Volunteers count homeless in Marion and Polk counties

One shower for 2,800 people

SALEM @ 6:25 p.m. — One of the biggest challenges that the HOAP center in Salem faces in serving the homeless, or those at risk of becoming homeless, is a simple lack of showers.

Consider this: The HOAP center services from 80 to 100 people each day, and around 2,700 each year. Yet they only have one shower, limited bathrooms and no beds that allow people to spend the night.

“The need is far greater than we can provide,” said Stephen Goins, the transitional programs director for Northwest Human Services.

Another challenge is that on daily basis, HOAP staff and volunteers work to manage people disgruntled and aggressive, often with serious mental illness.

“The struggle is very real right now,” Goins said. “You often feel like a referee.”

Even so, the volunteers at HOAP center (for adults) and HOST center (for those 18 to 24) provide medical, dental, mental health and social services. 

“The ultimate goal is to improve their health -  mental and physical - by first helping get them out of that ever-present fear of getting robbed, beaten or taken to jail,” Goins said. “Once you establish that relationship, it’s about looking at services or finding an advocate to look at programs available.”

The Point in Time survey, he said, is a way to get better data and look at how to adjust services to better meet demand.

“Anytime you’re looking at a problem you first have to diagnose it,” he said. “This survey, even though it won’t come close to capturing everybody, will allow us to better do that.”

— Zach Urness

First-time count volunteer took to streets of NE Salem

SALEM @ 5:55 p.m. — While volunteering for a warming shelter in Salem last December, Shelley Kaplan was blown away by how kind, open and appreciative the people they served were. 

Kaplan, a first-time Point-in-Time homeless count volunteer, considers herself a member of the “blessedly retired,” having worked for more than 40 years as a nurse.

She spent Wednesday morning driving and walking the streets of northeast Salem to identify and document people living on the streets. 

Kaplan said she decided to volunteer for the homeless count after her experience with the warming shelters and said she wants to do more where she can.

“I realized how massive the need is,” she said.
 
— Natalie Pate

Homeless teen has big dreams for his future

SALEM @ 5:30 p.m. — Ben Moss jokes that he is perhaps the coolest kid — ever. And that’s what those around him say, too.

At nearly 6 foot 6 inches, the 18-year-old was all smiles Wednesday, telling everyone he just passed his GED and has begun a part-time job at Cinebarre Movieland 7 downtown.

Moss has grown up all over the country, from Utah to Alaska, but he became homeless last July. He’s been staying with a friend for the most part and has big plans for his future.

“I just want … I guess, I just want to appreciate the freedom I have now but also see what my limits are,” he said.

Moss has a long list of careers he’d like to pursue, including acting and screenwriting. 

Moss first heard about the HOME Youth & Resource Center in Salem when a friend asked him to walk there to get something. That was nearly four years ago.

“I’ve been here since,” he said.

But when Moss became homeless, he saw the center a bit differently.

“There are necessities here I didn’t need before, like hygiene products,” he said. “Their burritos are great.” 

His job at the movie theater is his first real job. But it’s part-time, and what he really needs to get out of being homeless is more money.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” he said, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt. “That’s not my quote, but it’s true!” 

Instead, Moss offered a quote of his own, a creed he lives by and something he thinks could help others who read about his journey:

“Every good and bad thing that happens to you in life is a lesson to be learned,” he said. “Whether you choose to take the time to learn from the experience or repeat the mistake is in your hands.”

— Natalie Pate

Teen helps other homeless youth

SALEM @ 5 p.m. — For Angel Glenn, the hardest part of being homeless as a youth is not being able to trust others for help.

“For a lot of youth, we’re afraid,” she said. “We don’t know the outcome of what they’ll do to us.”

Glenn, 18, said she moved to Salem from California when she was entered the foster system and was placed with her father who lived in Oregon. But by the time she was 17, she needed to leave.

She married and was soon after filing for a divorce and experiencing homelessness.

Glenn found safety and security at HOME Youth & Resource Center in Salem. Not only was it a place for her to receive the resources and help she needed, but it gave her a chance to pursue her own dreams and help youth in similar situations.

“I want to work with youth,” she said. “That’s (why) I’m here.”

Glenn serves as the center’s peer-specialist intern, working with other youth who are homeless. She’s also the peer lead of the Youth Action.

