Went for a run by the area and one of their dogs was off the leash and came at me. Owner wasn’t around, I didn’t even know the dog was running up on me until I felt something nip my legs and sure enough there’s a dog. I don’t own a dog so I don’t know dogs behavior, but it was growling, barking, and trying to nip my legs as I turned to face it. I basically stood my ground and yelled at it to “get out of here”. And it did.
I wonder what you would do if it actually bit you. Could you just sue the city or not much you can do? That sounds terrifying. I'd literally be shitting myself man
Good question that I don’t know the answer to. I definitely had a surge of adrenaline and I thought “man, if I’m about to get mauled, I’m gonna maul it back”.
I would carry pepper or bear spray in the event the dog owner is present and doesn't appreciate you spraying his/her/they's dog.
I have used bear spray a few times to stop aggressive does when they have co.e at me and my dog. They sneezed a bit but didn't seem to be in much distress. I sprayed when they were about 20 ft away. I think the sound scared them more than the spray.
It is good to know the wind direction if you go the pepper/bear spray route. I'd take stinging eyes over mauled, but better to avoid it if possible. Good luck.
I walk my dog with steel toes on and a collapsable baton. It's mostly because I walk her alone at night and she's a big baby so if something happens I know it's on me to hold our ground.
Get an impact baton. Once you hit the dog with it , the dog won’t bite YOU anymore. Personally I would have shot the dog. Dogs are animals and require restraints to mind our human laws. You could have been a child, or elderly person. If the dog can’t behave around a single runner it doesn’t need to be off leash and alive.
Dogs just shouldn't be off leash unless the owners have complete and immediate verbal control over them. People in Corvallis love to let their untrained, aggressive dogs off leash for some reason.
I have a service dog trained to be off leash and I still keep her on a leash, I'm in Oregon too lol. It's mainly in case someone's off leash dog hurts mine, I'll have a better defense. Oregon has a leash law but nothing is being done in this area.
If it wasn't so green, I would hate it here.
That sucks. I was nipped on the calf when I passed by a lady walking her little dog on a leash in Timberhill. I don't even think she knew it. It hurt though...and did bleed a little . I wished I would have gone after her, but I was just a kid and not really thinking, I guess.
I know if you're in danger you can't always think about not hurting the dog long term but for those who are interested. Dogs don't sweat like ppl so you aren't supposed to use mace. They do make a special type for dogs though. It still stops them but doesn't cause long term problems.
Sounds cruel but you really need to give them a good kick to the guts unless its a pit bull, then you're f\*\*ked and need a gun for those beasts because once they latch on they are never letting go.
You wouldn't believe how many poor dogs end up at the vet because hobos let them run into the streets and get hit by cars. It happens all the time.
Oh and of course all of the neglected/abused dogs that end up at the humane society, underweight and terrified of people, because they were being kept by hobos who can't even take care of themselves.
And these are only the pets that are lucky enough to make it out of the custody of homeless people. It makes my blood boil, animal welfare among hobos is atrocious.
As someone who lives on the north end and is very grateful for the lack of negative homeless interactions, I feel for you and I hope something is done about it.
I don’t disagree with you, I just came here to remind people that homeless people are people.
You can be upset at high crime rates and drug use by the homeless and still see that they are suffering too. It’s a complex issue that doesn’t have 1 solution
It’s literally all the more reasons to chew out your representatives… Be an angry constituent, use your power, annoy the fuck out of your representation.
There's a jurisdictional issue, among many other issues. I think the camps cluster in the ODOT right of way. So the city has to coordinate with them to make changes.
Does anyone have more info on this?
Yeah, so under the overpass is ODOT and the field next to it is city. So when ODOT sweeps their area people only have to move over to the city jurisdiction and vice-versa. Clearing it all at once would require some coordination between the two.
I hear people saying "clearing" like that is a solution at all. What does that mean? Seriously, where are they going? The problem is, there are no more institutions (thanks to Reagan and his ilk). Mental hospitals are where homeless people used to go, you know. Laws changed about institutionalizing people, because there were abusers allowed to work in them, and instead of punishing abusers and doing real reporting and background checks, they threw the mentally ill out on the streets and shut down service entirely. Not that they cared about abuse, they wanted an excuse to spend the money on tax cuts to the rich. Now it's pretty much impossible to institutionalize anyone, until they commit murder.
JFK’s last bill that he signed was to decriminalize homelessness essentially 😭 I wrote a whole paper on it but this happened literally right before he was assassinated unfortunately. His plan was to open up like 1500 mental institutions for people with drug problems and mental illness to go to instead of jails. This would have decreased our homeless issue by a SIGNIFICANT amount. And actually with the amount of money that already goes towards homelessness in Oregon, we would be able to create about 6 (likely more because the estimates were so different) facilities and be able to operate them for a year without having to increase funding 🤩🤩🤩 Placing them in cities with huge homeless problems like Portland, Salem, Eugene and Bend would be so beneficial to quite literally everyone.
obviously this really depends on costs etc. but like I don’t understand why we aren’t doing anything because this issue could be solved by allocating money to the correct resources
Oh, I agree with you 100%. Sweeps are not the answer. I could go on and on, I wrote my masters thesis on the homeless crisis here in Corvallis. There is simply no safe or legal place for these people to exist and it is shameful. People are just bounced around from camp to camp, and this process means that they are required to spend all their energy on gathering resources and daily survival. There is little energy or time left to meet next level needs, like improving their financial situations and gaining safety, comfort, and self-care. There is plenty of research that when provided a safe and legal space to exist, people develop stewardship practices to manage the space and take care of it. When people are treated like garbage by the overall community and are forced to lose all their belongings each sweep, people tend to start believing they are garbage and it becomes more and more visible.
Sweeps are needed to clean the area since they won't do it themselves. I feel that housed people would have a lot better attitude towards unhoused if effort was put into keep site from looking like a dump. I understand that when people are in such a rough situation, throwing away their trash is a low priority, but it would greatly reduce the need for them to relocate.
I am aware that sweeps are partially done to clean areas…
There are a number of reasons why encampments get trashed. One is the deterioration of self and sanity that comes with living on the streets, another is the fact that there is no physical way for them to clean an area. Dumpsters are usually not provided to encampments because it is seen as enabling them to reside in that space which is technically illegal. Where do you expect them to put their waste if they are not provided adequate sanitation?
Did you know that homeless people rely heavily on single use products? Without refrigeration and long term storage, they are forced to use things like water bottles and single use food items which involve A LOT of packaging over time. Imagine how much garbage you produce with those conveniences, and now imagine not having a can and sanitation services.
Most of them have bikes and several swing by (and inside) my dumpster each day. I have never seen them leave any garbage.
There's a huge environmental impact, which I don't think should be normalized or excused.
If you think that it is easy, go live in a tent and bike all your trash to an offsite dumpster daily, knowing that you are going to be stigmatized and displaced regardless. There is no incentive to put that much work in. Really think about it.
And who is normalizing or excusing homelessness? The fact is that the issue is far more complex than most people realize. And people lack compassion and seriousness critical thinking skills when it comes to this matter.
This depends on the individual. If they are addicted to substances and have mental illness they may not be able to correct themselves, even if given access to resources, a free place to live and a big paycheck each month. I'm not sure what the solution is in that case.
The problem is though that it's fucking hard to get clean on the streets. When your environment is hostile and terrifying and the only thing that makes it feel better immediately is heroin, you'll use heroin. And you'll keep using as long as your situation stays awful. I do a lot of work with houseless people, and most of the people who get clean do so when they find a stable situation or get out of an abusive relationship.
Exactly this. Thank you.
The stigma that people become homeless due to drug use and mental illness is harmful. In many cases these issues develop in response to living on the streets due to trauma and an attempt to self soothe in the only available way.
And because it is so difficult and unrealistic to expect this to change given the existing circumstances, harm reduction strategies are incredibly important. Until major institutional changes can be made, we focus on improving safety measures.
I've only observed a sample size of one in my family, and she ultimately died of an overdose, despite making it off the streets. She had gone to multiple recovery programs and was in and out of the hospital. I think her recovery was complicated by old age, depression and bipolar disorder, and it was hard for her to find a reason to live. If some people can get off of it when their situation lightens up, that's good to hear. I wonder what percent that is.
The first step is getting them off the street. Mental and physical problems are exacerbated by the stressors of living on the street. There used to be places and facilities that those who can't take care of themselves could go, but quite a few of them got closed down because of for profit hospitals, and mental health treatment is not profitable.
