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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2015)
August 21, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A Helping Hands seeks south Seaside property for re-entry facility Hyak from Page 1A a potential zoning issue. Use of the Hyak Building as a multifamily dwelling in the residential medium-density zone had lapsed, and would no longer be allowed. While the group could have legally fought the zon- ing interpretation, the cost to do so would have been prohibitive for either orga- nization, according to Todd Johnston, executive director of Northwest Oregon Hous- ing Authority. Helping Hands deter- mined it wasn’t worth the time or cost to go through a strenuous legal process, espe- cially since there was another option, the new location off Highway 101. Johnston agreed, adding even if Helping Hands scaled down the scope of the proj- ect so it wouldn’t violate the Hyak Building’s zone desig- nation, “there was a feeling the neighbors still were giv- ing a lot of resistance.” In response, Helping Hands changed its focus. Rosemary Baker-Monaghan, a former Seaside mayor who lives in the neighborhood near the Hyak Building, ini- tially suggested the new loca- tion at an April meeting of the housing authority. Federal block grant To proceed with building a facility at the new loca- tion, the city of Seaside will need to pursue a community development block grant for Helping Hands. The program is run through the U.S. De- partment of Housing and Ur- ban Development, and grants are awarded to communities, not organizations. Helping Hands has ap- proached the city about host- ing the grant and will for- mally make a request at an upcoming council meeting. “We’re not going to sit down for a planning session without knowing the city will host the grant,” Evans said. Once the organization gets a commitment from the city, the partners can begin to draw up a budget. The housing authority’s property would either be transferred to Helping Hands or purchased by the organization through the grant program, Johnston said. “Our involvement mostly would be providing the prop- erty,” he said. “I think the main partnership would be through Helping Hands and the city of Seaside,” Evans believes this is a good solution, since it means Helping Hands likely “won’t get resistance from neighbors and other things we have dealt with.” Helping Hands also plans to extend its reach into Til- lamook County. Last year, a group of citizens, communi- ty leaders and professionals approached Helping Hands about the homeless problem in Tillamook. Helping Hands challenged Tillamook County civic lead- ers to raise $50,000 as start- up money. In late July, the organization made an offer on a 21,000-square-foot for- mer naval command center with the goal of transforming it into the state’s ¿rst, fully functional homeless relief center. Planning Commission weighs many factors in UGB expansion Planning from Page 1A “We’re not proposing or suggesting that any proper- ty owner has to change their current use,” Commission Chair Ray Romine said. “All we’re doing is making a pro- posed Urban Growth Bound- ary expansion for some future development to occur. That doesn’t mean that it will, it just means that it can.” The city is working with consultants from HLB Otak, Inc. The local engineering and consulting ¿rm was hired for the city by Weyerhaeuser, which owns much of the land under consideration. During the meeting, the commissioners brought up concerns over how future tsu- nami events of various sizes might impact the Southeast Hills area and how to factor that into urbanization deci- sions. Don Hanson, a principal and director for HLB Otak, provided a map of the South- east Hills area overlayed with a tsunami modeling graph- ic, developed by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. The map showed the probable impact on the area in case of ¿ve dif- ferent tsunami event scenari- os, labeled as “T-shirt sizes,” or S, M, L, XL and XXL. “We went through the acreage by zone, by proposed land use in the area and pro- vided a summary so you could see which land uses end up in which T-shirt size tsuna- mi event,” Hanson said. The Southeast Hills pro- vides relative safety in the case of a small- or medi- um-size seismic event. If a small tsunami occurred, only 3 percent of the land would be affected. If an extremely large event occurred, all of the Southeast Hills industrial and parklands would be impacted. A large portion of residential land would be affected, including 80 percent of high density residential lands. Because a large or medi- um event is considered “very probable” in the future, com- mission members focused on those scenarios. Under a large disaster