It’s Monday, Oct. 16, which means there’s a City Council meeting tonight, and a few items impacting our local houseless neighbors have apparently hit the agenda all at the same time. One of the more noteworthy will see no action tonight, though it may signal some changes to come for the City’s so called ‘time, place and manner’ rules for the right-to-rest.
City staff has been meeting with stakeholders, and they generally agree the current instructions for houseless folks are confusing, and they’re thinking fewer locations may be less confusing.
There seems to be consensus that excluding parks by K-12 schools would help achieve that. As stands, every ward in the city hosts an approved site for right-to-rest, even the affluent areas – and we’ll let you know if that changes.
The site update discussion comes by way of a Council packet document that was submitted for this evening’s meeting – the instructions for people experiencing houselessness are in a City provided brochure.
Notably, the current right-to-rest locations do not include Central Park because of its sensitive vegetation, but that decision is also getting a second glance from the City.
Microshelters: Another year of permitting for microshelters at the Corvallis Church of the Good Samaritan will go before City Councilors tonight for approval. By state law, the permit is renewable by the Council a year at a time.
City staff is recommending approval, stating, “Corvallis Police Department reported no incidents at the site and had no opposition to renewing the permit.” They also report the fire department sees no problem with another year, and that Unity Shelter, who manages the facility at the church, has filed all the necessary documentation.
Continuum of Care for the Homeless: Also, the Community Services Consortium is asking Councilors to sign onto a resolution that, “Supports establishing a Continuum of Care for the Linn, Benton, and Lincoln County region and supports the new Continuum of Care registering with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2024.” We’ll keep you up to date as the prospective impacts become clearer.
No-Bid Contract for Emergency Operations Center: Mostly, folks assume there will be a competitive bidding process for government construction projects – but legally, there can be exceptions. County staff have submitted a proposal to the County Commissioners to do just that, to make an exception.
The Board is planning a new Emergency Operations Center, and County staff are recommending that the construction market is so volatile now that it would be best to add the project to the existing contract for the courthouse and district attorney’s offices. The construction firm is Hoffman Construction Company.
If the Commissioners agree, anticipate a public hearing on Nov.7.
Construction Tax Increase: For every square foot of new construction in the Corvallis School District’s service area, there’s a tax – that tax will be increased from $1.00 to $1,56 per square foot starting January 1, 2024. That seems like a large increase, but the School Board hasn’t adjusted it since 2009, even though state law envisions yearly, so this one time large spike would be to catch-up.
The School Board, at their Thursday, Oct. 12 meeting, passed the increase unanimously.
Also, it’s not just an excise tax on residential construction, the commercial rate will rise from $0.50 to $0.78 a square foot. State law caps the tax on commercial construction at $39,100 currently.
The school district says, “Based on the proposed rate increases and average tax collections over the last three fiscal years, the district would receive approximately $175,000 – $200,000 in additional construction excise taxes in future years to be used for capital improvements.”
Increases are tied to inflation.
Government Comment Corner: Ward 5 Councilor Charlyn Ellis hosts the next Government Comment Corner. If you have a question or comment, swing by between 10 am and 12 pm, Saturday, Oct. 21 – Ellis will be in the lobby of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.
Lastly, Notably: Allison Hobgood is the executive director of the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center, and over the last couple weeks she has spoke in front of both the City Council and Benton County Board of Commissioners.
Seeking to underline her statements, she’s now submitted them to the City in written form for tonight’s Council packet, and we’re including them below because we see them as offering a window into the current state of conversation around services to the houseless in our shared community.
We give our standard disclaimer: Management and staff at The Advocate may or may not agree with Hobgood’s viewpoints. We would also add, we suspect readers could say the same. However, we believe this an important read, regardless of one’s viewpoint.
Allison Hobgood’s Community Comments Testimony:
“Hello, everyone: Thank you for listening, and thank you for all you do. Your work is crucial, careful and considered, and I know you are asked to make difficult decisions at every juncture.
Tonight, I want to offer some thoughts I also shared with the Benton County Board of Commissioners about how we might do better for some of the most vulnerable people who live in our community.
You may have heard that Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center, where I am Executive Director, was burglarized and vandalized a few weeks ago. We are the only day resource and navigation center for people experiencing extreme poverty in our region. The person who burglarized the Center was brought there for services by Corvallis Police Department’s mental health CORE Team who, completely understandably, was at a loss for how best to help this person who is living with an acute mental health disability. We supported this guest and then, 2 days later, this person broke into the Center overnight.
I offer this example to emphasize what often feels to me like a willful refusal on the part of our elected officials and government agencies to truly witness the crisis many of our neighbors in this community are experiencing—and the work we are doing to mitigate it. For instance, the Benton County Board of Commissioners recently voted to prioritize significant funding for a future County Emergency Operations Center. Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center is an emergency operation center on a day-to-day basis happening in the now. Conversation with the Samaritan emergency department, the ACT Team, and CPD, for instance, would suggest that CDDC is your real-life, real-time version of what others are imagining as a kind of EOC but for some to-date unknown, emergent crisis.
Gov Tina Kotek has literally declared homelessness as a state-wide emergency. Thus, I am unclear why our local governments continue to pretend this crisis is not happening, implement policies that worsen it, and also take for granted the herculean work homelessness service providers in Benton County are doing to ensure that the last threads of a completely dysfunctional US social support system don’t fall apart. CDDC, along with organizations like Unity Shelter, Corvallis Housing First, Community Outreach Inc., Pathfinders, Faith, Hope, and Charity, are your emergency management team, and the Drop-in Center is an EOC.
The idea of creating alternative spaces for future emergencies or policies for fictitious scenarios isn’t necessarily a problem unless elected officials are willfully refusing to acknowledge what’s happening right in front of us. For many guests at the Center, everyday being means existing in a state of emergency. Moreover, there will be other emergent emergencies—and very, very soon. They will have to do with winter warming, summer cooling, and wildfires, and the City and County will ask CDDC and other social service providers to run point, as they always do.
Supporting our work with copious and ongoing committed funding, true political will, and tangible, functional material spaces is a must. I want to be able to look Center guests in the eye and tell them their government cares about them, and there really is a plan for them that will make their lives better, easier, safer. We cannot keep doing what we are doing. Let me say it again: Status quo is not a sustainable model. We cannot keep doing what we are doing. Please let me know how I can support you as you reckon with the true needs of those most vulnerable in your wards, neighborhoods, and backyards. They are your people too.”
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