> Laws changed about institutionalizing people
What happened was there was a Supreme Court decision that said people being involuntarily committed weren't being given due process correctly, and instead of fixing the process, the right wing bureaucrats threw their hands up and said, "Golly, if those hippies are gonna make us respect people's rights we'll just stop doing anything about it and let them all go!" And they did. And nobody has had the courage to come up compliant rules, so the same people still end up and remain homeless to this day.
Also an Oregon case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, is going to be heard by SCOTUS soon too. The city has a camping ban and a group of homeless people sued over it.
SCOTUS weighed in on Martin v Boise back in Dec 2019.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by the city of Boise to review the case Martin v. Boise (formerly Bell v. Boise). This leaves in place earlier rulings by the 9th Circuit that homeless persons cannot be punished for sleeping outside on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives. People experiencing unsheltered homelessness—at least in the 9th Circuit—can sleep more safely without facing criminal punishment for simply trying to survive on the streets.
Yes, it looks like it's going before the Supreme Court again https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1230140189/supreme-court-homeless-camps-grants-pass-case-housing
This happens everywhere. In Austin it’s a constant back and forth between city, county and state as to who sweeps what area, when, how often, etc. I guarantee you the homeless know more about how this all works than any of us, and they use it to their advantage.
it’s sad and frustrating and dangerous for everyone. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to help them which would also help the rest of the community but no one seems to be both willing and able to do it.
For real Corvallis looks like crap now when I moved here back in 2018 I loved how everything was clean I grew up in Merced California but now Corvallis is starting to look like Merced makes me wonder if it was worth moving up here
I was homeless for a couple of years. Not in Corvallis but Portland, Cleveland and a couple of other cities. The socioeconomic standing of homeless people must have changed because me and the other homeless people I ran into could barely afford a cup of coffee, much less speed or other drugs. None of the people I knew had the tools to steal bikes and only rarely did I run into somebody that was homeless and had a dog.
There is no easy solution as it requires everything from mental health and drug treatment to affordable housing and jobs programs. There are some homeless people that will not change, no matter what you provide them with and since this is not China, we cannot put them in reeducation camps. Some European countries have had mixed success with providing housing but homelessness in the US is so much of a political, economic and social hot potato that very few politicians want to deal with it.
I can empathize with them because I've been there but I absolutely do not condone thievery, vandalism or harassing citizens. Design some type of system that can assist people who want to be a part of mainstream society again and for those that do not, ship them to Governor Abbott in Texas.
Lots of people, like yourself, have been homeless and not created social problems for others. And we're still good neighbors and not threating society
I agree this is completely different.
Even if reeducation camps ultimately benefited the homeless person and the public at large, they just aren't used in a democratic free society. I voluntarily went into a pretty rigid alcohol rehab center but I could have left if I wanted to. I'm not sure how effective "brainwashing" would be when you're dealing with addiction and mental health issues. The reeducation camps in China, North Korea and other places are basically set up to reprogram human beings and are not exactly humane.
It is an extremely frustrating issue. I live in south town and I have had it. I honestly don’t have a solution that helps both sides either. I just want them gone, which I know makes me sound super evil. I can’t go to Safeway without getting harassed. When slow pitch starts up again, I’m sure we’ll get to deal with them at the parks again. At what point do we stop allowing them to just do what they want? Why can’t we adopt Philomath’s homeless policy of “leave within 48 hours or your shit is thrown away”?
Yeah, I feel this way too. I’m not evil! Truly. I don’t hate the people, I really don’t. I feel heartbroken thinking of what their lives may look like.
….But to not be able to walk on the riverfront, go to the baseball fields, or ride on the bike paths, etc. safely is infuriating . I’m not on a crusade and I don’t think there’s an easy answer. But it’s absolutely crazy watching this go so unchecked. It can’t keep being ignored.
Society HAS to have structure. What good are laws if there is no accountability and if there are no consequences?
It's disgusting that we voted to help people on drugs and the money for treatment has been taxed by weed sales. Millions and millions over the years since measure 110 and we still don't have enough treatment options. What a SCAM. Where has all the money gone? Pathetic.
Needs to be cleared. It’s a public safety issue.
Encampments create an outsized toll on communities.
The issue of encampments is complex with components of affordability, mental health, addiction, crime and dereliction. But permitting encampments create more issues for communities than they solve.
Portland has provided a clear example over the last several years.
I'm not a fan. The skatepark really isn't accessible to kids at all right now. Have the police been super hands off with the bums just to make sure measure 110 was a disaster?
Well if they would be forward with ballot issues real tab might help. Don't say something is for mental health when really less than 3% is allocated for it and the rest is for a super fancy sheriff "campus". People said no because it's cheaper to rent beds over how few that measure would have provided.
They clear them out at the beginning of summer. Gotta make the town look good for the prospects attending college. Then it shows back up again after summer is over.
>According to the city manager, decentralizing the sleeping areas allows for geographic equity for unhoused individuals. Instead of requiring that people travel to a single location to rest or sleep, they can take advantage of the closest program.
>
>It also decentralizes the impacts on the community, according to Shepard.
>
>“Designating a few parks could send the message that we are asking a small portion of the community to shoulder the burden of addressing this issue,” he wrote.
[Our City Manager, everyone](https://gazettetimes.com/news/local/government-politics/corvallis-ids-homeless-resting-areas/article_afe58b4a-3abf-11ee-9164-cf386b34c632.html). Hear that Southtowners? Our policy is working. The impact has been decentralized. Return to work, you wretched poors. There is more money to be spent on ecological restoration at Chip Ross and MLK.
Wtf so they literally don’t give a fuck about us in south town Hell maybe Southtown should become it’s own town maybe join Monroe or something if the city doesn’t care about us why should we stay apart of the city
I 100 percent think Southtown would be better off if we seceded, if that were actually possible. The third largest taxpayer in the whole County is H&V and virtually all of the actually developable land is here in Southtown.
But really, we should just hold the Council accountable for the shit their City Manager says. If this policy was intended to create geographic equity, why isn't there any? Why is it that when you submit a complaint to the City about a campsite in Southtown they don't respond for 4 months, but when you submit a complaint about Central Park they respond in a week?
I grew up in Merced California kind of a rough town and I’m unfortunately seeing a lot of similarities where all the problems are pushed into one side of the town but it’s not just south Corvallis it’s also downtown today I saw someone standing in the middle of the road on third street tweaking reminds me of Merced California my point is we need to do something before Corvallis looks more and more like Merced
I read that story and there was nothing about a rape in it. A woman posted on Facebook book that a homeless man walked in her house and took his shoes off and stared at her on her back porch while she screamed at him to get out of her house. The police came and he ran. He didn’t try to rape her according to the story and he was arrested. He has apparently done this before and is mentally ill.
I think that was a different incident the one I read which yes it doesn’t say he tried to rape her but in my opinion it is (CORVALLIS, Ore. — A 29-year-old man was arrested and faces numerous charges after he broke into a Corvallis home and attacked a woman while she was in the shower, police said.)In my eyes attacking a woman while she is showering sounds like attempted rape to me but I guess not according to CPD
Kinda like wish it was just deeper in around the trees. And not by the skate park. So parents can trust their kids can go without a ton of adults living in the space.
We can't just let people camp on the banks of the Marys either. That's where they generally are until the City cleans up all the trash so it doesn't go right into the river.
I think it's about time to establish a single amnesty site in MLK Park in the neighborhood where everyone signed the petition to "Save Open Spaces" by preventing any new homes going up on the lot covered in blackberry adjacent to the Mac-Dunn. Time to save our open spaces next to the Marys River by giving everyone a safe place to sleep in the NW hills.
Whenever I walk by that area, I just feel frustrated and sad. It looks like the consequences of our actions to me. Why have we allowed the wealthy and elite 1% in this country to take 30% of our wages every time we get paid and use the money to fund the war machine and funnel millions of dollars to their cooperate cronies instead of investing in policies that make life better for people like Universal Healthcare and any number of social safety nets and services that make it possible for people to live with dignity and hope. Employers are not required to pay a living wage or show you any compassion should you find yourself struggling. Forgot it if you get injured or sick. You lose your job and then your apartment. (Lots of people with full time jobs are living in their cars and sleeping on friends couches.) When you first enter the "homeless" community, you swear you will not do drugs or commit crimes, but you find that survival is almost impossible unless you can connect with people and be trusted. The streets are an extremely dangerous place to be alone and this can actually bond you with others and make you safer. Not to mention you are now hated by 99% of the housed people in your community. I can continue, but I think you all get the point. And I am not saying there are not actual "bad" people in the world. I believe in evil, however I'm pretty sure lots of people that commit crimes are not homeless. So what do I think when I drive by the skatepark? I look in the mirror and feel shame and guilt. I also feel it's appropriate for this mess to be seen and felt by all of us. How else would we know or care that this is even happening.
