Friday, January 29, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Homeless: City Council considers strategies to manage homelessness
Continued from Page A1
because of the coronavirus
pandemic. The event pro-
vides information and refer-
rals, personal care items and
haircuts for the homeless.
Prettyman said food and
housing referrals can be
found at Providence Seaside
Hospital.
“It’s a mini-CCA offi ce
in Seaside,” Matthews said.
She said bringing addi-
tional services to Seaside are
within reach.
The Astoria Warming
Center is based in the First
United Methodist Church Susan Prettyman, lower left, and Viviana Matthews, lower right, address members of the
and provides overnight shel- Seaside City Council on behalf of Clatsop Community Action.
ter during the winter months
for people experiencing principal for Seaside High when night falls, they try and lots of struggle every-
homelessness.
School, said m any homeless to fi nd another spot to park. where for all of our kids.”
A warming center open families do not fi t common That’s a real issue for a lot of
A shelter in Seaside
90 days a year in Seaside preconceptions.
families in our community.” would be “super benefi -
would be an “outstanding
“Stereotypically we think
Boyd works with the cial for our community,” he
thing to do,” Matthews said. of homelessness as the tent school district’s population said. “I know it would fi ll up
“We just have to get the on the side of the road or to connect them with food, really fast if we had one.”
right people helping CCA to people holding up a sign,” shelter and education.
Homeless liaison
see if we can open a warm- Boyd said. “The vast major-
“A good percentage of
The goal of the homeless
ing center in Seaside.”
ity of the homeless that we the kids classifi ed as home-
see in our schools is the less are either doubled up in liaison will be to connect the
What is homelessness? family of fi ve that’s living in our community or living in unsheltered population to
“Homeless,”
“house- a Suburban that fi nds a new a hotel.”
services, work with police
less,” “unsheltered” are all
departments to address chal-
different ways of saying the
lenging behaviors and con-
exact same thing, Matthews
nect the homeless popula-
‘BE OPEN-MINDED TO WHAT
said. “We don’t have one
tions to services and their
HOMELESSNESS IS AND HAVE A
specifi c word that will cover
safety net, Matthews said.
all of it.”
The idea of a countywide
DEEP DESIRE TO WANT TO SEE
There are some differ-
homeless services coordina-
CHANGE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.’
ent defi nitions of homeless-
tor was born out of an Asto-
ness and Clatsop Commu-
ria task force on homeless-
Susan Prettyman,
nity Action serves them all,
ness. The position will be
Clatsop Community Action social services program manager
Prettyman said.
funded by the state, Clat-
“Remember homeless-
sop County, grants and other
ness doesn’t look the same
partner agencies.
to everybody. It’s often- parking lot every night in
“We have fi ve really
Boyd said Clatsop Com-
times our friends and fami- the city of Seaside to park.
munity Action provides help good candidates, she said.
lies and co-workers,” Pretty-
“Then during the day to meet those costs. “With- “We’re essentially mak-
man said. “Be open-minded they get their Chromebooks out that massive support ing sure we’re addressing
to what homelessness is out and have a hot spot that’s from CCA, a lot of our stu- behaviors that some home-
and have a deep desire to given to them by the school, dent population would go less individuals are showing
want to see change in your with the Chromebooks. unserved and really, really and want to make sure we
community.”
Their kids go to school and struggle. And now, with keep our county as clean as
Jason Boyd, assistant do the best they can and COVID, we’re seeing lots possible, as healthy as pos-
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Kathleen Sullivan, the Astoria Warming Center’s executive
director, and shelter manager Cheryl Paul inspect the sleeping
mats — set up 6 feet apart — to encourage social distancing.
Councilors seek a similar resource in Seaside.
Seaside Police Department
A homeless encampment in Seaside.
sible for all of us, including
the homeless population.”
City Councilor Tita Mon-
tero said she saw the presen-
tation as part of a continuing
dialogue.
“I’m looking for ways to
keep the discussion alive,”
she said. “If we don’t keep
discussions alive, we won’t
get to strategies. We want
things to improve.”
