Church at the Park wishes to build a shelter in Dallas for its unhoused community members, but many local residents fiercely oppose the idea
Organizers at the Church at the Park in Salem want to build a shelter 15 miles west of the Willamette River in the rural Polk County town of Dallas. And why not?
It's a good Christian community of 17,000 people. Just ask one of them.
They may tell you about the Weekday School of the Bible. At various times throughout the week, the public school day stops so students can walk to one of five nearby "chapels" to study scripture.
Children learn such verses as Matthew 22:39 ("Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself") and 1 John 3:16-18 ("If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?")
However, when Tyrone Jones addressed the Dallas City Council about the proposed shelter May 5, he didn't want to give his address. Jones feared his neighbors might not be so loving.
When speaking to City Council about his experience being homeless with two children, Jones, one of Dallas' few Black residents, told City Council his family was attacked while on the streets.
He told councilors Dallas needs to do something to help people who don't have shelter.
"If we don't get ahead and figure a way to work that out, then we will be behind the 8-ball," he said.
Jones found himself in the minority among hundreds of upset residents who filled the council chambers May 5 and spilled out into the street. Many yards in Dallas have signs already protesting the shelter. Jones was the only person at the meeting who supported the project, even as a concept.
Homelessness is an issue in rural communities, just as in metropolitan areas. People with roofs often demand action on homelessness — provided the solutions (and homeless people themselves) remain comfortably distant and invisible.
Shelter proposals in Portland are routinely greeted with hostility, such as a micro-village in the Portsmouth neighborhood last year and other projects.
City officials in Bend faced months of angry backlash before backing down last year from considering two managed outdoor homeless shelters in the community.
Chad Basaraba, a retired Salem police officer, summed up the feelings expressed by the rest of the crowd at the Dallas City Council meeting. "This place will be a dumping ground from West Salem to Grand Ronde and all the way south as far as the border and then some," he told councilors.
‘I really try to stay away from Dallas’
Church at the Park doesn't need Basaraba's — or anyone else's — permission to build the 40-person shelter if the proposal meets criteria outlined in House Bill 3395. The bill, signed by Gov. Tina Kotek on June 30, prevents local governments from stopping most shelter and affordable housing projects.
The bill enrages Basaraba and other Dallas residents.
"It offends me that Portland politicians and bureaucrats whip up this idea that ramrods a homeless shelter down rural folks' throats and makes it almost impossible to fight against it," he told councilors.
He warned that a new shelter would bring a swarm of people.
"They're going to network," he said. "All of them have cell phones. They almost have like a union. They can get together and tell what the buzzwords are going to be, and they're going to be in those shelters like nobody's business."
Basaraba need not worry, said Amy, a woman who has spent years living without shelter in the Salem area. Most people on the streets in Marion and Polk counties know to avoid Dallas, she said.
"I really try to stay away from Dallas," said Amy, who spoke to Street Roots on the condition her identity be obscured. "They're not nice people. Everyone knows that you will get hassled there."
'There were very vocal people who didn’t want to listen to facts’
Church at the Park got a similarly hostile reception when it initially proposed a shelter in Monmouth (13 miles southeast of Dallas) on a half-acre parcel of land owned by the local Christ's Church. Monmouth, with the presence of Western Oregon University, is often considered a pocket of liberal progressivism in rural Polk County.
Yet the Rev. Steve Mitchell, the church's pastor, told Street Roots the church's board members had barely begun talking about the possibility of a shelter in late March when Monmouth residents began picketing Sunday services.
One protestor drove around the church's property and incessantly honked a car horn.
Monmouth residents, like those in Dallas, didn't wait for an actual proposal before crowding their city council chambers.
"Enabling them does not help their addictions, like giving them a place to crash and food and making their addictions comfortable,” Elaine Juncal told the Monmouth City Council on June 6. “I'm sorry, but it has to be really uncomfortable before they are motivated to get out of their addictions.”
Thomas Farrell echoed the fears of many of his fellow Monmouth residents.
"All too many times, from what you read, the targets for homeless people are young people and old people," he told councilors without evidence.
Mitchell told Street Roots the entire situation escalated far too quickly.
"There were some very vocal people who didn't want to listen to facts but just wanted to stop the project before it started," he said. "I expected blowback, but I did think we'd be able to decide on our own and then work with the neighborhood.
“The process we had in mind was sort of hijacked."
By the middle of May, before any formal proposal was drafted, the church's board decided to drop the whole idea. It's too bad, Mitchell said.
"The quandary for me was how to be good to everyone, not just those who have homes, but also those who don't," he said. "We consider all of them neighbors, not just the ones with homes."