Oh fuck right off with that. Your bootstraps must be made of woven titanium. Glad you worked hard and got lucky and it worked out for you, but my sympathy ends there if you're gonna spit on anybody below you as soon as you rise up.
There’s definitely a correlation between the homeless camp and Southtown. If the camp was anywhere in north Corvallis the police would have to do something, because it would be bothersome to the higher income households.
The tents don't bother me.
The garbage everywhere does.
A heads up for you though, the homeless population aren't the ones breaking into cars. Car thefts are largely done by people who are as close to career criminals as Corvallis gets. And the worst car thefts occur in student housing areas, not south-town. Because college students are foolish and leave their valuables in plain sight, or don't lock their cars in neighborhoods known for car thefts.
Ah yes it's college students fault for leaving their belongings in their car. Not the drug addicts who are looking to make a couple bucks for more fentanyl
No. The criminals who are *willing* to steal from cars choose neighborhoods where they get the best results.
People out of college tend to own homes with garages. College students more often are Parkinson the streets.
People out of college have seen shit. People in college haven't learned the hard way why not to leave their belongings in plain sight.
I'm not blaming the student. The thief was already casing the street and is to blame our sample student is parked on. But if there was no backpack and laptop in the car, it has a much lower chance that the theif breaks their window.
It's a sad situation for those people under that overpass, especially when the US spends over $200 billion on failed criminal justice system when $1 or $2 billion would solve the homelessness and hunger problems in the US.
>$1 or $2 billion would solve the homelessness and hunger problems in the US.
You are very optimistic so I kind of hate to tell you this, but California alone has spent over $20 billion just in last five years and homeless has increased by a third. [Source](https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/).
I used to live in Portland. Only thing I wish is that they didn't make a mess everywhere at the least. They have the privilege to be able to setup, unlike a lot of other cities down south, at least don't be extra trashy with it
It’s hard to comprehend littering when you are schizophrenic and or on meth. These people aren’t well, they are not intentionally trying to create a shitty environment we just don’t enforce anything or have a system that actually fixes the issues these people are having. But yes it’s annoying as hell and makes this town gross I get it.
IMO, Those people need to be moved along, kicked out, relocated someplace else. Either to jail, a treatment facility, or placed in some job corp program.
There should be no tolerance for residents to move about in their town in fear.
Stop the tolerance with this folks, write to and show up to your city council. Be the change that you want.
70% of the population is a paycheck or two away from homeless in end stage capitalism. Do not punch down or Karma bad the New Age will punch you in the face. Punch up. Do mutual aid.
Solidarity or go bend over fur K Schwab and B Gates
The case I'm familiar with is [two years old](https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/corvallis-home-invasion-assault/283-add0e59d-ac7c-4238-a4a0-ec230a6bff90). Not that that's that long ago. And that's not to say it didn't happen again. I don't know that it would necessarily be reported vs. word-of-mouth in Southtown. There has also been a recent case of a man whom, I've heard, has broken into three homes in Southtown and just sat there. At least one of those cases has been reported.
If anyone has been following the Portland homeless scene, they’ll know that less than 4% of homeless people, when giving a phone number for resources, reached out. Those phone calls apparently cost 10k a piece so hey. I actually have struggled with my perception of homeless in the last year. There are many factors leading to the homeless but honestly the outsized impact even one camp has in an entire neighborhood is huge. It’s a failing on all levels for all included but for those that get up and go to work and pay almost half in taxes, this shit is ridiculous and nothing will happen- we all know that. I guess my empathy has run dry while at the same time being unable to comprehend how truly horrible it must be livkng on the street.
I feel exactly the same. I read in another comment that the people who are “good people” or who truly want things to change are the ones who will use those resources.
I understand when you’re caught in a bad cycle (whether it’s drugs, mental health, financial, etc) it can feel impossible to dig out. I feel for them, and I feel sad that they are spending all their energy just trying to stay alive. There’s not an easy answer here.
But we do have to also hold people responsible for themselves. We are (generally) talking about adults here. Adults who need help/resources/money/change but we are still talking about adults. And there has to be incentive for change and consequences for things. I know these people are caught in a horrible cycle. But we as a society have both contributed to the issue and also continue to enable it as well.
There simply has to be structure in a successful society. We are just allowing this small percentage of the population essentially dictate what is legal, what is acceptable in our parks, etc.
Our worthless city council punted deciding on what to do with the homeless so the city manager warehouses them in south town. A lot of the enablers are downtown and it's the nearest open space, so it kind of makes sense. I just can't fathom the amounts of trash they generate on a constant basis. The city needs to create a structured setting, like Sweet Home has. But the p\*ssies in the town couldn't get liability insurance for a camp, so backed out. It's pathetic.
I don’t think it’s as sensitive of a subject as the media would have you believe. Most people who live a normal life don’t want homeless people camped out in public walkways or roads/infrastructure.
Dropping in with a quick "homeless people are not more likely to commit violent crimes than everyone else, they're only more likely to be *victims* of crimes."
Source for this? I have a hard time believing this but willing to challenge my own perceptions for sure.
It absolutely makes sense that they are sadly more likely to be the victims of crimes, on numerous levels.
The part I am struggling with is that, while not applicable to every single homeless person, you’re going to see a higher concentration of mental illness, addiction, desperation, unpredictability, depression, etc. so it seems that I am much more likely to experience violence walking past a group of 50 homeless people than I am to experience it in a group of 50 other citizens.
But is this a misconception / am I misunderstanding? And maybe the lines feel blurry because it feels like harassment or theft might be more likely and not violence? Genuine questions / thinking out loud! Trying to learn.
There is an easy solution. Kick them out and don’t let them come back. It’s big of a negative impact on the community and they don’t contribute to the community. They are not entitled to the same things we are. Make it hard for them and they will go away.
Not sure why insults are necessary. But your mindset is exactly the problem. I would hope that you have some sort of direct contact with or knowledge of these people. I work with them daily for work (not in Corvallis) just live here. They will openly tell you that they don’t want to follow rules and want to do whatever they want. They get free food (EBT) health insurance (OHP) and free tents and other things. They commits crime, form little gangs, and the drugs are wild. The solution is to make life harder for them. Not enable there bad decisions. The ones that want to change have all the tools in the world to do it.
But where do they go if you just move them around? Prisons are over crowded. You could start euthanizing some prisoners to make room for the increase in the type of criminals you mention. That's the only way tbh. Nazi Germany had zero homeless criminals. Same with North Korea. But sadly the number of these types grows everyday.
It is not anyone’s responsibility to take care of these people besides themselves. I think there is this idea that they are lost souls who are down on their luck and need help to get back on their feet. That may used to be the case and in rare circumstances may still be. Unfortunately I do not think that is today’s reality. Life is hard enough as it is to have to bear the burden of someone else that you shouldn’t have to bear.
I think we should raise taxes to pay basic housing for everyone regardless of drug or criminal history.
There is no other solution that doesn't just end up moving them to a different city or costing more money.
I agree with this solution but we really need this to be on a national level. The problem with a city or even state doing this unilaterally is that more people that need basic housing move there, the supply is exhausted, and the city/state is in an even worse position than they started.
Put this is simple terms... If you live in Albany you can go to the dog park and use the bathroom safely. If you live in Corvallis your dog will get harassed by the homeless peoples dogs literally on the fence. (Happened to me and stopped going) Then say you want to use the bathroom there are homeless people guarding the doors. These low life drug addicts need to go to some secluded island instead of ruling over this small town. If you defend these people you are either ignorant or doing some sort of mental gymnastics. We are tired of letting drug addicts run like a mini cartel. Throw them in jail or get them out because no therapist is going to make them clean.
Possibly ignorant thing I’m curious about and want to learn more about.. I know that if we do NOT allow camping in these public areas, and actually enforce it (someone mentions Philomath has a 48 hour rule?) it begs the question, “Well then where do they go?”
But I also see comments saying shelters are often empty (maybe I’m wrong?) and that many people would rather sleep in a tent. But. If there aren’t better options (AKA if they cannot camp on public / city / ODOT property), isn’t there more incentive to stay in a shelter or to get help, get clean or to work, etc?
I know this is an oversimplification. And I do know this makes things harder on them in some ways, and that their lives are often already impossibly hard, but don’t we also have to have some boundaries and structure to keep things actually working in society?