Glenn wants people to know that homelessness is happening right here, right now.

One of the biggest struggles for people her age, she said, is that employers aren’t willing to hire young adults without experience.

Additionally, she said, “Landlords have high standards that none of us can really meet,” like years of rental history and the money to put down a deposit and earn three times the cost of rent.

“I would like to see a (youth) shelter,” she said, specifying a gap in services for children 12 to 18 in the Salem area.

— Natalie Pate

Homeless woman regarded as the camp mom

SALEM @ 4:10 p.m. — Joan, 60, has lived in Wallace Marine Park for more than five years. 

“My disability kept getting denied. The streets became my home,” she said. 

Over the years, Joan has become a defacto mother to the younger homeless residents. 

The 100-plus people who camp in the park make up a tight-knit community, Joan said.

“We look out for each other. We look out for each other’s things," she said. "The new ones, we welcome in.”

It was Joan who contacted campers for Wednesday’s Point-In-Time homeless count. Police officers or others might send them fleeing, she said.

Now, Joan is looking forward to finally getting her own place in April. But she plans to continue advocating for the homeless. 

“These people need a voice,” she said. 

And she wouldn’t change anything about the past few years.

“I don’t think I would give this experience up for anything,” she said. “It’s taught me a lot.”

— Tracy Loew

Habitat for Humanity volunteers get involved in homeless count

CASCADES GATEWAY PARK @ 4 p.m. — Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity Mid-Willamette Valley counted the homeless living in tarped motor homes and in their cars near Wirth Lake in the park. 

Three women kept moving to keep warm. They shared concerns about homeless single, young men, whom they said are the hardest to help. 

“The assistance just isn’t there to help them get a job or a place to live,” said volunteer counter Heather Wilson, director of programs and volunteer engagement for Habitat for Humanity. 

— Carol McAlice Currie

Dallas pastor values everyone, including the homeless

SALEM @ 3:40 p.m. — Heather Wright believes that loving Jesus means loving and valuing all people — including the most difficult to serve homeless people.

“No mother looks at a baby in her arms and says, I hope this one grows up homeless, broken, destitute. I’m a mom. I think about moms wondering where their grown children are,” Wright said.

Wright, a pastor at Living Hope City Church in Dallas, is the coordinator of Polk County’s Point-In-Time homeless count and of the county’s Homeless Connect outreach event in Dallas, which offers homeless people services ranging from bike repair to basic medical screenings.

Wright has been working with the homeless since moving to Polk County in 2012. As co-director of West Salem’s City Vibe, she helps put on weekly dinners for the homeless, many of whom camp in Wallace Marine Park or along the Willamette River.

The dinners are about more than food, she said.

“They’re about getting to know their stories, working with them, celebrating their successes, encouraging them when they’ve had less than success,” Wright said.

“I actually believe that people can change,” she said. “But it often takes individuals that will walk next to them, long-term, through many failures, until one day they go, ‘Wait, I can change.’ ”

— Tracy Loew

Homeless teen: Not all homeless are addicts

SALEM @ 3:35 p.m. — Myah Jamison knows the stereotypes well: All homeless people are drunks. They do drugs.

But Jamison, 19, who lives in a motorhome with her fiancée at a southeast Salem parking lot, says that’s not accurate.

“Most of us just come from really hard backgrounds,” she said.

When she turned 16, Jamison left the foster care system. She says she flip-flopped between living with her grandmother and a van until she turned 18.

Since her grandmother kicked her out, Jamison said she's been living on the streets.

“If I had my ID, I would be completely set,” she said.

Without identification, getting documents most of us take for granted — Social Security cards and birth certificates — becomes more difficult.

“I have no criminal history,” Jamison said. “I’m completely clean. I just don’t have ID.”

— Jonathan Bach

Smaller towns have their appeal

SILVERTON @ 3:15 p.m. — The town of Silverton reminds James of the Potters County, Pennsylvania, town he grew up in “many moons ago.”

James was the first person to visit the Point-in-Time homeless count and services Wednesday at Silverton's Trinity Lutheran Church.

He said Silverton’s resemblance to Potters County — right down to the creek running through town — comforts him. He said he feels safer being homeless in Silverton than other towns around the Mid-Valley.

