January Meeting Minutes

Agenda:  1) Welcome by host Sarah Owens 2) Introductions 3) CRU update by Kim Hanson and Ashley Hamilton 4) Point in Time Count info by Ashley Hamilton 5) Discussion of business "scenarios"    

Present:  Sarah Owens, Facilitator; Treven Upkes with Salem Police Department; Nicole Utz with Salem Housing Authority, Kristin Retherford with Salem's Urban Development Department; Moises Ramos and Bruce Donohue with UGM; Ashley Hamilton with MWVCAA; Kim Hanson with United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley; Paul Logan and Stephen Goins with Northwest Human Services; Hazel Patton and Jim Vu with Salem Main Street Association; Brenda Pearson with Business Partnerships Program Manager, DHS & OHA Shared Services; Troy Brynelson with Salem Reporter; Corliss Boehne.

Context: First meeting after enactment of Ordinance Bill 10-19, sans sit-lie and exclusion order provisions, and the widely publicized implementation of the camping ban.  The City's tentative plan to expand the warming shelter operation to a "duration" model by the first of the year had run into problems, and dozens of people were sleeping on sidewalks, especially on Center Street (outside the Nordstrom's building) and on Liberty Street (Rite Aid). The night of the meeting, the City had just closed off a portion of the Center Street sidewalk for cleaning.

Discussion of business "scenarios"; developing "if/then" guidance/training, creating a "single point of contact" as an alternative to police, and a developing a provider-response "decision tree" 

There was tacit agreement that police should be a last resort and the scenarios were ordinary and did not require much analysis.

Treven said training should focus on separating fear from actual danger.  Example: person sleeping in a doorway.  It might be inconvenient to have to wake the person and ask them to leave, but it's not dangerous. 

Another training focus should be to help businesses identify the point of action, and make first contact.  Example: person inside business and not buying.  Business should have a standard protocol (applies to all customers) for when to ask a customer to make a purchase or leave, and then apply it consistently.  (Request to leave is a precondition to calling police unless situation is dangerous.)

Police cannot help beyond de-escalating if the only issue is that an individual's behavior is making or might make some people uncomfortable.  Many businesses know how to de-escalate situations and know when to call police (i.e., when conduct is dangerous or unlawful).

Police alternatives.  There was tacit agreement that the work group's goal to develop a single point of contact cannot be met without expanding provider capacity in some way.

Of the five providers with some outreach capacity (SHA, UGM "Search & Rescue", HOAP, The ARCHES Project, and Be Bold Street Ministries), only Be Bold Street Ministries is willing/able to be listed in the CANDO Good Neighbor Guide as a an alternative to calling the police.

When and if the Community Response Unit (CRU) comes online (projected for 7/1/20), the "single point of contact" and "decision tree" goals could be reexamined.

The work group tacitly agreed to focus on training, and that the training should be "on demand" (go to businesses) versus  businesses invited to a venue for a training.

Treven said he thought the problem was not so much employees not knowing what to do, but the fear that customers will feel awkward or uncomfortable, and just leave.  He said if a "single point of contact" number is developed, providers must respond 100% of the time; people will not call a second time.

Stephen said the way you address the "comfort" and "powerlessness" issue is by  training individuals to suspend judgment and bias, focus on harm reduction, develop a relational approach, and know when something is beyond their capacity to deal with.

A minority of the work group continues to struggle with the goal to help businesses that want help to adopt a relational approach to behavior problems.  They favor a rules-based, enforcement approach ("business people are frustrated", "businesses shouldn't have to deal with this").  However, the Downtown Homeless Task Force recommended the creation of the work group to assist businesses in developing a relational (versus transactional) approach to behavior problems precisely because they had rejected a rules-based, enforcement approach as ineffective and even counter-productive.    

CAHOOTS/HEART/CRU:  Kim reported that the tentative name "HEART" had been replaced by "CRU" (Community Response United).  Discussions had been had with the Public Safety Coordinating Council, LEAD, MCRT, Salem Health.  The budget was still being refined but remained in the $500K ballpark (2 shifts, 2 teams of 2).  United Way was working on a ~$10K contract with Tim Black for consulting services.    

Meeting Schedule:

Wednesday, 5:30 to 7p, February 12, tentatively at The ARCHES Project
Wednesday, 5:30 to 7p, March 11, tentatively at NWHS Admin Bldg
Wednesday, 5:30 to 7p, April 8, tentatively at Ike Box