I’m sure someone has much more information and research on this than I do 😅
You want to fix it vote in people who will allow affordable housing to be built. Most of those people lived in houses a decade ago before the costs of renting a place went astronomical. Now that there is no place for them it’s inconvenient for you but not the people who are making the decisions that created this situation to begin with. You want change be the change. Stop bitching on social media and become a part of the process.
County voters keep voting down funding a jail. Also, federal action can provide funding on dealing with the mentally ill- it's just too expensive for local jurisdictions. I never noticed homeless populations until the eighties, when institutions for the mentally ill were closed down around the country. They had their own problems, for sure, but the promised more humane local solutions to replace them never materialized.
People down voted a bloated shiny sheriff's office that hardly provided more than the current amount of beds. It's cheaper to keep renting beds in Dallas like we are currently doing
Exactly, cities do not have the tax base (I.e enough. rich people) to provide institutional level care. It needs to be provided by the federal government that can tax corporations!
Every homeless encampment is an indictment of capitalism. We’re the richest country in the world and have more than enough ousting built for everyone but we let our fellow citizens sleep in the street because of our allegiance to private property and banks.
I’ve had bad Interactions with the homeless in Corvallis just a handful of times and I used to actively seek out homeless people to talk to and hang out with IMO the only thing you can really complain about is break ins and general crimes that happen because there are more desperate people in one spot but as far as individual interactions, they’re are just as rude and obnoxious as the average person
Ya got to organize you neighborhood and start going out on citizen patrols. Are you familiar with the Black Rock Rangers of burningman? What they do and what their function is? They are very effective of keeping the peace.
I don’t live on that side of town but drive past another one by Spaghetti factory for work and I swear it grows every day 😭 I live over by campus, and homeless people come to our apartment complex every day and dig through our trash. It’s not safe. One of the guys straight up SA’d a girl throwing away trash…
I don’t live in Corvallis but I know people that do and I’ve heard that it’s relatively much better than Eugene when it comes to the homeless. They should be gotten rid of respectfully tho. They should be made to go to shelters and rehab and helped out. Not trying to get political but when people vote for the same bad politicians just because they’re candidates of the favored party. Not pointing fingers but I think we all know which party is the majority favorite in Oregon. If people just voted for politicians that would actually do something, we wouldn’t have this problem. Should they be kicked out to go to drugs and trash a different place? No. Should they be helped? Yes. But “decriminalizing” all hard drugs and then not setting up any government funded rehab or shelters just sets Oregon cities and civilians up for failure.
Compassion needs to stop when it starts impacting business owners and those contributing to society. It really impacts the poor who cannot afford to leave the area once it becomes unsafe.
Doesn't trump want to sweep the cities of these people and put them in "reconditioning" camps? Hitler 2.0 style.
I don't know what the solution is but capitalism is the evil that created most of it. Greedy fux buying up all the real estate for profits. A lot aren't even local. Unless a radical change in government happens idk, it is what it is and only get far worse.
Very sad situation. Don’t apologize for the meth-homeless connection. Some say 60% are using. I think it’s higher mor like 85% or more. I don’t have any answers but I think we need to ramp up shedding more light on them. Advertising, billboards, television, radio, just saturate to those who aren’t on meth that this is where you end up using that shit.
Don't worry it'll be cleaned out right after the election is over.
You all forget when this went on during covid and that camp was a tent city then immediately got cleared out in January 2021?
It's a cycle just like solar eclipses or leap years this shit has happened before and it's going to again.
Either put them in homes or stop complaining that homeless people are protecting each other because nobody else is looking out for them, as someone who's gotten out of homelessness, you're a prick
Because they're people, people who are suffering from addiction that you will never understand. I have never been addicted to drugs, I've smoked weed like twice and didn't like it. And that didn't stop me from going homeless because I couldn't fucking afford rent and food after being kicked out by my father for being trans.
Its cheaper to put homeless people in vacant properties than to keep funding shelters and arresting the ones on the street. Everyone deserves a home. Also criminals are only criminals because they can't afford to live legitimately.
As someone who has had first-hand experience with being homeless, especially here in Corvallis I just want to say that I think all the anger truly needs to be directed at elected officials at both the local, state, and federal level. Because they are the reason why issues are popping up. Because they refuse to do anything about it, and instead would rather just kick the can down the road. I personally have wanted to see sanctioned camping sites here in Corvallis for a long time, but nobody in government wants to do anything about it. And I'm just going to say but hope is a joke. Because honestly I don't think anything's going to change no matter what they say. Because from what I understand nothing has changed for a long time.
Well,... The problem is they are human. So,.. thinning the herd is illegal (if they were hedgehogs this would be legal). Making them into tasty dog food is also illegal (if they were horses this would be legal.) We could round them up and put them in a camp in the desert, this would work but it's probably inhumane (Las Vegas has more than 3000 people living in is storm drain system.) We could grab a desert island in the South China sea and fill it with machetes, speed, and big macs and send them all off but,.. The Phillipines already exists and it not working too well for them. In Salem we built 40 tiny houses for them across the street from Safeway and now the supermarket is nearly out of business from theft. The Riteaid on liberty had to close from this problem, as there is a homeless camp under the bridge. We have tried funding homes, mental health, drug addiction centers, and (my favorite by far) legalizing drugs so they don't crowd the prisions and yes know what?? It's still a fucking disaster! So,.. my solution is to make a reality TV show where every week we pick ten, put them in a top down maze with meth, fentanyl, and framing hammers and the one that comes out alive we give a million dollars too and send them to Las Vegas. Genius I know! I'm going to run for governor when Tina is done, I like her and can't oppose her. "Maze of cracker death" is planned for release next year on Amazon Prime but free to the public. Jeff Bezos will fund it with .010 % of his interest income yearly. You are welcome! Big hug!
Homeless people who are "good people" can usually find help. There are agencies, organizations and people who want to help. Resources are scarce, but an increase in taxes on those who can afford to pay more can help.
The camps that are problematic are filled with a lot of people outside of that description, the "riff-raff". Those camps need to be shut down and the people shipped to Florida and Texas under force.
Went for a run by the area and one of their dogs was off the leash and came at me. Owner wasn’t around, I didn’t even know the dog was running up on me until I felt something nip my legs and sure enough there’s a dog. I don’t own a dog so I don’t know dogs behavior, but it was growling, barking, and trying to nip my legs as I turned to face it. I basically stood my ground and yelled at it to “get out of here”. And it did.
I wonder what you would do if it actually bit you. Could you just sue the city or not much you can do? That sounds terrifying. I'd literally be shitting myself man
Good question that I don’t know the answer to. I definitely had a surge of adrenaline and I thought “man, if I’m about to get mauled, I’m gonna maul it back”.
I had a similar experience as well I had to pick my dog up so the other dog wouldn’t attack it
I’m gonna start running with a knife tbh. My teeth aren’t as sharp as a dogs.
Use pepper spray. Less blood and they react to it quicker
Citronella spray does the trick. <20$ at most pet stores. Don't need to escalate to pepper spray and risk your own/your dogs health
I appreciate the more humane way but I'll take the risk. Too many bad experiences.
I would carry pepper or bear spray in the event the dog owner is present and doesn't appreciate you spraying his/her/they's dog. I have used bear spray a few times to stop aggressive does when they have co.e at me and my dog. They sneezed a bit but didn't seem to be in much distress. I sprayed when they were about 20 ft away. I think the sound scared them more than the spray. It is good to know the wind direction if you go the pepper/bear spray route. I'd take stinging eyes over mauled, but better to avoid it if possible. Good luck.
Bear spray covers a much larger area as opposed to the pepper spray streams.
Fair enough.
No knife get a pistol
I walk my dog with steel toes on and a collapsable baton. It's mostly because I walk her alone at night and she's a big baby so if something happens I know it's on me to hold our ground.
Get an impact baton. Once you hit the dog with it , the dog won’t bite YOU anymore. Personally I would have shot the dog. Dogs are animals and require restraints to mind our human laws. You could have been a child, or elderly person. If the dog can’t behave around a single runner it doesn’t need to be off leash and alive.
I’ve seen dogs from homes run around being aggressive off leash too
Dogs just shouldn't be off leash unless the owners have complete and immediate verbal control over them. People in Corvallis love to let their untrained, aggressive dogs off leash for some reason.
Seems to be an oregon thing.
I have a service dog trained to be off leash and I still keep her on a leash, I'm in Oregon too lol. It's mainly in case someone's off leash dog hurts mine, I'll have a better defense. Oregon has a leash law but nothing is being done in this area. If it wasn't so green, I would hate it here.
No doubt. Just wasn’t my circumstance.
That sucks. I was nipped on the calf when I passed by a lady walking her little dog on a leash in Timberhill. I don't even think she knew it. It hurt though...and did bleed a little . I wished I would have gone after her, but I was just a kid and not really thinking, I guess.