scenario, 41 percent of both residential high-den- sity and 41 percent of indus- trial land in Southeast Hills would be impacted, which concerned members of the commission. The proposed expansion doesn’t get buildable lands completely out of the inunda- tion zone, but it lessens their risk and in some cases takes future residents completely out of risk categories, Sea- side Planning Director Kevin Cupples said. Commissioners Tom Horning and Richard Ridout suggested it might be best to think ahead and start encour- aging population growth fur- ther uphill through the Urban Growth Boundary expansion process. The decision to put the area with a higher-densi- ty designation on the lower slopes, and subsequently more at-risk in case of tsuna- mi events, is because the area would provide better access to the public transportation system or pedestrian path- ways, which many residents rely on, Hanson said. “We’re always weighing one thing against another,” he said. During the two public hearings on the topic, land- owners in the Southeast Hills area voiced concerns about how the Urban Growth Boundary expansion could af- fect their neighborhood. They said they are worried about tax increases, overdevelop- ment, environmental impacts and higher traf¿c volume, es- pecially Wahanna Road. Other residents have stressed the need for more af- fordable housing to maintain seasonal and resort employ- ees. Expanding the boundary means providing additional land that can be developed at urban-level densities, which could help with the city’s housing issue. Planning Commission members said they are seek- ing input from the state on the zone changes. Seaside resident Angela Fairless suggested the city also seek input from the North Coast Land Conservancy and Necani- cum Watershed Council. The public hearing was continued to the Planning Commission’s Sept. 1 meet- ing. Helping Hands to celebrate 13 years of achievements with dinner theater, concert Organization shares data on homeless population, successful solutions By Katherine Lacaze Seaside Signal LuRain Penny — whose successful career as a perform- er in New York City included opening for Ray Charles, Taj Mahal and Dr. Billy Taylor — is a singer, songwriter and self-described “kindness ad- vocate.” “That’s my role; making things feel better is the only job to have,” she said. Penny will be spreading that kindness at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center Aug. 22. Her 5 p.m. concert performance, “Angels Among Us,” takes place on behalf of the Helping Hands Re-entry Outreach Center “Everyone Has a Story” campaign. Penny will share the stage with Asto- ria-based musician and com- poser Peter Unander. Penny’s collaboration with Helping Hands made sense, she said, because they have the same goals of healing and helping. “Any of us at any time in our life could come to a crisis place, where we could use a helping hand,” she said. After dinner, Helping Hands hosts “Blues at the Beach,” a free kid-friend- ly concert starting at 8 p.m. JunkBelly, out of Wenatchee, Washington, will perform along with the Boneyard Horns. A cause for celebration Helping Hands Executive Director Alan Evans said the purpose of the events is to cel- ebrate the organization’s ac- complishments during the past 13 years. They hope to raise awareness about the organi- zation’s campaign and share with the public data illustrat- ing solutions to homelessness. During the past two years, Helping Hands has become a data-driven organization. In ¿ghting homelessness, Evans said the organization hopes to get families off the street and into sustainable, affordable housing. Helping Hands tracks each individual who passes through its door and then creates indi- vidual re-entry plans for each one to help them overcome the particular obstacles they face. The long-term plans in- volve community partners to help the client get set up with housing, medical insurance, employment, education and other services. SUBMITTED PHOTO Helping Hands emergency shelter in Seaside. When a person comes into the emergency shelter, they ¿ll out a form identifying who they are, if they have chil- dren, if they have committed a sex offense (the organization doesn’t serve sex offenders), insurance information, the last city they lived in, how they were referred to the emergency shelter and other information. The organization also keeps daily rosters with names and birth dates downloaded to ServicePoint, a central soft- ware system licensed to NW Social Service Connections in Portland. Through that venue, Helping Hands shares data with partnering agencies. Nightly rosters also are sent to law enforcement agen- cies, such as the local police departments, corrections de- partments and sheriff’s of¿ces in the communities