8A | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS
Difficulties from page 1A
increase in unsheltered home-
lessness, and that’s a trend across
the West Coast,” she said.
To get numbers specific to the
Siuslaw region, Siuslaw News
turned to Siuslaw Outreach Ser-
vices (SOS) in Florence, which
focuses on a wide variety of
long- and short-term help for the
homeless.
“I wouldn’t say our numbers
are dwindling, but they did go
down,” SOS Executive Director
Bob Teter said. “We had cat-
alogued 936 clients that came
through our doors [in 2017]. It’s
down this past year to 716.”
The 24 percent decrease SOS
is seeing is small compared to the
Cold Weather Shelter. 2017 saw
a steady population of guests,
with nightly averages running 17
people spending the night and
between 20 and 25 meals served.
But the first shelter night of
2018 saw just a handful of peo-
ple. At the time, Wood said that
it was still early in the season and
it was possible that the word was
having a hard time getting out.
But since then, “I think there’s
eight or nine people at the church
right now,” Wood said as he was
driving to the different pick up
locations last Monday. “Most of
them walked there.”
Overall, Wood is seeing de-
creases of up to 50 percent in
guests served a night.
Florence Police Commander
John Pitcher said, “I’m surprised
by that, to tell you the truth. I
see on my off-duty and on-du-
ty time about the same. I’ve not
seen a reduction in people pan-
handling. We’ve seen people
traveling through and move on
and we have some that are here
year-round. I have not noticed a
decline. It’s hard to count those
numbers and identify if there’s
less or more.”
The Helping Hands Coali-
tion, which provides free meals
to anyone in need periodically
throughout the week, is also see-
ing a steady rate of clients, serv-
ing approximately 39 guests per
day during the winter months.
During the summer, the average
climbs to 60 per day.
“In the winter time it always
slows down,” said Glen Stewart,
director of Helping Hands. “In
the summertime, we have a lot of
travelers, hitchhikers and hikers
that come through town. Some-
how they find us and come in for
a meal.”
Stewart reported the year to
year numbers being the same,
but Florence Food Share, which
is located next to the New Life
Lutheran Church where Helping
Hands serves, has seen an in-
crease in clients.
“I looked at a six-month peri-
od from July to December, and
we had actually served more than
160 people in 2018 than we had
for the same sixth month period
in 2017,” Florence Food Share
Interim Director Ed Monks said.
“So, the demand for the service
was up.”
However, it should be noted
that the majority of clients for
both Helping Hands and Flor-
ence Food Share are not home-
less — they just need support to
get through the month.
Overall, the numbers these or-
ganizations are seeing are as di-
verse as the theories as to why the
numbers are fluctuating.
Possibilities
“I really don’t know what’s
going on, it’s hard to say,” Teter
said. “The reasons for homeless-
ness are so vast. It’s really hard
to characterize it in one group.
I think there’s a little bit of im-
provement in the economy that’s
helping, but we still have a hous-
ing problem.”
In his recent State of the City
speech, Florence Mayor Joe Hen-
ry laid out some of the numbers
on the current state of housing:
“We did 48 housing units in
2018; I would personally like
to see us do a minimum of 100
housing units in 2019. From our
recent housing analysis, we need
somewhere between 200 and 500
units, so this should get us well
on our way toward that goal.”
Meanwhile, local nonprof-
its are hitting the issue head on.
Programs like First Step are look-
ing to install interim housing in
the community, while others are
looking to build auxiliary dwell-
ing units (ADUs) in town for
those currently in need of homes,
and for the expected wave of con-
struction workers that will help
build up the community in the
coming years.
State wide, on Feb. 11, Ore-
gon Governor Kate Brown an-
Open
Monday –Saturday
11am-9pm
Happy Valentines Day!
nounced the launch of a five-year
statewide housing plan to tackle
homelessness and housing, with
a stated goal of increasing Ore-
gon Housing and Community
Services-funded housing devel-
opment in rural areas by 75 per-
cent.