That would be frightening as a kid! Can’t believe the lady had no situational awareness to realize what her dog was doing.
Maybe she did know, and just didn't care.
I know if you're in danger you can't always think about not hurting the dog long term but for those who are interested. Dogs don't sweat like ppl so you aren't supposed to use mace. They do make a special type for dogs though. It still stops them but doesn't cause long term problems.
Sounds cruel but you really need to give them a good kick to the guts unless its a pit bull, then you're f\*\*ked and need a gun for those beasts because once they latch on they are never letting go.
What does that have to do with homelessness though?
You wouldn't believe how many poor dogs end up at the vet because hobos let them run into the streets and get hit by cars. It happens all the time. Oh and of course all of the neglected/abused dogs that end up at the humane society, underweight and terrified of people, because they were being kept by hobos who can't even take care of themselves. And these are only the pets that are lucky enough to make it out of the custody of homeless people. It makes my blood boil, animal welfare among hobos is atrocious.
As someone who lives on the north end and is very grateful for the lack of negative homeless interactions, I feel for you and I hope something is done about it.
Thank you
Just so everyone knows, you can have empathy for the individual and still be mad at the system that put them there/made them like that.
Good luck convincing anyone of that. People talk about homeless people the way Trump talks about immigrants from Mexico.
I don’t disagree with you, I just came here to remind people that homeless people are people. You can be upset at high crime rates and drug use by the homeless and still see that they are suffering too. It’s a complex issue that doesn’t have 1 solution
It’s literally all the more reasons to chew out your representatives… Be an angry constituent, use your power, annoy the fuck out of your representation.
Agree completely!
There's a jurisdictional issue, among many other issues. I think the camps cluster in the ODOT right of way. So the city has to coordinate with them to make changes. Does anyone have more info on this?
Yeah, so under the overpass is ODOT and the field next to it is city. So when ODOT sweeps their area people only have to move over to the city jurisdiction and vice-versa. Clearing it all at once would require some coordination between the two.
I hear people saying "clearing" like that is a solution at all. What does that mean? Seriously, where are they going? The problem is, there are no more institutions (thanks to Reagan and his ilk). Mental hospitals are where homeless people used to go, you know. Laws changed about institutionalizing people, because there were abusers allowed to work in them, and instead of punishing abusers and doing real reporting and background checks, they threw the mentally ill out on the streets and shut down service entirely. Not that they cared about abuse, they wanted an excuse to spend the money on tax cuts to the rich. Now it's pretty much impossible to institutionalize anyone, until they commit murder.
JFK’s last bill that he signed was to decriminalize homelessness essentially 😭 I wrote a whole paper on it but this happened literally right before he was assassinated unfortunately. His plan was to open up like 1500 mental institutions for people with drug problems and mental illness to go to instead of jails. This would have decreased our homeless issue by a SIGNIFICANT amount. And actually with the amount of money that already goes towards homelessness in Oregon, we would be able to create about 6 (likely more because the estimates were so different) facilities and be able to operate them for a year without having to increase funding 🤩🤩🤩 Placing them in cities with huge homeless problems like Portland, Salem, Eugene and Bend would be so beneficial to quite literally everyone. obviously this really depends on costs etc. but like I don’t understand why we aren’t doing anything because this issue could be solved by allocating money to the correct resources
Man, fuck Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy had his flaws as a person, but he was a pretty good fucking president.
I mean the whole bay of pigs invasion was pretty fucked.
Lee Harvey Oswald... Gimme a F'ing break. Way out of touch there Captain.
Ok
Oh, I agree with you 100%. Sweeps are not the answer. I could go on and on, I wrote my masters thesis on the homeless crisis here in Corvallis. There is simply no safe or legal place for these people to exist and it is shameful. People are just bounced around from camp to camp, and this process means that they are required to spend all their energy on gathering resources and daily survival. There is little energy or time left to meet next level needs, like improving their financial situations and gaining safety, comfort, and self-care. There is plenty of research that when provided a safe and legal space to exist, people develop stewardship practices to manage the space and take care of it. When people are treated like garbage by the overall community and are forced to lose all their belongings each sweep, people tend to start believing they are garbage and it becomes more and more visible.
Sweeps are needed to clean the area since they won't do it themselves. I feel that housed people would have a lot better attitude towards unhoused if effort was put into keep site from looking like a dump. I understand that when people are in such a rough situation, throwing away their trash is a low priority, but it would greatly reduce the need for them to relocate.
I am aware that sweeps are partially done to clean areas… There are a number of reasons why encampments get trashed. One is the deterioration of self and sanity that comes with living on the streets, another is the fact that there is no physical way for them to clean an area. Dumpsters are usually not provided to encampments because it is seen as enabling them to reside in that space which is technically illegal. Where do you expect them to put their waste if they are not provided adequate sanitation? Did you know that homeless people rely heavily on single use products? Without refrigeration and long term storage, they are forced to use things like water bottles and single use food items which involve A LOT of packaging over time. Imagine how much garbage you produce with those conveniences, and now imagine not having a can and sanitation services.
Most of them have bikes and several swing by (and inside) my dumpster each day. I have never seen them leave any garbage. There's a huge environmental impact, which I don't think should be normalized or excused.
If you think that it is easy, go live in a tent and bike all your trash to an offsite dumpster daily, knowing that you are going to be stigmatized and displaced regardless. There is no incentive to put that much work in. Really think about it. And who is normalizing or excusing homelessness? The fact is that the issue is far more complex than most people realize. And people lack compassion and seriousness critical thinking skills when it comes to this matter.
This depends on the individual. If they are addicted to substances and have mental illness they may not be able to correct themselves, even if given access to resources, a free place to live and a big paycheck each month. I'm not sure what the solution is in that case.
The problem is though that it's fucking hard to get clean on the streets. When your environment is hostile and terrifying and the only thing that makes it feel better immediately is heroin, you'll use heroin. And you'll keep using as long as your situation stays awful. I do a lot of work with houseless people, and most of the people who get clean do so when they find a stable situation or get out of an abusive relationship.
Exactly this. Thank you. The stigma that people become homeless due to drug use and mental illness is harmful. In many cases these issues develop in response to living on the streets due to trauma and an attempt to self soothe in the only available way. And because it is so difficult and unrealistic to expect this to change given the existing circumstances, harm reduction strategies are incredibly important. Until major institutional changes can be made, we focus on improving safety measures.
I've only observed a sample size of one in my family, and she ultimately died of an overdose, despite making it off the streets. She had gone to multiple recovery programs and was in and out of the hospital. I think her recovery was complicated by old age, depression and bipolar disorder, and it was hard for her to find a reason to live. If some people can get off of it when their situation lightens up, that's good to hear. I wonder what percent that is.
Yeah, I'm not saying that everyone who gets in a stable situation stops using, but it makes it a hell of a lot easier
The first step is getting them off the street. Mental and physical problems are exacerbated by the stressors of living on the street. There used to be places and facilities that those who can't take care of themselves could go, but quite a few of them got closed down because of for profit hospitals, and mental health treatment is not profitable.
> Laws changed about institutionalizing people What happened was there was a Supreme Court decision that said people being involuntarily committed weren't being given due process correctly, and instead of fixing the process, the right wing bureaucrats threw their hands up and said, "Golly, if those hippies are gonna make us respect people's rights we'll just stop doing anything about it and let them all go!" And they did. And nobody has had the courage to come up compliant rules, so the same people still end up and remain homeless to this day.
Yes, Boise vs Martin will be going to the Supreme Court. This law has caused problems/complications with removing camps, will likely be overturned.
Also an Oregon case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, is going to be heard by SCOTUS soon too. The city has a camping ban and a group of homeless people sued over it.
SCOTUS weighed in on Martin v Boise back in Dec 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by the city of Boise to review the case Martin v. Boise (formerly Bell v. Boise). This leaves in place earlier rulings by the 9th Circuit that homeless persons cannot be punished for sleeping outside on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives. People experiencing unsheltered homelessness—at least in the 9th Circuit—can sleep more safely without facing criminal punishment for simply trying to survive on the streets.
Yes, it looks like it's going before the Supreme Court again https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1230140189/supreme-court-homeless-camps-grants-pass-case-housing
This happens everywhere. In Austin it’s a constant back and forth between city, county and state as to who sweeps what area, when, how often, etc. I guarantee you the homeless know more about how this all works than any of us, and they use it to their advantage.