“There are more services available in larger areas, but they also get overwhelmed,” James said. “There aren’t as many services out here, but it’s smaller and feels safer; you don’t see syringes on the street in Silverton.”

He had steady work as a long-haul truck driver back East, but a DUII led him toward homelessness, complicated by a drug charge in North Carolina. A year ago, he was working at Forest River in Polk County, but he said it was difficult to afford rent.

— Justin Much

Getting the homeless back on their feet is personal for Stephen Goins

SALEM @ 2:45 p.m. — Growing up, Stephen Goins’ mother was chronically homeless. Through her, Goins learned about the day-to-day challenge just to find shelter and avoid getting beat up.

But the experience also laid the groundwork for his belief in how you treat people at their most vulnerable.

“Everyone who comes into these programs (for the homeless) is somebody’s mother, father, daughter, brother — everyone has a family and a unique story,” said Goins, the transitional programs director for Northwest Human Services in Salem. “When I work with people, I try to imagine how I would have wanted people to treat my mother.” 

That ethic is at the center of his work in overseeing two shelters for homeless people or those at risk.

The HOAP center, for those 25 and older, serves around 460 people each month and around 2,800 each year. He also oversees the HOST center, for those 18 to 25 years old.

The center first seeks to address people’s basic needs — offering bathrooms, food and clothing. Beyond that, he said, the goal is to show people they have value and the options they might have to improve their circumstances.

— Zach Urness

'Not everyone on the street is an animal'

SALEM @ 2:35 p.m. — Anthony has been living in the Salem area for more than two years.

The 35-year-old said he is trying to find work as a heavy equipment operator.

“I play with big toys, and I get to move mountains,” he said.

Anthony broke his leg a year ago and has been staying with friends.

“Not everyone on the street is an animal,” he said. “There are some decent people out here.”

— Capi Lynn

A dozen years volunteering during annual homeless count for Salem pastor

SALEM @ 2:30 p.m. — This year marks D.J. Vincent’s 12th year volunteering for the annual Point-in-Time count.

Vincent, 38, pastor with the Salem Missional Communities, has helped start six churches in Salem that focus on meeting community needs like homelessness and helping young people coming out of prison.

The group tries to “put a church right in the middle of the need,” he said.

A homeless count is where Vincent’s relationship with homeless people started, he said.

Over the years, he said he’s learned that average people become homeless by way of an eviction or job loss. “I learned about how resilient some of the people were.”

He has coordinated homeless outreach efforts at Cascades Gateway Park, including providing lunches on Thursdays.

“The meal is just the starting place of the relationship,” he said.

Advocates help homeless people understand what local resources are available, from housing to obtaining identification.

“We do a lot of paperwork help,” Vincent said.

The Salem Leadership Foundation, of which Vincent is an employee, helped found the Salem Interfaith Hospitality Network, a group of congregations that shelters homeless families.

— Jonathan Bach

With McDonald's leftovers, chef creates meals for homeless

SALEM @ 2 p.m. — Patrick Jones’ goal is to build meals the average person would happily pay for.

That his culinary creations are served to the homeless at the HOAP center in Salem doesn’t make a difference.

“I never want to give these people a meal I wouldn’t feel good giving my mom,” Jones said. “I worked at restaurants my whole life, and I don’t want this food to be any less.” 

Jones has an interesting combination of ingredients to choose from. It runs the gamut from food donated by McDonald's to fresh produce from Marion-Polk Food Share.

“From McDonald's, we get chicken that I often turn into chicken noodle soup,” he said. “With the hamburgers, I’ll use it in spaghetti.”

Jones said the path that led him to this job was spiritual.

“I love food and love these people,” he said. “What a perfect combination for me.” 

The HOAP center hosted about 60 people for lunch and to be counted as part of Wednesday’s Point-in-Time homeless count.

The small center at 694 Church St. NE typically sees around 80 to 100 people a day.

There is one shower and one bathroom for each sex, a situation that’s woefully short of what’s needed for the number of people served.

— Zach Urness

First, last month's rent, plus fees hard for couple to come up with 

SALEM @ 1:15 p.m. — Melody, 56, said she has been living in the Salem area for 28 years.

She said she and her husband have been living in their car since August.

“Six years after paying rent on time, we got a no-cause termination,” Melody said.

