Trash encampments defy city, pile up at Mill Ponds - December 8, 2020
Last Updated on January 22, 2021
Trash encampments defy city, pile up at Mill Ponds – December 8, 2020
The entrance to Mill Ponds is only a few feet from U.S. Highway 101 in south Seaside, but a few steps in, the sidewalk ends and low reeds bristle along the water.
Wide paths provide entry into a dark and deeply wooded world. Blinding sun suddenly blazes through the gaps between leaves before you return to the trail. You would only expect night birds, the running of fish, the slap of a beaver’s tail.
As the path grows deeper, bicycle tires, old shoes and twisted rags dot the paths. A dump site holds an old crate, ripped plastic, headless dolls. Suddenly you are stepping into damp pillows, fractured crates, hypodermic needles and crusty coffee cans.
Read the entire article here in Seaside Signal.
Good Samaritan keeps the wheels turning - November 12, 2020
We spoke to this young family after seeing them at the entrance of Safeway along U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside on Thursday.
Q: What brings you here?
Lotus: Right now we are trying to find a new home in the area to get away from bad influences in our lives.
Q: Where are you from?
Lotus: We are from Idaho. My name is Lotus. This is my fiance Colin, and Jasper.
Q: How did you end up in Seaside?
With homelessness, 'frustration' is the key word: City grapples with options to manage growing numbers - November 10, 2020
Seaside city councilors asked the police chief, city attorney and city manager what can be done to manage the growing number of homeless in Seaside.
The workshop last Friday came after Seaside Mayor Jay Barber sounded an alarm about chronic homelessness, with increasing numbers of people living on the city’s wooded fringes, on riverbanks or in cars.
“The purpose of this meeting is to educate the council so we can begin to involve the community to get input from everybody affected by, both those who are homeless and those in the surrounding areas impacted by people who are homeless,” Barber said at the workshop. “In the city’s attempt to deal with this, we’ve come up with all types of challenges being able to work with people who are homeless. What are our options to deal with this issue in our community?”
Homeless in Seaside during the Great Depression Can we learn lessons from the 1930s? - November 3, 2020
In the midst of America’s Great Depression, homeless went by many names: hobos, panhandlers, peddlers, transients, floaters, down-and-outers and tramps.
They traveled on foot or by rail in search of jobs, migrating west to cities like Seaside, where they could camp on the beach or find shelter on the river banks or deep in the woods.
In March 1931, Victor Erickson, a 21-year-old man from Council Bluffs, Iowa, came to Seaside “broke and out of work.”
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As the city looks for new solutions, perhaps a few responses from 1931 Seaside might provide some inspiration:
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- Work in exchange for shelter and food.
- Short-term emergency shelter in city-owned buildings.
- Business and civic partnerships to distribute aid….
Letter: Homelessness is not a 'lifestyle choice' - October 16, 2020
I would like to submit some information for the workshop on homelessness Seaside City Council is having at the end of October….
I have spent hours and hours contacting organizations in Seaside regarding homelessness, including the Seaside police, every single church and/or religious organization, Providence hospital, and Helping Hands. No one was able to provide any information on how to obtain any help….
Seaside City Council to address homelessness - October 14, 2020
Seaside Mayor Jay Barber sounded an alarm about chronic homelessness, with people living on the wooded fringes of the city and increasing numbers of people setting up camps in local forests and woods.
“In not all of these cases but in many of these there is evidence of drug usage and concerns about the possibility of prostitution being conducted,” Barber said at last Monday’s City Council meeting.
Many of those who are homeless have mental health problems, substance abuse addictions and may have fallen on difficult economic times, he said.
Helping Hands Portland homeless center set to open in September - August 4, 2020
Alan Evans and Raven Russell of Helping Hands, a nonprofit serving homeless and other low-income people struggling with housing, are well known for their work in Clatsop County.
But with the Bybee Lakes Hope Center in Portland, Helping Hands moves to a new stage.
Russell, Evans and facility director Jeff Woodward joined the Seaside Chamber of Commerce in an electronic meeting last Wednesday to share the evolution of the former 18-acre, 155,000-square-foot Wapato Jail to a transitional housing facility providing beds for up to 525 people.