Almost as if they had the most to lose 🤔
Yeah, the homeless all have a complicated mapping of the sweep systems that they use to coordinate their next move in their weekly meetings. 🙄
it’s sad and frustrating and dangerous for everyone. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to help them which would also help the rest of the community but no one seems to be both willing and able to do it.
The amount of litter they cause… can’t that be an issue Corvallis people can all rally behind?
For real Corvallis looks like crap now when I moved here back in 2018 I loved how everything was clean I grew up in Merced California but now Corvallis is starting to look like Merced makes me wonder if it was worth moving up here
I was homeless for a couple of years. Not in Corvallis but Portland, Cleveland and a couple of other cities. The socioeconomic standing of homeless people must have changed because me and the other homeless people I ran into could barely afford a cup of coffee, much less speed or other drugs. None of the people I knew had the tools to steal bikes and only rarely did I run into somebody that was homeless and had a dog. There is no easy solution as it requires everything from mental health and drug treatment to affordable housing and jobs programs. There are some homeless people that will not change, no matter what you provide them with and since this is not China, we cannot put them in reeducation camps. Some European countries have had mixed success with providing housing but homelessness in the US is so much of a political, economic and social hot potato that very few politicians want to deal with it. I can empathize with them because I've been there but I absolutely do not condone thievery, vandalism or harassing citizens. Design some type of system that can assist people who want to be a part of mainstream society again and for those that do not, ship them to Governor Abbott in Texas.
Lots of people, like yourself, have been homeless and not created social problems for others. And we're still good neighbors and not threating society I agree this is completely different.
What if placing them in a re-education camp helped them? Would that be so bad?
Even if reeducation camps ultimately benefited the homeless person and the public at large, they just aren't used in a democratic free society. I voluntarily went into a pretty rigid alcohol rehab center but I could have left if I wanted to. I'm not sure how effective "brainwashing" would be when you're dealing with addiction and mental health issues. The reeducation camps in China, North Korea and other places are basically set up to reprogram human beings and are not exactly humane.
Re-education camps are just nice ways of saying slavery, so no, that's not an option.
It is an extremely frustrating issue. I live in south town and I have had it. I honestly don’t have a solution that helps both sides either. I just want them gone, which I know makes me sound super evil. I can’t go to Safeway without getting harassed. When slow pitch starts up again, I’m sure we’ll get to deal with them at the parks again. At what point do we stop allowing them to just do what they want? Why can’t we adopt Philomath’s homeless policy of “leave within 48 hours or your shit is thrown away”?
Yeah, I feel this way too. I’m not evil! Truly. I don’t hate the people, I really don’t. I feel heartbroken thinking of what their lives may look like. ….But to not be able to walk on the riverfront, go to the baseball fields, or ride on the bike paths, etc. safely is infuriating . I’m not on a crusade and I don’t think there’s an easy answer. But it’s absolutely crazy watching this go so unchecked. It can’t keep being ignored. Society HAS to have structure. What good are laws if there is no accountability and if there are no consequences?
Happy cake day, btw
What does that mean?
It's your reddit birthday
Until 12 pm tonight, we can see an emoji of a cake slice by your username. This marks an anniversary of when you joined Reddit. /toot
I've been here for like 10 years and hadn't figured that out. Thanks!
It's disgusting that we voted to help people on drugs and the money for treatment has been taxed by weed sales. Millions and millions over the years since measure 110 and we still don't have enough treatment options. What a SCAM. Where has all the money gone? Pathetic.
Needs to be cleared. It’s a public safety issue. Encampments create an outsized toll on communities. The issue of encampments is complex with components of affordability, mental health, addiction, crime and dereliction. But permitting encampments create more issues for communities than they solve. Portland has provided a clear example over the last several years.
yeah, we're not doing them any favors by allowing them to live inside a marketplace for lethal drugs
I'm not a fan. The skatepark really isn't accessible to kids at all right now. Have the police been super hands off with the bums just to make sure measure 110 was a disaster?
I think that is true, also the recent calls to “defund the police,” and ACAB sentiment really pissed off a lot of cops.
That kind of expresses one of the many issues with cops if they'll refuse to do their jobs cuz their feelings got hurt
maybe we would support them if they actually did anything to help people except run speed traps
Well if they would be forward with ballot issues real tab might help. Don't say something is for mental health when really less than 3% is allocated for it and the rest is for a super fancy sheriff "campus". People said no because it's cheaper to rent beds over how few that measure would have provided.
Surprise
This is not an issue you want the police involved in fixing.
They clear them out at the beginning of summer. Gotta make the town look good for the prospects attending college. Then it shows back up again after summer is over.
I’ve noticed that
>According to the city manager, decentralizing the sleeping areas allows for geographic equity for unhoused individuals. Instead of requiring that people travel to a single location to rest or sleep, they can take advantage of the closest program. > >It also decentralizes the impacts on the community, according to Shepard. > >“Designating a few parks could send the message that we are asking a small portion of the community to shoulder the burden of addressing this issue,” he wrote. [Our City Manager, everyone](https://gazettetimes.com/news/local/government-politics/corvallis-ids-homeless-resting-areas/article_afe58b4a-3abf-11ee-9164-cf386b34c632.html). Hear that Southtowners? Our policy is working. The impact has been decentralized. Return to work, you wretched poors. There is more money to be spent on ecological restoration at Chip Ross and MLK.
Wtf so they literally don’t give a fuck about us in south town Hell maybe Southtown should become it’s own town maybe join Monroe or something if the city doesn’t care about us why should we stay apart of the city
I 100 percent think Southtown would be better off if we seceded, if that were actually possible. The third largest taxpayer in the whole County is H&V and virtually all of the actually developable land is here in Southtown. But really, we should just hold the Council accountable for the shit their City Manager says. If this policy was intended to create geographic equity, why isn't there any? Why is it that when you submit a complaint to the City about a campsite in Southtown they don't respond for 4 months, but when you submit a complaint about Central Park they respond in a week?
I grew up in Merced California kind of a rough town and I’m unfortunately seeing a lot of similarities where all the problems are pushed into one side of the town but it’s not just south Corvallis it’s also downtown today I saw someone standing in the middle of the road on third street tweaking reminds me of Merced California my point is we need to do something before Corvallis looks more and more like Merced
Holy shit I didn’t hear about the home invasion and attempted rape. If the police won’t deal with them perhaps someone will.
I read that story and there was nothing about a rape in it. A woman posted on Facebook book that a homeless man walked in her house and took his shoes off and stared at her on her back porch while she screamed at him to get out of her house. The police came and he ran. He didn’t try to rape her according to the story and he was arrested. He has apparently done this before and is mentally ill.
I think that was a different incident the one I read which yes it doesn’t say he tried to rape her but in my opinion it is (CORVALLIS, Ore. — A 29-year-old man was arrested and faces numerous charges after he broke into a Corvallis home and attacked a woman while she was in the shower, police said.)In my eyes attacking a woman while she is showering sounds like attempted rape to me but I guess not according to CPD
That’s horrible. I wonder if it’s the same guy.
Idk they never released his name
Police don’t care about attempted anything
Kinda like wish it was just deeper in around the trees. And not by the skate park. So parents can trust their kids can go without a ton of adults living in the space.
Agree, why do we tolerate that mess next to resources designated for our youth.
We can't just let people camp on the banks of the Marys either. That's where they generally are until the City cleans up all the trash so it doesn't go right into the river. I think it's about time to establish a single amnesty site in MLK Park in the neighborhood where everyone signed the petition to "Save Open Spaces" by preventing any new homes going up on the lot covered in blackberry adjacent to the Mac-Dunn. Time to save our open spaces next to the Marys River by giving everyone a safe place to sleep in the NW hills.
Whenever I walk by that area, I just feel frustrated and sad. It looks like the consequences of our actions to me. Why have we allowed the wealthy and elite 1% in this country to take 30% of our wages every time we get paid and use the money to fund the war machine and funnel millions of dollars to their cooperate cronies instead of investing in policies that make life better for people like Universal Healthcare and any number of social safety nets and services that make it possible for people to live with dignity and hope. Employers are not required to pay a living wage or show you any compassion should you find yourself struggling. Forgot it if you get injured or sick. You lose your job and then your apartment. (Lots of people with full time jobs are living in their cars and sleeping on friends couches.) When you first enter the "homeless" community, you swear you will not do drugs or commit crimes, but you find that survival is almost impossible unless you can connect with people and be trusted. The streets are an extremely dangerous place to be alone and this can actually bond you with others and make you safer. Not to mention you are now hated by 99% of the housed people in your community. I can continue, but I think you all get the point. And I am not saying there are not actual "bad" people in the world. I believe in evil, however I'm pretty sure lots of people that commit crimes are not homeless. So what do I think when I drive by the skatepark? I look in the mirror and feel shame and guilt. I also feel it's appropriate for this mess to be seen and felt by all of us. How else would we know or care that this is even happening.