“We’re homeless, but we’re not uncouth,” she said. “We don’t leave trash or pee outside. We’re Christians. We just want to find a safe, quiet place to park our car and sleep.”

To no longer be homeless, “I need first and last month’s rent and deposit,” Melody said. “What kills everybody are the screening fees, from $30 to $100.”

— Capi Lynn

130 homeless counted at camps in Wallace Marine Park

WEST SALEM @ 1:10 p.m. — About 130 homeless people had been counted in two camps at Wallace Marine Park by mid-morning Wednesday, said Zach Tresch, director of West Salem’s City Vibe.

Most of the contacts took place between midnight and 3 a.m.

Later in the morning, buses picked up campers and shuttled them to Valley Life Center in Dallas, where they could receive food, medical care, showers, clothes, pet care and more.

Sara, 41, has been homeless since 2006. Her prison record makes it impossible to get housing, she said, and without housing, she has lost her three children.

Now, with no income, she gets by with fixing and selling bikes, food stamps and food boxes, living in the woods at Wallace Marine Park.

Sara said her hope of someday finding a home and reuniting with her children took a hit last summer when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Recently, someone burned down her tent with all of her belongings. Her homeless family has helped, but she still needs clothes and other supplies she said as she boarded the bus to the Dallas event.

“I’m just taking it day by day,” she said.

— Tracy Loew

HOAP coordinator draws from homeless experience to serve others

SALEM @ 1:05 p.m. — Kat Lee never believed that she would be homeless.

She owned a home and business in San Francisco for 20 years. But then came the economic collapse of 2008, which torpedoed her savings and led to foreclosure.

A problem with heroin became worse, and suddenly, she found herself living in a car. Then on the street.

“I thought that’s where I would die,” she said. “Who would have thought it could happen so quickly?”

But Lee was lucky enough to enter a shelter that helped her get her life back on track with Northwest Human Services.

“I was lucky; they gave me a little hand up, and I bounced right back onto my feet,” she said. “I was off the streets after just three months.”

The experience of being homeless — and of seeing the power a helping hand provides — inspired Lee to volunteer at the shelter that saved her.

Now she’s up in Oregon, working as the day center coordinator at the HOAP center in Salem.

Her dream, if she happened to win the lottery, would be to open an overnight shelter for women in Salem that didn’t have barriers, or requirements, for entry.

“We need a place where women can come in and feel safe,” Lee said. “Women on the street, it’s so incredibly difficult.

“They have to attach or sell themselves to another person just to feel any measure of safety,” she said. “They are constantly on high alert. They shouldn’t have to look over their shoulder and wonder what’s coming for them.”

— Zach Urness

Volunteers meet South Salem homeless where they are

SOUTHEAST SALEM @ 12:50 p.m. — Volunteers trudged through mud, slipped through a fence and scoured parking lots to tally the homeless on Salem’s southeast side.

Jerry Stevens, who’s volunteering his seventh year in a row for the homeless count, led a team of two other volunteers, Bryce Petersen and Carli Cohen.

All three have day jobs. Stevens is a fundraising consultant. Petersen works at Salem Health. And Cohen is a pharmacy technician with the Benton County Health Department.

They felt a call to help with Wednesday’s Point-in-Time count.

You should be nice to homeless people, Stevens joked, because when the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake hits, they’ll teach you how to survive outdoors.

— Jonathan Bach

Man homeless for 11 years says he wants to go back to work

SALEM @ 12:45 p.m. — Outside the now-vacant, former Honda dealership on Commercial Street near downtown, Robin Corey sat on a slab of cardboard and a camouflage blanket he’d arranged on a bench.

Corey, 60, has been homeless for 11 years, having previously worked as a construction worker and in the classifieds department of the Statesman Journal.

He turned over in his fingers his lighter and medical-marijuana pipe. Next to his seat, he had a grocery cart that holds food, pans and firewood, among other things. This isn’t his typical spot, but it’s where a Point-in-Time homeless count volunteer found him Wednesday morning.

“I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs,” he told the volunteers, saying marijuana is the exception. Corey has a double disability in his legs, he said, but no mental health issues or chronic health conditions.

Volunteers gave him a brown bag of food, gloves and hand warmers.

“I was hoping someone like you would come along,” he said.

