buy a little food. He said he will repeat the hunt in the after- noon, eat again, and get ready for another cold night under his tarp, just a cou- ple blocks away from the empty building awaiting the warming shelter. Cat: ‘As soon as she sniffed my hand, she immediately started purring’ Continued from Page A1 prey and other predators. As the weeks wore on, Martinez missed his feisty cat. “She has a bit of an atti- tude,” Martinez said, “but she’s friendly and can be sweet and really affectionate.” One night about a week ago, a motorist headed to his home in Aberdeen, Washing- ton, stopped at the rest area and spotted Korra. Using an old ham sandwich, Rob- ert Holt lured the feline into his car with his wife and four children. “Once inside the car, the cat was purring and happy,” Holt said. As he resumed driving west on Interstate 84, his wife called an animal rescue per- son in Aberdeen who con- nected them with Cat Utopia in Pendleton. Finally, they reached Cat Utopia President Cindy Spiess, who arranged for volunteer Doreen Akhtar to meet Holt. Akhtar took Korra to her home, where the cat spent the night in the bathroom. The next morning, Akhtar brought the cat to the PAWS shelter to see if the animal had a microchip implanted. “Part of the protocol is to check for a microchip,” said PAWS shelter manager Michelle Glynn. “She was microchipped, which was awesome. Thankfully, the owner had also updated the information on the chip.” The microchip company where Korra was registered, petlink.net, sent a text and an email to Martinez that his cat had been located. “I was just really shocked, but also so happy,” Martinez said. Korra spent the night at PAWS, and then Akhtar drove the cat to the Petco store in Clackamas to meet Martinez, who wondered how his cat would react to seeing him after being away two months. “I was worried she might not recognize me,” he said, “but as soon as she sniffed my hand, she immediately started purring.” Korra settled in to Marti- nez’s new home in Beaver- ton, where she is recovering. “She actually lost of lot of weight. She was skin and bones,” Martinez said. “She is gaining it back slowly and seems pretty hungry.” Glynn hopes this happy ending will convince other cat owners to consider micro- chipping their animals. “The first thing we do in the shelter when we receive a stray animal is to scan for a chip,” she said. “It’s become standard proto- col in veterinary and shelter communities.” ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0810.