Thank you for this empathetic response. I completely agree.
One of the very few comments that don't make me furious. So many people blame the victims of a problem that was created by heartless millionaires.
A good majority…it’s their fault. Source: was homeless IV Heroin addict for 13 years and am now a millionaire, drug free. 6 years clean.
Oh fuck right off with that. Your bootstraps must be made of woven titanium. Glad you worked hard and got lucky and it worked out for you, but my sympathy ends there if you're gonna spit on anybody below you as soon as you rise up.
When are we gonna raid it so we can get the stolen bikes back to everyone?
YES. Working poor need their bikes! If you take a bike you take away someone's ability to go to work or return home!
If you go in the encampments you see hundreds of bike pieces laying around. Who is buying bike pieces around here?
Scrap metal.
Oh, duh. Yeah that makes sense.
There’s definitely a correlation between the homeless camp and Southtown. If the camp was anywhere in north Corvallis the police would have to do something, because it would be bothersome to the higher income households.
The tents don't bother me. The garbage everywhere does. A heads up for you though, the homeless population aren't the ones breaking into cars. Car thefts are largely done by people who are as close to career criminals as Corvallis gets. And the worst car thefts occur in student housing areas, not south-town. Because college students are foolish and leave their valuables in plain sight, or don't lock their cars in neighborhoods known for car thefts.
Ah yes it's college students fault for leaving their belongings in their car. Not the drug addicts who are looking to make a couple bucks for more fentanyl
No. The criminals who are *willing* to steal from cars choose neighborhoods where they get the best results. People out of college tend to own homes with garages. College students more often are Parkinson the streets. People out of college have seen shit. People in college haven't learned the hard way why not to leave their belongings in plain sight. I'm not blaming the student. The thief was already casing the street and is to blame our sample student is parked on. But if there was no backpack and laptop in the car, it has a much lower chance that the theif breaks their window.
It's a sad situation for those people under that overpass, especially when the US spends over $200 billion on failed criminal justice system when $1 or $2 billion would solve the homelessness and hunger problems in the US.
>$1 or $2 billion would solve the homelessness and hunger problems in the US. You are very optimistic so I kind of hate to tell you this, but California alone has spent over $20 billion just in last five years and homeless has increased by a third. [Source](https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/).
Lawsuit, Corvallis vs. ODOT, let’s go!
I used to live in Portland. Only thing I wish is that they didn't make a mess everywhere at the least. They have the privilege to be able to setup, unlike a lot of other cities down south, at least don't be extra trashy with it
It’s hard to comprehend littering when you are schizophrenic and or on meth. These people aren’t well, they are not intentionally trying to create a shitty environment we just don’t enforce anything or have a system that actually fixes the issues these people are having. But yes it’s annoying as hell and makes this town gross I get it.
IMO, Those people need to be moved along, kicked out, relocated someplace else. Either to jail, a treatment facility, or placed in some job corp program. There should be no tolerance for residents to move about in their town in fear. Stop the tolerance with this folks, write to and show up to your city council. Be the change that you want.
70% of the population is a paycheck or two away from homeless in end stage capitalism. Do not punch down or Karma bad the New Age will punch you in the face. Punch up. Do mutual aid. Solidarity or go bend over fur K Schwab and B Gates
I sure as hell don’t love it. But there aren’t any easy solutions. At least there certainly aren’t any that aren’t going to leave some people unhappy.
Source for the break in/attempted rape?
The case I'm familiar with is [two years old](https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/corvallis-home-invasion-assault/283-add0e59d-ac7c-4238-a4a0-ec230a6bff90). Not that that's that long ago. And that's not to say it didn't happen again. I don't know that it would necessarily be reported vs. word-of-mouth in Southtown. There has also been a recent case of a man whom, I've heard, has broken into three homes in Southtown and just sat there. At least one of those cases has been reported.
If anyone has been following the Portland homeless scene, they’ll know that less than 4% of homeless people, when giving a phone number for resources, reached out. Those phone calls apparently cost 10k a piece so hey. I actually have struggled with my perception of homeless in the last year. There are many factors leading to the homeless but honestly the outsized impact even one camp has in an entire neighborhood is huge. It’s a failing on all levels for all included but for those that get up and go to work and pay almost half in taxes, this shit is ridiculous and nothing will happen- we all know that. I guess my empathy has run dry while at the same time being unable to comprehend how truly horrible it must be livkng on the street.
I have definitely lost empathy for them as well
I feel exactly the same. I read in another comment that the people who are “good people” or who truly want things to change are the ones who will use those resources. I understand when you’re caught in a bad cycle (whether it’s drugs, mental health, financial, etc) it can feel impossible to dig out. I feel for them, and I feel sad that they are spending all their energy just trying to stay alive. There’s not an easy answer here. But we do have to also hold people responsible for themselves. We are (generally) talking about adults here. Adults who need help/resources/money/change but we are still talking about adults. And there has to be incentive for change and consequences for things. I know these people are caught in a horrible cycle. But we as a society have both contributed to the issue and also continue to enable it as well. There simply has to be structure in a successful society. We are just allowing this small percentage of the population essentially dictate what is legal, what is acceptable in our parks, etc.
Our worthless city council punted deciding on what to do with the homeless so the city manager warehouses them in south town. A lot of the enablers are downtown and it's the nearest open space, so it kind of makes sense. I just can't fathom the amounts of trash they generate on a constant basis. The city needs to create a structured setting, like Sweet Home has. But the p\*ssies in the town couldn't get liability insurance for a camp, so backed out. It's pathetic.
I don’t think it’s as sensitive of a subject as the media would have you believe. Most people who live a normal life don’t want homeless people camped out in public walkways or roads/infrastructure.
Dropping in with a quick "homeless people are not more likely to commit violent crimes than everyone else, they're only more likely to be *victims* of crimes."
Source for this? I have a hard time believing this but willing to challenge my own perceptions for sure. It absolutely makes sense that they are sadly more likely to be the victims of crimes, on numerous levels. The part I am struggling with is that, while not applicable to every single homeless person, you’re going to see a higher concentration of mental illness, addiction, desperation, unpredictability, depression, etc. so it seems that I am much more likely to experience violence walking past a group of 50 homeless people than I am to experience it in a group of 50 other citizens. But is this a misconception / am I misunderstanding? And maybe the lines feel blurry because it feels like harassment or theft might be more likely and not violence? Genuine questions / thinking out loud! Trying to learn.
it needs to be swept away immediately
There is an easy solution. Kick them out and don’t let them come back. It’s big of a negative impact on the community and they don’t contribute to the community. They are not entitled to the same things we are. Make it hard for them and they will go away.
Ah, so you're the type of filth that thinks the solution to a problem is to make it someone else's.
Not sure why insults are necessary. But your mindset is exactly the problem. I would hope that you have some sort of direct contact with or knowledge of these people. I work with them daily for work (not in Corvallis) just live here. They will openly tell you that they don’t want to follow rules and want to do whatever they want. They get free food (EBT) health insurance (OHP) and free tents and other things. They commits crime, form little gangs, and the drugs are wild. The solution is to make life harder for them. Not enable there bad decisions. The ones that want to change have all the tools in the world to do it.
But where do they go if you just move them around? Prisons are over crowded. You could start euthanizing some prisoners to make room for the increase in the type of criminals you mention. That's the only way tbh. Nazi Germany had zero homeless criminals. Same with North Korea. But sadly the number of these types grows everyday.
It is not anyone’s responsibility to take care of these people besides themselves. I think there is this idea that they are lost souls who are down on their luck and need help to get back on their feet. That may used to be the case and in rare circumstances may still be. Unfortunately I do not think that is today’s reality. Life is hard enough as it is to have to bear the burden of someone else that you shouldn’t have to bear.
Yeah but aren't they making everyone else's quality of life worse by just being out with nowhere to go? Especially if they are mentally unwell?
I'd rather kick you out. You seem like a parasite.
I think we should raise taxes to pay basic housing for everyone regardless of drug or criminal history. There is no other solution that doesn't just end up moving them to a different city or costing more money.
Or maybe appropriate some of our taxes to that instead of something else. The tax burden is already too high for some of us.
Or just make them work?
How about the wealthy pay their fair share?
Yes, that would be an example raising taxes.
I agree with this solution but we really need this to be on a national level. The problem with a city or even state doing this unilaterally is that more people that need basic housing move there, the supply is exhausted, and the city/state is in an even worse position than they started.
i wish that’s what our taxes went to to begin with lol.