Helping Hands serves. “It’s a great communica- tion piece for collaborative efforts,” Evans said. Helping Hands tracks classes, mentoring pro- grams and community ser- vice efforts. Participants are drug-tested to make sure they are complying with the organi- zation’s strict substance abuse policy. The forms are audited twice per month. The electronic ¿ling sys- tem has worked well, Evans said, but they are excited to introduce a new, more ac- cessible data entry system in January 2016. That database is being built now. A look at the data Through data collection, the organization can show its communities which demo- graphics are being served, the primary challenges people face on their journey to re-en- ter society and the outcomes so far. After months of track- ing information, Evans said, “we were just as shocked as everyone else about what we found.” From Jan. 1 to May 31, between the organization’s fa- cilities in Clatsop, Yamhill and Lincoln counties, 327 individ- ual clients were served. More than 94 percent had no form of income. More than 27 percent were female heads of house- hold, which means they were are ¿nancially responsible for at least one child. People with special needs made up near- ly 26 percent of the clients; 8 percent were veterans and 11.6 percent were domestic violence victims or survivors. Helping Hands has iden- ti¿ed a population of about 6 percent from its total clientele who have been incapable of moving on from homelessness for various reasons, such as drug or alcohol abuse or other factors. Through data collection, the organization also hopes to show the public what their money is accomplishing. “We can tell you exact- ly where the dollar goes, we could tell you exactly the per- son that it helped, the dates that it helped them, the classes that they took and their walk to re-enter society,” Evans said. “With that data, what we get to do is hopefully change the way that communities deal with their homeless popula- tions.” Helping Hands’ 2015 bud- get is $530,000 and there are 110 beds available in the coun- ties it serves. Based on those numbers, it takes about $13 per day to provide services to an individual, which accu- mulates to about $4,745 per person each year, Evans said. The $13 covers building costs, utilities, program support staff, development, fundraising costs, food, laundry, house management and supplies, drug testing, transportation, insurance and payroll. He compared that to the national average of approx- imately $40,000 per year it costs per person to leave them homeless, an estimate pro- vided by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment Secretary Shaun Dono- van in 2012. Evans said these high costs support the value and importance of funding long-term solutions rather than Band-Aid ¿xes. “The cool thing about be- ing a data-driven organization is now we have the ammo to show our local communities, our state and the government, that for a person to stay in a re-entry facility similar to ours, it costs 10 percent less and we can actually track the success of their re-entry into society,” he said. By giving partnering agen- cies real information about the clients being served and what obstacles they face, the agen- cies should get access to a big- ger funding stream, he said. Sharing the story One of the biggest obsta- cles Helping Hands has faced “is the stigma of what people think homelessness is,” Evans said. The organization’s new campaign, “Everyone Has a Story,” is meant to educate the public on the people who comprise the homeless popu- lation and how they got to that place. “Every person that we meet has a story, and it’s a painful, unbelievable story of sadness, heartache and lack of resources to change their life,” he said. “We’re hoping to change policy now on how communities deal with their homeless populations. There’s a responsibility for communi- ties to make sure that services are provided for people who have nowhere to go.” He sees the campaign, which will use the data they’ve compiled, as a critical focus for the organization right now because it will “paint a picture of the possibility of a solution” and it might change how peo- ple view the issue, he said. Doors for the Aug. 22 din- ner theater performance open at 4:30, with the show starting at 5 p.m. Cost is $50 and din- ner includes a steak, halibut, vegetarian or chicken cordon bleu. Providence Seaside Hospi- tal is the dinner theater spon- sor; Ebb Tide Resort, Hi-Tide Resort and Awakenings by the Sea are the evening concert sponsors. For more information, call 503-738-4321. For informa- tion about Helping Hands, vis- it www.helpinghandsre-entry. org. Phillips Candies: New owners, same sweet treats Phillips from Page 1A his mother, Marguerite