‘It’s going to be torches, pitchforks and tar and feathers’
D.J. Vincent, Church at the Park founding pastor and CEO, told Street Roots on Oct. 10 that officials at the nonprofit are waiting for one more drawing from their architect before submitting an application under House Bill 3395.
Dallas city councilors will review the application and hold public hearings on it. Councilor David Shein said May 5 that hearings are not required, but given the mood of the community, are absolutely necessary.
"Otherwise, it's going to be torches, pitchforks and tar and feathers," he said.
Councilors can only reject the application under a narrow set of conditions that boil down to the proposed shelter demonstrably threatening the health and safety of the larger community.
"Impact on property values is not a criterion that you may consider when determining an application for housing under House Bill 3395," City Attorney Lane Shetterly told the council. "Cost of providing public services to a shelter is not a criterion that you can apply.
"It's not whether you like this or don't like it. It's whether certain criteria have been met by the application or can be met with conditions of approval. You are very constrained by this bill."
Shein questioned if Dallas residents truly understand the law.
"There are a lot of cases in which the public thinks we have more freedom to act than we do," he said. "This is a classic example of it."
The council's decision can be appealed through the U.S. Circuit Court.
Vincent said the Dallas shelter is being proposed at the invitation of Polk County's Family & Community Outreach Department.
"We created the plan where we would work with their outreach team who already has the folks identified," Vincent said. "We would do the emergency sheltering. Then the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency has the rapid rehousing relationship and connections in rural Polk County."
After Christ's Church in Monmouth dropped the project, Vincent said Church at the Park officials found a private property owner in Dallas.
Church at the Park, with three existing shelters in Salem, has encountered blowback before. Just as in Monmouth, a proposal in West Salem was scuttled after opposition from angry residents.
"There has never been a neighborhood that has said, ‘Please come here,'" Vincent said. "We do a lot of education. Once a shelter is active, we do weekly tours. A lot of neighbors come and see what is actually happening on the property. They sign up for our updates, and we hear good outcomes. Most resistance literally dissipates."
‘We don’t want anyone to die out there’
Kaye Sawyer of McMinnville knows what Church at the Park faces. She is the founder and executive director of the Yamhill County Gospel Rescue Mission.
When she started the mission in 2007 (which now offers beds for 72 men, women and children), McMinnville residents with traditional housing were upset about the project. Sawyer told Street Roots she and her staff were able to win them over.
Even though a lot of hostility is expressed toward people experiencing homelessness in the community of 34,000 people 40 miles southwest of Portland, it is rarely directed at the mission.
"It's all about rules and consequences," she said. "If people do things that are going to hurt somebody, cause disruptions or not make it a safe place, they'll have to leave. We're very strict about the drugs and alcohol. Winter is the only time we relax that. We don't want anyone to die out there."
‘We’re getting insights from the people most affected’
The proposed Church at the Park shelter in Dallas will house 40 people.
"We are going to prioritize the families who are currently unsheltered and moving down from there to single women and people who are over 50 and people with medical vulnerabilities," Vincent said. "The goal is as rapid rehousing as possible Some folks might stay with us for a month. Others could stay for six months."
Church at the Park started in 2007 to connect people to shelter resources. For eight years, it has been offering winter shelters. When the pandemic hit, the organization built its first shelter in 2020 and its second in 2021. Its third Salem shelter is opening now.
If all goes well in Dallas, Vincent said, the shelter there should begin operating in January.
"It's low barrier," he said. "You can come in with any background and have an addiction, but it's drug- and alcohol-free on the site with the expectation of engagement with case management."
Church at the Park is largely governed by people with personal experience with homelessness.
"Even the makeup of the nonprofit board now has a mandate for at least two folks to be formerly homeless," Vincent said." We're getting insights from the people most affected."
‘If we don’t do something now, the community will demand action’
Polk County Commissioner Jeremy Gordon, who also chairs the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, said Church at the Park is wise to apply under House Bill 3395.
"It's more efficient and clear, especially since an option remains to have a public hearing," Gordon told Street Roots. "One thing I do worry about is the delay. I understand the need to inform the community, but we're working on a timeline here that I think is important to consider. I hope that doesn't put the project at risk.
"I hope they can come to a mutual agreement about how the site should look so we can start helping people. We could fill a Church at the Park site two times over with just families with children tomorrow."
Gordon said he can't see how critics can build a case that the shelter threatens public health and safety.
"I see no risk to public health and public safety," he said. "They have plenty of potable water and on-site bathrooms and laundry facilities. They keep their sites very clean and have very, very good security measures. It's going to be very difficult for the council to justify a denial."
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Polk County has increased dramatically over the last two years, Gordon said.
"If we don't do something now, the community will demand action once it becomes more visible,” Gordon said. “Being proactive is the responsible thing to do."