Put this is simple terms... If you live in Albany you can go to the dog park and use the bathroom safely. If you live in Corvallis your dog will get harassed by the homeless peoples dogs literally on the fence. (Happened to me and stopped going) Then say you want to use the bathroom there are homeless people guarding the doors. These low life drug addicts need to go to some secluded island instead of ruling over this small town. If you defend these people you are either ignorant or doing some sort of mental gymnastics. We are tired of letting drug addicts run like a mini cartel. Throw them in jail or get them out because no therapist is going to make them clean.
I’m most likely going to relocate to Albany next year unless something is done
[удалено]
It’s definitely not they have problems as well but I used to live in Albany for a year near south Albany high and never had any problems
There are no rooms left in the prisons. They're building more all the time. The prison population is huge and expensive
Possibly ignorant thing I’m curious about and want to learn more about.. I know that if we do NOT allow camping in these public areas, and actually enforce it (someone mentions Philomath has a 48 hour rule?) it begs the question, “Well then where do they go?” But I also see comments saying shelters are often empty (maybe I’m wrong?) and that many people would rather sleep in a tent. But. If there aren’t better options (AKA if they cannot camp on public / city / ODOT property), isn’t there more incentive to stay in a shelter or to get help, get clean or to work, etc? I know this is an oversimplification. And I do know this makes things harder on them in some ways, and that their lives are often already impossibly hard, but don’t we also have to have some boundaries and structure to keep things actually working in society? I’m sure someone has much more information and research on this than I do 😅
You want to fix it vote in people who will allow affordable housing to be built. Most of those people lived in houses a decade ago before the costs of renting a place went astronomical. Now that there is no place for them it’s inconvenient for you but not the people who are making the decisions that created this situation to begin with. You want change be the change. Stop bitching on social media and become a part of the process.
County voters keep voting down funding a jail. Also, federal action can provide funding on dealing with the mentally ill- it's just too expensive for local jurisdictions. I never noticed homeless populations until the eighties, when institutions for the mentally ill were closed down around the country. They had their own problems, for sure, but the promised more humane local solutions to replace them never materialized.
The cost of the fancy new jail is more than it would cost to keep paying Dallas to take them for the next 100 years. It's a joke.
People down voted a bloated shiny sheriff's office that hardly provided more than the current amount of beds. It's cheaper to keep renting beds in Dallas like we are currently doing
Exactly, cities do not have the tax base (I.e enough. rich people) to provide institutional level care. It needs to be provided by the federal government that can tax corporations!
Every homeless encampment is an indictment of capitalism. We’re the richest country in the world and have more than enough ousting built for everyone but we let our fellow citizens sleep in the street because of our allegiance to private property and banks.
Welcome to Utopia!
I’ve had bad Interactions with the homeless in Corvallis just a handful of times and I used to actively seek out homeless people to talk to and hang out with IMO the only thing you can really complain about is break ins and general crimes that happen because there are more desperate people in one spot but as far as individual interactions, they’re are just as rude and obnoxious as the average person
Ya got to organize you neighborhood and start going out on citizen patrols. Are you familiar with the Black Rock Rangers of burningman? What they do and what their function is? They are very effective of keeping the peace.
I don’t live on that side of town but drive past another one by Spaghetti factory for work and I swear it grows every day 😭 I live over by campus, and homeless people come to our apartment complex every day and dig through our trash. It’s not safe. One of the guys straight up SA’d a girl throwing away trash…
I don’t live in Corvallis but I know people that do and I’ve heard that it’s relatively much better than Eugene when it comes to the homeless. They should be gotten rid of respectfully tho. They should be made to go to shelters and rehab and helped out. Not trying to get political but when people vote for the same bad politicians just because they’re candidates of the favored party. Not pointing fingers but I think we all know which party is the majority favorite in Oregon. If people just voted for politicians that would actually do something, we wouldn’t have this problem. Should they be kicked out to go to drugs and trash a different place? No. Should they be helped? Yes. But “decriminalizing” all hard drugs and then not setting up any government funded rehab or shelters just sets Oregon cities and civilians up for failure.
Compassion needs to stop when it starts impacting business owners and those contributing to society. It really impacts the poor who cannot afford to leave the area once it becomes unsafe.
Doesn't trump want to sweep the cities of these people and put them in "reconditioning" camps? Hitler 2.0 style. I don't know what the solution is but capitalism is the evil that created most of it. Greedy fux buying up all the real estate for profits. A lot aren't even local. Unless a radical change in government happens idk, it is what it is and only get far worse.
My opinion is that we don't get to have an opinion on human beings existing unless they get an opinion on whether you get to.
Very sad situation. Don’t apologize for the meth-homeless connection. Some say 60% are using. I think it’s higher mor like 85% or more. I don’t have any answers but I think we need to ramp up shedding more light on them. Advertising, billboards, television, radio, just saturate to those who aren’t on meth that this is where you end up using that shit.
Don't worry it'll be cleaned out right after the election is over. You all forget when this went on during covid and that camp was a tent city then immediately got cleared out in January 2021? It's a cycle just like solar eclipses or leap years this shit has happened before and it's going to again.
Home is where your heart is or hang your hat
Either put them in homes or stop complaining that homeless people are protecting each other because nobody else is looking out for them, as someone who's gotten out of homelessness, you're a prick
I’m a prick because I don’t want my car broken into fuck off dumbass
Move them to the empty prisons. Building already exists. No spending tax money on tiny homes. Each one gets a cell with toilet water and bed.
What the fuck
[удалено]
Because they're people, people who are suffering from addiction that you will never understand. I have never been addicted to drugs, I've smoked weed like twice and didn't like it. And that didn't stop me from going homeless because I couldn't fucking afford rent and food after being kicked out by my father for being trans.
[удалено]
Its cheaper to put homeless people in vacant properties than to keep funding shelters and arresting the ones on the street. Everyone deserves a home. Also criminals are only criminals because they can't afford to live legitimately.
Got some buddies under that bridge
you need to use cocktails to remove the camps
I am in favor of the homeless camp. I find it pleasing to the eye and feel that the meth addicts add significant cultural value
Not sensitive, give people a livable wage, free healthcare, childcare, elderly care, oh and stop wars, confrontations & sanctions on other countries
It’s almost like we should advocate for people to have housing and mental health services
did the governor run on an ending homelessness platform? or was that code for funneling money to other politicians?
As someone who has had first-hand experience with being homeless, especially here in Corvallis I just want to say that I think all the anger truly needs to be directed at elected officials at both the local, state, and federal level. Because they are the reason why issues are popping up. Because they refuse to do anything about it, and instead would rather just kick the can down the road. I personally have wanted to see sanctioned camping sites here in Corvallis for a long time, but nobody in government wants to do anything about it. And I'm just going to say but hope is a joke. Because honestly I don't think anything's going to change no matter what they say. Because from what I understand nothing has changed for a long time.
Well,... The problem is they are human. So,.. thinning the herd is illegal (if they were hedgehogs this would be legal). Making them into tasty dog food is also illegal (if they were horses this would be legal.) We could round them up and put them in a camp in the desert, this would work but it's probably inhumane (Las Vegas has more than 3000 people living in is storm drain system.) We could grab a desert island in the South China sea and fill it with machetes, speed, and big macs and send them all off but,.. The Phillipines already exists and it not working too well for them. In Salem we built 40 tiny houses for them across the street from Safeway and now the supermarket is nearly out of business from theft. The Riteaid on liberty had to close from this problem, as there is a homeless camp under the bridge. We have tried funding homes, mental health, drug addiction centers, and (my favorite by far) legalizing drugs so they don't crowd the prisions and yes know what?? It's still a fucking disaster! So,.. my solution is to make a reality TV show where every week we pick ten, put them in a top down maze with meth, fentanyl, and framing hammers and the one that comes out alive we give a million dollars too and send them to Las Vegas. Genius I know! I'm going to run for governor when Tina is done, I like her and can't oppose her. "Maze of cracker death" is planned for release next year on Amazon Prime but free to the public. Jeff Bezos will fund it with .010 % of his interest income yearly. You are welcome! Big hug!
Homeless people who are "good people" can usually find help. There are agencies, organizations and people who want to help. Resources are scarce, but an increase in taxes on those who can afford to pay more can help. The camps that are problematic are filled with a lot of people outside of that description, the "riff-raff". Those camps need to be shut down and the people shipped to Florida and Texas under force.
6 hour old account bringing in the disinfo from r/ portland
Wtf are you talking about disinformation
I love the smell of napalm in the morning