Corey has three children and 14 grandchildren. “They love me,” he said, displaying his toothy and bright smile.

He's said he’s been trying to get back into the workforce for a long time but said 100 percent of his wages were being garnished for child support. Corey said he was released from jail a few days ago, where he was held for non payment.

“You learn to survive,” he said. “I’m sleeping outside, but I want to get to a place of working for my rent, remodeling apartment complexes.”

— Natalie Pate

When looking at numbers, definitions of homeless youth can differ

SALEM @ 12:30 p.m. — Based on federal definitions, 93 youth were “homeless” in 2016-17 in the Salem-Keizer area, according to the Oregon Education Department.

But under Oregon definitions, this is only the number of youth who are living in cars or on the street. It doesn’t account for children living in homeless shelters, those who are “doubled-up” — also known as couch surfing — or living in hotels.

When including these living situations, there were 1,162 youth experiencing homelessness in Salem-Keizer that year. Most of these children — more than 800 — are couch surfing, which homeless advocates say is common when families have to split up. 

Without an overnight shelter for male youth older than 12 and younger than 18, advocates say parents often have to decide whether to stay together or go to a shelter with the children they can have with them and have their older boys stay with a friend or find another solution. 

— Natalie Pate

Smaller towns outreaches have slow start

SILVERTON @ 12:15 p.m. — A group of five twentysomethings came in the door at Silverton’s Trinity Lutheran Church before noon Wednesday.

“I knew it! Folks are coming in,” said Karolle Hughes of Rural Oregon Continuum of Care and the organizer for the Point-in-Time homeless count in Silverton.

Volunteers had the church area prepared with warm clothing, shoes, medical supplies, an onsite hairstylist and books. They also were prepared to serve breakfast and lunch. But there were few people arriving in the morning.

“We’ve got a lot of good stuff here for people, just can’t get the customers,” volunteer Joe Craig said 10 minutes prior to the first group of homeless arriving.

Volunteers in Aumsville also reported a quiet morning at the local food bank. And Mill City volunteers had the Canyon Arts Center loaded with goods and ready to serve, but as of 10 a.m., they had just one visitor.

Santiam Service Integration Community Liaison Melissa Baurer said original plans for sending field teams out in Mill City were scratched after the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said they had safety concerns. Instead, a deputy planned to hand out fliers to the homeless at camps around Mill City and Idanha.

— Justin Much

For Kaleb Herring, the homeless count is a learning opportunity

SALEM @ 12:10 p.m. — Kaleb Herring will lead a team of eight to 10 volunteers in the morning and another eight to 10 in the afternoon around northeast Salem to survey people living on the streets.

They will go to areas where homeless people and groups have been known to gather — near the Harbor Freight hardware store on Portland Road, under the Interstate underpasses and along Hawthorne Avenue.

Herring has worked for four years with the Salem Leadership Foundation, a faith-based community development organization that serves at-risk kids, families and neighborhoods. But this is his first homeless count.

“You hear about homelessness, you see it, you drive by and walk by it a lot,” he said. “I’m hoping to draw closer to … who these people are. There’s still a lot for me to learn.”

— Natalie Pate

Polk County Homeless Connect offers services at Dallas church

DALLAS @ 11:40 a.m. — Bike repair, pet care, haircuts and housing help are just a few of the services available at Polk County Homeless Connect, a one-day, one-stop shop for area homeless residents.

Multiple organizations serving homeless people in Salem and Polk County have come together to provide services, including a meal and transportation to the event, at Valley Life Center Church in Dallas.

The event started in 2012 at Living Hope City Church in Dallas but outgrew that location, coordinator Heather Wright said.

Sponsors include area churches, the Salem Leadership Foundation, Meals on Wheels, Mid-Valley Community Action Agency and West Salem Ace Hardware.

“This is a community event,” Wright said. “It can only work if the entire community pulls together.”

— Tracy Loew

Homeless count in Silverton adds services

SILVERTON @ 11:15 a.m. — Karolle Hughes has been working with the homeless for more than 20 years. During the 2018 Point-in-Time homeless count, she will focus on the Silverton area.

Over the years, Hughes said she has come to realize that the Point-in-Time count is “just a fingernail of the actual count” of the homeless. And it is especially difficult to conduct the count in rural areas where many homeless camp out in the woods.

