Are we ready to actually solve the homelessness emergency in Salem?

Here’s the plan. And this is just the backbone. The foundation from which we can build upon. Over the next few weeks, you will see me post in more detail about each of these elements.

PRIORITIES

First, this must become the #1 priority at EVERY City Council meeting moving forward. I understand that there are many problems and challenges that the city must face. Roads, Sidewalks, Water, Waste Management, the list goes on and on. However, the people of Salem have made themselves abundantly clear. The city of Salem’s own polling shows that 43% of Salemites cite the homelessness emergency as their number one concern. The next 19% cited Public Safety as their number one concern. Every city council meeting moving forward should have the homelessness emergency as number 1A on the meeting agenda. Public safety should be item 1B. Every city council meeting moving forward should start with what progress is being made in the areas of addressing homelessness and public safety. All other business can be addressed after that.

SHELTER

We do not have enough shelter space available. I believe that the creation of new shelter space, either by building new facilities and/or repurposing existing structures into new shelter space, should be the city’s number one priority.

2027 SALEM YARD SALE

I recently looked at the City of Salem’s real estate portfolio. It is a massive portfolio with properties and buildings worth many millions of dollars. As your next city councilor, I would propose that we look through the city’s real estate portfolio and find anything at all that we could put up for sale. Any buildings or land that we are not using, or have no immediate plans for, should be liquidated as quickly as possible. I call it the 2027 SALEM YARD SALE. This would not only give us an immediate boost to our general fund, but it has the potential to create new tax revenue if any of these properties are used to start new businesses. It’s possible that local Salemites could buy these properties, or perhaps this could attract talent from out of town. Either way, it's a relatively fast way to raise considerable cash. All the funds collected from these sales should be put towards the creation of new shelter space, and fund additional addiction/recovery services, housing services, and hire more law enforcement. Some of these properties could also potentially be repurposed into new shelters and/or managed camping sites, as well as safe parking and RV/trailer parks.

MANAGED CAMPING SITES

While all of this is happening, we will need a short-term, TEMPORARY solution to address the unmanaged camping that exists throughout our city. After many conversations with local leaders, it seems that the only realistic and rational solution would be the creation of multiple managed camping sites. The fairest way of doing this would be to have one managed camping site per ward. Each site could accommodate 75-100 people. I know there are many who will not like this idea, and will certainly not want a managed camping site in their neighborhood. But guess what, there is already UNMANAGED camping happening in our neighborhoods, and it has been an absolute disaster. Allowing camping to occur only in managed camping sites will allow the city to keep this situation under control while developing new shelter space. Most importantly, it will bring people out of the shadows of places like Wallace Marine Park and into a managed camping site where it would be MUCH more difficult to continue the most despicable crimes we hear about, like sex trafficking, which is ABSOLUTELY occurring in places like Wallace Marine Park. We must bring the unsheltered community into the sunlight, so we can be better positioned to help those who are willing to be helped, while holding accountable those who are not. Ideally, we can get to a place where the Clean Salem Team and Homeless Services Team would be focused on working these managed camping sites, instead of having to run all over the city day after day. This would be a MUCH more effective way of utilizing these teams.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

In addition to the 2027 Salem Yard Sale, there are opportunities for partnerships with the city and business leaders to bring more money into the general fund. As an example, I recently spoke to someone in the digital billboard business. He told me that they are not allowed to have billboards on city property. If the city were to allow a company like this to have 4 digital billboards on city property, there is the potential for upwards of a million dollars a year that would go into our general fund. The billboard company would pay for everything. The cost of materials, upkeep, etc. They just want to be able to use city property. A million dollars a year. That could fund the return of our bicycle police patrol downtown. Or perhaps that money could be used for a 4-6 person assertive outreach team whose sole task is connecting unsheltered people to resources. And this is just ONE idea for a business partnership. But you have to have business-minded, business-friendly people on the city council in order for this to happen.

PUBLIC CAMPING BAN

The creation of new shelter space and managed camping sites should be the top priority moving forward. And once these are in motion, we must ENFORCE OUR BAN ON PUBLIC CAMPING. If we are to make the necessary investments and shift our priorities appropriately to address the homelessness emergency, then there is no logical or moral reason to allow unmanaged public camping to continue. I’ve had countless conversations about this. I’ve heard all the arguments. I’ve heard that some unsheltered people are not ready to live inside yet. Fair enough. We will have managed camping sites for them. I’ve heard that the problem is that the unsheltered don’t have anywhere to put their stuff. Fair enough. We will have some kind of storage, or locker system for them to store their belongings. I’ve heard legitimate complaints about curfews. For example, a guy who had a job working the night shift, and couldn’t get into the shelter because it didn’t line up with his work hours. Fair enough. We will listen and address every reasonable concern in order to accommodate anyone who is willing to cooperate.

And that's the key right there. Help anyone and everyone who is WILLING TO COOPERATE.

LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR THOSE UNWILLING TO COOPERATE

I often hear the excuse, well the unsheltered community doesn’t want to have to follow the shelter rules. The rules about drugs, behavior, cleanliness, etc. And that's where the rubber meets the road. WE ALL HAVE TO FOLLOW RULES. No one, regardless of housing status, horrific trauma, or any other legitimate, horrible circumstance, has a free pass to break the law. Utilizing law enforcement to individuals violating our public camping ban should be a last resort. Every effort should be made to connect the individual to services, or at the very least, temporarily relocated to a managed camping site, while we continue the process of doing everything we can to help them. This individual would also have the opportunity to relocate outside of Salem if they don’t want to live with our new and improved standards. But for individuals who refuse to cooperate and refuse our help, we must be willing to utilize law enforcement to ban unmanaged public camping, or this emergency will never be solved.

HONEST, WELL-INTENTIONED CONVERSATION

I could go on and on. There are so many more details that need to be added to each segment of this post. And so many more segments to address, like root causes of homelessness, affordable housing, transitional housing, etc. But like I said at the beginning, this is just the foundation. And we must first address the immediate crisis of unsheltered people wallowing in despair on our streets, sidewalks, and in our parks.

Along with adding more of my own thoughts and ideas to this plan, I’m happy to hear ideas from the public. This should not be a Left vs. Right issue. We must be able to speak about this honestly and in good faith. I TRULY don’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Progressive, Non-affiliated, or anything else. I simply want to help to solve this problem. I genuinely believe that it can be done if we come together as a community with a shared vision. We CAN solve the homelessness emergency in Salem.