Addiction: Temporary, safe housing considered a fi rst step to recovery
Continued from Page A1
tions and Clatsop County.
CODA does not provide
a needle exchange, a service
provided by the county and
local hospitals.
“As an industry, our
weakness is the we sit at the
front door and wait for peo-
ple to come to us,” Noice
said. “The model needs to
change. I think of it as the
‘pre-work.’ Before you start
treating somebody, how can
you reach them enough to
see the value of trying?”
The Seaside clinic oper-
ates from 5:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Of 108 active CODA
patients at the Seaside facil-
ity, 92% of them are housed
or temporarily housed.
But for those liv-
ing in encampments or on
the streets, housing is an
important step in beginning
recovery.
“I have a hard time imag-
ining how someone fi nds the
motivation to begin recov-
ery without a place to live,”
she said. “Temporary safe,
low-barrier housing is often
a strategy that works for a
CODA
A Sharps container, designed to hold needles, in the Mill
Ponds.
Alison
Noice,
executive
director of CODA.
has brought masks and social
distancing to every phase
of life, but CODA remains
“completely available” to
patients and new patients
continue to enter every week,
she said. “We have not had
any COVID transmission,
which has been fantastic.”
Seaside has put homeless-
ness at the top of its goals
list. Noice plans to take a role
in the conversation.
“As a treatment provider,
on behalf of our patients,
we do have some expecta-
tion we are contributing,”
Noice said. “To our commu-
nity, we know what happens
around methadone main-
tenance. There’s still a lot
of education that needs to
happen, and some relation-
ship-building that I would
like to see us do. There’s a
lot of misconception.”
DINING
on the
NORTH COAST
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CODA
Exterior of the CODA building on U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside.
lot of people. Some people
will begin to thrive simply
because they start to build
that back into their daily rou-
tine. There’s an opportunity
there to say, ‘OK, today is
the day that we decide to go
further.’”
The COVID-19 pandemic
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S
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Parks: ‘We’re getting a lot of really good input’
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So far, respondents listed
the Ridge Path and Lesley
Miller Dunes Meadow Park
as the most frequently vis-
ited parks, committee mem-
ber Austin Tomlinson said
at last Wednesday’s com-
mittee meeting. “That’s
something we should start
thinking about in the mas-
ter plan.”
Respondents seek a com-
munity center, restrooms,
community
gardens,
more trash cans and more
indoor space, among other
features.
Favorite
activi-
ties included walking,
dog-walking, sports and
wildlife viewing.
Big things that have
stood out, Tomlinson said,
include calls for more trash
receptacles, better park
spending on existing parks
and 67% were in favor of
more spending on future
parks.
The survey is limited to
THE SURVEY IS LIMITED TO
GEARHART RESIDENTS, WITH A
MARCH 1 DEADLINE.
maintenance and opposi-
tion to beach driving.
“It seems there are a
number of people who
don’t like the beach driving
around 10th Street,” Tom-
linson said.
Eighty-two percent of
respondents favored more
Gearhart residents, with a
March 1 deadline.
The committee will
continue to meet the third
Wednesday of the month
through June via Zoom.
The next meeting is Feb.
17.
The committee plans to
Blodgett named to dean’s list at George Fox University
Seaside Signal
Niquilla Blodgett of Sea-
side was among those who
earned dean’s list recognition
at George Fox University for
the fall 2020 semester. Tradi-
tional undergraduate students
must earn a 3.5 grade point
average or above on 12 or
more hours of graded work to
earn a spot on the dean’s list.
Blodgett is a junior major-
ing in elementary education.
seek approval of the draft
parks master plan in March
before referral to the Plan-
ning Commission.
“What we’re trying
to collect here is qualita-
tive information that adds
more voices to the dis-
cussion,” Van Hoomissen
said. “We’re more trying to
get a sense of community
views, and I think the sur-
vey is working really well
to accomplish that. We’re
getting a lot of really good
input. I view it as a work-
in-progress and look for-
ward to more coming.”
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