According to the 2023 Point-in-Time census of people experiencing homeless, there are 91 people living without shelter in rural Polk County. That's an almost 14% increase over 2022.
The count indicated 31 people without shelter are living in Dallas.
‘I performed 16 funerals just last year’
Church at the Park officials want to build a second Polk County shelter in Falls City.
"We are at the very beginning of exploring if Falls City would welcome an additional shelter location in Polk County," Vincent said.
According to the Oregon Department of Education, nearly a quarter of the 180 students in the Falls City School District experience homelessness. That represents the highest percentage in the state.
Critics were already waiting when Vincent talked to the Falls City Council on Oct. 10.
Gordon said Mickey Garus of Dallas, who has been organizing opposition to the shelter in that community, sent out a rallying cry.
"(He) has been riling people up about this one too," Gordon said. "I have had a ton of conversations with folks and asking them to just listen first, then decide."
A small shelter in Falls City makes sense, he said, "but transportation and nutrition are key." Garus did not respond to Street Roots’ requests for comment before publication
Few people who packed Falls City council chambers Oct. 11 seemed to agree.
Chris Martin of Falls City said a shelter would only draw criminals to a community that doesn't have a police department and relies on the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
"This is like the Wild West out here in a lot of ways," Martin told councilors. “There's no law enforcement. If you're homeless and just living however you want, this is the place you want to be."
Falls City Major T.J. Bailey kept telling the crowd Vincent wasn't making a proposal, only providing information.
"I want to reiterate that there is no proposal right now," Bailey said. "I want to make sure everyone understands that."
Few people apparently did. During what was supposed to be a question-and-answer session, attendees kept making accusations without evidence.
"You're going to import people into our area," said local resident Anita Thompson. "You're not going to take care of our people."
People also said a project would drain local taxpayers. Vincent responded that state money will pay for infrastructure in Dallas, and each site has a unique mix of funding from sources that need not include local government.
Questioned about his motives, Vincent said they are pretty basic.
"I don't want to see unsheltered people in pain and dying on the streets," he said. "I performed 16 funerals just last year."
‘If you dig into anyone’s story, you find there’s always more’
The county is not unanimous in its opposition to the shelter. A Facebook group, Helping Neighbors Experiencing Homelessness in Rural Polk County, has been created among supporters of the shelter. Members regularly host informational meetings.
"I see the houseless as people like me who fell on hard times,” group member Jodi Russell told Street Roots. “I believe they should be able to stay in their community rather than be shipped off to Salem or Portland. We should be providing assistance to our neighbors rather than pawning them off on other communities."
People experiencing homelessness have become convenient scapegoats for frightened rural residents, Russell said.
"The opposition imagines people without homes as drug addicts, criminals and sex offenders," she said. "They imagine an individual moral failing, where I see a societal failure to provide living wage jobs, universal health care and affordable housing."
Like critics of shelter projects, supporters also post yard signs, but driving through town, it is clear they are outnumbered by opponents — at least in the war of the yard signs.
Dallas residents like Basaraba who think shelters attract more people don't understand the situation, Gordon said.
"You can't decide whether or not to have a homeless response system," he said. "You have one. If you don't have an intentional one based on evidence-based practices, it will burden code enforcement, law enforcement, emergency rooms, school districts. All of our institutions suffer by not having a good response.
"These folks are already here. These folks are our neighbors, our community members. By providing services for people who are struggling, it will improve our communities."
Tyrone Jones said his fellow Dallas residents can stop worrying about homelessness bringing drugs to the community. The drugs have already arrived.
"These kids are going to be getting high at school with homeless people or not," Jones said. "They will put themselves in the homeless situation too because we know that drugs are one of the causes of homelessness. So to act like this isn't going to come to our town is ludicrous to me."
Gordon said there are few alternatives to providing services.
"The alternative to not helping people who have high needs is that they will likely die very early painful deaths," he said.
Charles Townsend of Dallas told city councilors he chose to live in Dallas because it is a nice, friendly community. He doesn't see why people experiencing homelessness should affect that.
"This is the life they’ve chosen," he said. "They don't need to push it off on us."
Vincent at Church at the Park said that attitude is sad, but not surprising — even in a "good Christian" community.
"On the sociological level, people are disrupted by what they don't understand," he said. "I think the average neighbor is disrupted by people in parks and on sidewalks. Some people investigate why this is happening. Others find an easy out in placing blame on the person by saying it’s their personal choice or that they're addicts. If you dig into anyone's story, you realize there's always more there."
Amy said she wishes people in Dallas would take time to hear her story.
"Communities work better together,” she said. “People in the community can be so judgmental and look down on people without knowing them. They don't understand what people are going through and why people are homeless. The homeless are people."
Editor's note: A previous version of this story included an incorrect name for Church at the Park. Street Roots regrets this error.
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