“No matter where you go, the homeless population tends to be invisible to the community,” Hughes said. “In rural communities, that invisibility tends to be much more so.”

But this year, the focus for the east side of the Mid-Willamette Valley is on inviting the homeless to come to Silverton to be counted and learn about resources. The hope is that it will be more efficient than springing a legion of volunteers to locate the homeless.

A number of organizations including churches are picking up the homeless at designated spots as far away as Woodburn, Mt. Angel, Scotts Mills and the Cascade foothills and taking them into Silverton to Trinity Lutheran Church, 500 N 2nd St.

Organizers are serving breakfast and lunch and have been collecting clothing, blankets, coats and socks to provide to the homeless who come.

— Justin Much

The ARCHES Project offers basic needs to homeless

SALEM @ 10:30 a.m. — If you’re homeless in Salem, there are a handful of nonprofit organizations on the must-visit map.

The ARCHES Project at 615 Commercial St. NE next to Marion Square Park, where the homeless are known to congregate, is one of those.

It is a division of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency that provides services and referrals to individuals and families experiencing homelessness — or at risk of becoming homeless.

ARCHES has a drop-in day center, open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Among other services, they offer telephone access and a mailbox and mailing address.

An average of 80 sack lunches are handed out each weekday at 11:30 a.m. through a donation from St. Vincent de Paul, which prepares the lunches daily.

Plans are in the works to renovate the building to expand services including showers and laundry.

— Capi Lynn

Santiam Canyon asks homeless in rural cities to meet for count

STAYTON @ 10:10 a.m. — Melissa Baurer has volunteered in homeless counts for several years, helping survey homeless individuals with teams in Polk County and in Salem.

This year, she is coordinating the count in Santiam Canyon with volunteers at several locations:

— New Life Foursquare Church in Stayton

— The Gates Fire Hall

— Santiam Hearts to Arts in Mill City

— A vacant building in Detroit

— The Old School Community & Youth Center in Lyons/Mehama

— The Aumsville Food Pantry in Aumsville

Baurer is the coordinator/community liaison for the Santiam Service Integration Team, largely supported by Santiam Hospital.

“I’m anticipating that Stayton and Detroit will be our quietest hubs,” Baurer said in advance of the count. “Mill City my guess is where we will have more” because of awareness from the count there last year.

—Justin Much

Moises Ramos finds his purpose at Union Gospel Mission

SALEM @ 9:45 a.m. — "If I have a difficult time finding purpose, I have a difficult time with my job," said Moises Ramos, who has done everything from working in the aerospace industry to being a carpenter.

Ramos is just three months into his job as guest services assistant at UGM and said he feels right at home.

"I can see a purpose and a mission here," he said. “I get to socialize with people and help them day to day. That is the ultimate thing I need.

"I wanted to do something more hands-on; that’s what led me to UGM."

Ramos, 28, was one of four staffers handling the morning homeless count at UGM.

He moved to Salem in 2014 with his wife, who is one of the pastors at West Salem Foursquare Church. They met at a Bible college in Southern California, have a 2-year-old daughter and are expecting a second daughter in May.

Ramos has been on church missions to Kenya four times, helping feed the hungry and visiting children at schools and orphanages.

"I’ve always had this heart for the community,” he said, “whether it be locally or globally."

— Capi Lynn

Union Gospel Mission a safe place, says homeless man

SALEM @ 8:50 a.m. — Adrian, 51, has lived in the Mid-Willamette Valley since he was 12 years old.

“I have places to go, but I want to be here” at Union Gospel Mission, Adrian said. “There’s two chapels every day, and the people are wonderful.”

He said he used to be a drug addict but is now recovering.

“Everything I want is here and everything I need,” Adrian said. “I have places to live, but I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to relapse. I want to stay here where I’m safe.”

—Capi Lynn

Previous coverage:Officials roust homeless camp near Highway 22 days before count

Man points to health problems for his homelessness

SALEM @ 8:15 a.m. — Joseph, 32, said he spent his second night at Union Gospel Mission on Tuesday after hitchhiking to Salem from McMinnville.

“I’ve been struggling with homelessness the past six or seven years,” he said. “I’m here because I’ve got health problems. I’ve got Crohn’s disease,” a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

Joseph said he is filing for disability after no longer being able to work in the construction business.

