Meet some of the people on the front lines of Salem's homeless count
A network of more than 100 homeless advocates, nonprofit staffers and volunteers teamed up Wednesday to conduct the annual Point-in-Time count for Marion and Polk counties.
The homeless count — mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — was coordinated by the nonprofit Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.
Information gathered within 24 hours on a single day/night helps local agencies secure federal dollars, as well as understand the causes of homelessness and identify gaps in current services.
Multiple locations designated as survey sites offered incentives for homeless people to come to be counted, including free sleeping bags, tents, socks, and food.
These are some of the volunteers who conducted the count, which will be officially tallied in late spring or early summer:
Melissa Baurer has volunteered in homeless counts for several years, helping survey homeless individuals with teams in Polk County and in Salem.
Baurer is the coordinator/community liaison for the Santiam Service Integration Team, largely supported by Santiam Hospital.
This year, she coordinated the count in Santiam Canyon with volunteers at multiple locations including Stayton, Gates, Detroit, Aumsville and Lyons/Mehema.
Baurer said 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 flyers to the homeless at camps around Mill City and Idanha.
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 stay there. He also is the pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas.
He has a staff of 10, some of them former UGM clients, who conducted UGM’s portion of the Point-in-Time homeless count.
Kaleb 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 Wednesday was his first homeless count.
He lead a team of volunteers in the morning and another in the afternoon around northeast Salem to survey people living on the streets.
“You hear about homelessness, you see it, you drive by and walk by it a lot,” Herring said. “I’m hoping to draw closer to … who these people are. There’s still a lot for me to learn.”
Karolle Hughes of Rural Oregon Continuum of Care has been working with the homeless for more than 20 years. She focused on the Silverton area for the Wednesday count.
She said 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.”
Moises Ramos starting working at UGM three months ago as a guest services assistant. He was one of four staffers handling the morning count at the Commercial Street facility.
"I can see a purpose and a mission here," said Moses, who has been on church missions to Kenya four times, helping feed the hungry and visiting children at schools and orphanages. “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."
Jerry Stevens 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.
It was Stevens' seventh year volunteering for the homeless count.
You should be nice to homeless people, he joked, because when the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake hits, they’ll teach you how to survive outdoors.
D.J. Vincent, a pastor with the Salem Missional Communities, volunteered Wednesday for his 12th annual homeless count.
Vincent, 38, 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’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.”
Heather Wright believes that loving Jesus means loving and valuing all people — including the most difficult.
“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, coordinated Wednesday's homeless count in Polk County and the county’s Homeless Connect outreach event in Dallas.
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.
Contributors: Jonathan Bach, Lauren Hernandez, Brooke Jackson-Glidden,Tracy Loew, Abby Luschei, Capi Lynn, Justin Much, Natalie Pate, Connor Radnovich, Anna Reed, Molly Smith, and Zach Urness.