There are countless other state,
county and local agencies work-
ing on alleviating the current
housing problems, but many are
just getting off the ground. It will
be a few years until a real dent is
made in housing, and Teter did
not believe that any decreases in
the homeless population is due to
any current trend.
However, people could still be
finding alternative ways to find
housing in the interim.
“We do hear more people dou-
bling up,” Teter said. “More are
taking people into their homes,
friends and things. That may fac-
tor into it.”
At Helping Hands, Stewart
has been hearing multiple stories
following this possibility, saying
“This one guy, he said that he
had been sleeping in the woods
for 15 years. He was good with
it because he was out there, and
nobody was bothering him. He
could have his time with God
and was happy with it. But he
got a new vision, sharing a new
house with someone, and he
hasn’t come in for food because
he moved into that house.”
Wood echoed the sentiments,
saying, “I think there’s a real sta-
ble homeless population where
they may be couch surfing or
living in some other way. And
they’re working.”
However, the organizations we
spoke with were hesitant to say
that’s been the magic bullet for
the possible decrease in home-
lessness. There could be other
factors, such as getting the word
out to people about their ser-
vices.
The Cold Weather Shelter
does all it can to get the word out
when it opens, including social
media, radio, newspaper and
word of mouth.
“There’s the chamber of
commerce, other churches, the
library,” Don Koddas, the pro-
gram’s night manager said. “I
think there needs to be more
outlets to let people know who
are passing through or homeless
that this exists. I don’t think a lot
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of people know because it’s so
sporadic: Just when it freezes up,
they put the word out.”
Visibility can be a real concern
for these types of organizations.
In the past, Helping Hands was
having difficulty getting the word
out about its services, as its previ-
ous locations were just off High-
way 101. It wasn’t until Helping
Hands was able to get a perma-
nent spot next to food share that
its numbers stabilized.
“Some of those people come in
that didn’t come in before,” Stew-
art said. “They go over, get a box
of food, then come over to us for
a hot meal. I think that some of
the people that followed us from
our other locations to where
we are, they’ll go to food share,
where they possibly weren’t be-
fore. That might be one reason
why their numbers are up, but I
don’t know.”
He also posited that one of
the reasons places like the Cold
Weather Shelter are seeing de-
clines may be due to people be-
ing afraid to leave their current
camping positions.
“They try and stay out of
sight,” he said. “These poor peo-
ple, they’re camping in the woods
and they don’t build a fire because
they’re afraid someone will see
the smoke. I really feel for them.
If they’re by themselves, which a
lot of them are, they’re afraid to
leave their camp. Someone could
come in and destroy it or steal it.
Some of them will get a buddy,
with one going into camp and
the other going into town and
buy some groceries or whatever,
but leaving the spot for one night
to stay warm in the cold weather
could end up making them lose
everything.”
Stewart said he is also seeing
some more worrying trends. He
talked about three women helped
last December, two of which had
cars and one who was living in a
trailer she could move around.
He knew the location of one
of the women, but, “One of the
gals has disappeared, so I don’t
know where she’s gone. The gal
with the trailer has just vanished,
too. … People migrate around.
The gal with the trailer is a bit
disconcerting. She was older and
had been in Florence for at least
two years. I just don’t really know
what happened to them.”
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Alcohol Ink Wine Glass Workshop
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NEW! Basic Leather Tooling with
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Saturday, February 23, 2019, 2-4 pm
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Felting Classes with Ginny Kliever
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Felting 1, Make a coin purse,
Wednesday, February 27, 1-4 pm
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Friday, March 8, 1-4 pm
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gnome, Wednesday, March 27, 1-4 pm
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Acrylic Pour Art with Pam Nedder
Every 1st Saturday. Next one, March 2,
2019, 2-4 pm. Make your own acrylic pour
painting. All materials provided. Pre-
registration req’d at FRAA or w/ Pam,
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4 -week Workshop, Sundays, March 3,
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Painting with John Leasure
Saturdays 9 am - 12 pm
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For more information about classes, visit fraaoregon.org. To register for
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