Blake, got her ¿rst summer job there at age 14. The candy shop, es- tablished in 1897, was already a well-established business in the community by then. Blake remained season- ally employed at the shop throughout her college years. Even after she and her col- lege sweetheart John Phillips were married and moved to Milwaukie for his job as a middle-school teacher, the couple continued to help out the owners in the summer. In 1939, the Phillipses pur- chased the candy shop, run- ning it as a summer business from Memorial Day to Labor Day so John Phillips could continue teaching. The fami- ly resided in a small wooden cottage behind the shop. World War II brought with it some tricky situations for the family, as for many busi- ness owners. The store was pro¿table as people were making money, particularly through war-related indus- tries. Instead, the struggle was to get products for can- dy-making during a time when sugar and other ingredi- ents were strictly rationed. “It wasn’t like we have to- day, where we have all these candy stores where you can buy Jelly Belly candies and all that,” Phillips said. “It was what you made, and that was it.” His parents struck deals with local dairies, farmers and producers to get the items they needed. Fortunately, he said, there was no shortage of demand. Phillips Candies would open its door at 1 p.m. to a line of people. Even with a limit of two pounds per customer, the shop would sell out within a few hours. They would then close the door and start mak- ing candy for the next day. One summer, the fami- ly made more money than John Phillips’s salary as a teacher, so they decided “this was what they ought to do,” Phillips said. They stayed in Seaside to run the store year- round. In 1947, the year Steve Phil- lips was born, the couple tore down the old shop and con- structed the current building. Throughout the years, it was understood he would take over the shop someday, he said. Making candy just seemed to be a family trait, as his older brother, Pat, worked many years as a plant man- ager for See’s Candies in Los Angeles. “Both he and I have business degrees with back- grounds in food technology from Oregon State,” Phillips said. Around the winter of 1974, John Phillips contract- ed cancer, dying within four months of being diagnosed. While taking over the family business was Steve Phillips’s future plan, his father’s illness greatly expedited the process. “I had about six weeks to two months to try and really learn as much as I could. And most of it was at home, with him sitting on the couch or in a chair, giving me as much information as possible,” he said. Taking over the store In the spring of 1974, Steve Phillips bought the business itself from his parents, and took over the lease agreement for the building and property — both of which he would later acquire. Even after his father’s death, his mom continued to work at the shop until her late 80s. “She would come in here and work almost every day. She just loved it,” he said. Throughout the years, lit- tle has changed at Phillips Candies. “We’ve really tried to keep exactly the same formulas,” Phillips said. “When some- one comes in and says, ‘Gee, I remember 20 years ago I was here and got rocky road; what’s changed?’ The answer is ‘nothing.’ The recipe is ab- solutely identical. Same prod- uct line, same chocolate.” Because tastes evolve, they added and removed a few products. The advent of emul- sions replaced chemical-based extracts and “just enhanced the Àavor and made it so much better,” Phillips said. Business got a big boost by the nearby construction of Trendwest Resorts, now WorldMark by Wyndham. While the store experienced a nice, steady growth of 3 to 5 percent every year, Phillips said, the new resort brought “almost a 25 percent increase in business overnight.” The increase remained steady year round, and the store was staffed by two peo- ple instead of one during the winter, he added. A new era Through grade-school, Phillips played in the back while his parents were busy running the shop. At 10, he started taking on responsibil- ities like washing dishes and running the taffy wrapper. In 1974, he purchased the busi- ness and has been operating it ever since. “I don’t think I had a de- sire to ever do anything dif- ferent,” he said. Nevertheless, the time is approaching for the business to change hands. Phillips ad- mitted he’s ready. “Physically it’s getting harder and harder to dump those 80-pound batches of candy,” he joked.“I will be here to continue to make sure the quality of the product re- mains. “I told Mark that I could teach about 80 percent of this operation in about six weeks,” he added. “But the other 20 percent is going to take a couple years. It’s just the facts of life.”