—Capi Lynn

Volunteers bring supplies to Cascades Gateway Park

CASCADES GATEWAY PARK @ 8:30 a.m. — Homeless count volunteers began their morning doing some heavy lifting in southeast Salem at the Oregon Jaycees building.

Volunteers unloaded new, donated shoes and food, including sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and bottled water.

Sixteen volunteers will be at Cascades Gateway Park to count the homeless around the park and at stores in east Salem, said D.J. Vincent of the Salem Leadership Foundation.

— Jonathan Bach

Why count the homeless, and why now?

SALEM — The nonprofit Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency is responsible for the annual Point-in-Time homeless count in Marion and Polk counties.

The PIT count is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing for local programs to access federal funds to combat homelessness.

The count must be executed within 24 hours on a single day/night. HUD requires it be done in the last 10 days of January because it’s the coldest time of year and more people are likely to be seeking shelter, giving communities a more accurate snapshot of homelessness at its peak.

Information gathered helps local agencies secure federal dollars, as well as understand the causes of homelessness and identifying gaps in current services.

Community Action partners with other agencies and organizations, local leaders and government officials to identify community needs, gather resources and direct resources to where they will have the greatest impact.

Providing services for the homeless is one of Community Action’s missions.

— Capi Lynn

How will volunteers count the homeless and what they will ask

SALEM — A network of homeless advocates, nonprofit staffers and volunteers will team up to conduct the Point-in-Time count for Marion and Polk counties.

More than 100 people signed up to assist throughout the day and will be organized in teams assigned to specific areas.

Multiple locations have been designated as survey sites and are offering incentives for homeless people to come to be counted, including free sleeping bags, tents and socks.

Volunteers have undergone training and will be armed with clipboards and survey forms. Each person counted will be logged by the first letter of their first name, the first three letters of their last name and their date of birth to ensure there is no duplication.

The one-page survey focuses on how long they've been homeless, the causes of their homelessness and where they're staying now.

—Capi Lynn

Meet UGM guest services manager Rick Bratton

SALEM — Rick Bratton can relate to the men he meets at Union Gospel Mission in Salem, where he is the guest services manager.

“They say the best counselor is somebody that’s been there,” Bratton said. “I did all the things these guys do here: drink, use drugs.”

Bratton has worked for UGM more than 22 years, including the last 14 in Salem. He manages guest services at the downtown location on Commercial Street, overseeing intake for the men who lodge there. He also is the pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas.

He has a staff of 10, some of them former UGM clients, and they are conducting UGM’s portion of the Point-in-Time homeless count.

Bratton said he overcame his addiction, one of the many causes of homelessness, through his faith. He was saved at a little country church just east of Sacramento, California, where he met the director of the Sacramento UGM and asked if he had any work.

Two weeks later, Bratton was hired to be the gardener and maintenance person at the Sacramento UGM. He went on to become chaplain and then director of the organization’s 40-acre ranch facility, where UGM participants helped run operations.

They raised pigs and goats, and Bratton said even the most hardened offenders and substance abusers couldn’t resist tending to a cute farm animal. “You put a bottle in the mouth of a baby goat, and it melts them,” he said.

— Capi Lynn

PIT count an opportunity to establish relationships with homeless youth

SALEM — Ashley Shaw and Tricia Ratliff from Salem’s HOME Youth & Resource Center plan to work on building connections with the homeless students they will survey during the count.

HOME operates a day shelter, at 625 Union St. NE, from noon to 7 p.m. every day for at-risk and homeless youth ages 11 to 17, providing lunch and dinner, snacks, showers, clothing, school supplies, laundry and a phone.

Ratliff and Shaw estimated about 20 to 30 more youth than usual will come to the center’s annual Chili Feed on Wednesday, Jan. 31. This is in addition to the 15 to 30 youth who utilize the center on any given day. Besides chili, they will be served grilled cheese and hot cocoa outside the center.

The two women hope to start establishing as many relationships as they can so they can help them more in the future.

— Natalie Pate

Previous coverage of homelessness in Salem

►Answering questions about Salem's homeless crisis

►Only half of Oregon's homeless students graduate on time

►Homeless in RVs, vans, cars can no longer stay overnight at Walmart

►McKay High School student gets $100,000 to start youth homeless shelter