With posts and chains, the city-owned lot at Jackson Street and Ninth Avenue has been divided into 15 camping spots.
Albany’s designated camp site for homeless people at Ninth Avenue and Jackson Street now has a name: “Marvin’s Garden.”
The city council Wednesday voted 4-0 to adopt the name after it was proposed by Councilwoman Marilyn Smith. (Two of the six councilors were absent,)
The name is that of Marvin Leonard Studer, whom Smith recalls as living outdoors, on the riverfront or under downtown bridges, for more than two decades before he died in 2011 at the age of 63.
“He was a tall, dark-haired, bearded, ragged man who used a shopping cart to haul his belongings around, up and down downtown streets and across traffic lanes on the highway,” Smith said in an email. “He camped under the bridges downtown, along the river, here and there. Family paid for apartments for him off and on and he would stay a day or two, then be outside again.”
Smith was the police reporter for the Albany Democrat-Herald when she wrote a story that appeared on Page 1 of the paper on March 10, 1989.
She reported that Marvin Leonard Studer, 41, “who lives in the so-called hobo jungle in northeast Albany,” suffered a broken jaw the previous morning when another man hit him with the 5-foot wooden handle of a splitting maul. Studer walked to a store near Waverly Lake so he could borrow a phone to call for help.
The attacker was booked and charged with assault. He apparently thought Studer had taken his backpack several weeks before.
The store owner said Studer was a regular customer and a trustworthy man. “He’s in here all the time. If he doesn’t have any money he doesn’t come. He wouldn’t steal anything.”
The next story about Studer to appear in the paper was an Associated Press item with an Independence dateline on Oct. 3, 2011. It said Polk County deputies said there was no sign of foul play after Studer’s body was recovered from the Willamette River south of the Buena Vista ferry landing.
That December, his was among the nine names of mid-valley homeless people who died in 2011 and were remembered during a memorial service on the plaza at Albany City Hall.
Back to the designated camp site that now bears Marvin’s name. It didn’t look like a garden Thursday, but it was shaping up to receive people in a few days.
The corner lot at 503 Ninth Ave. S.E. had been divided into 15 camping spots plus aisles and a place for the required fire extinguisher, portable toilet and sink.
At the city lot at 817 Jackson St. S.E, railroad ties were to be placed to mark spots for people camping in their vehicles.
Represenatives of CHANCE, the Community Outreach Assistance Team and other organizations are expected to visit the camp regularly, from daily to once or twice a week, to try to steer people back to a more settled life.
Now and then, perhaps once a month, the camping area will have to be cleared for a general sweep and cleanup.
The point of this project is not to have a permanent homeless camp in the middle of Albany. It’s to have a place where people can be referred when the city’s ban on camping on public property is reasserted on July 1.
And it’s a place where people who can’t or won’t stay in a shelter can be helped, if that’s possible.
Whether it works, Albany will have to wait and see. But surely every reasonable person hopes that it does. (hh)
A fire extinguisher was already mounted at Marvin’s Garden on Thursday.
Marilyn hits a home run with “Marvin’s Garden”. Cute and respectful of the people who will use the space.
Thanks for the investigative report of Marvin’s hard-luck story, Hasso, filling in several holes of ordinary understanding.
What is the procedure for the homeless to camp there?
Note the line between ** below::
“On May 24, 2023, Albany City Council adopted new rules into the Albany Municipal Code (AMC) about camping on property within the city limits including public parks, streets, and sidewalks. These new regulations bring Albany in compliance with Oregon House Bill 3115, which is set to take effect July 1, 2023. This law is the latest in several Federal court decisions and State laws regulating how cities and counties can enforce camping ordinances.
City-owned property at the intersection of 9th Avenue SE and Jackson Street SE was identified that best meets the requirements of HB 3115 and the new municipal code. The City will begin site preparation, develop a plan for ongoing cleanup and maintenance needs, and begin outreach soon to those affected by these changes.
Under AMC 7.20, the City Manager shall designate public space within the city where camping is allowed. The code also allows churches and transitional shelter groups to host up to four camping facilities for up to 120 consecutive days in a 365-day period. **Camping anywhere on public or private property outside the designated sites will remain illegal. Designated camping areas must be available to anyone who wants to be there regardless of drug or alcohol use and meet other requirements such as the availability of sanitary facilities.**
Staff from the community development, fire, police, parks and recreation, and public works departments evaluated City-owned properties that met the criteria of HB 3115 and were located near existing services like those offered by City partners such as C.H.A.N.C.E. and Helping Hands.
Hasso, thank you for the update and name choice for this site. Before I read it, I thought the name was referring to Marvin Gardens – a select piece of real estate on the Monopoly Board. It was yellow. *LOL
So, if I call the cops on people screaming their heads off in the park in the middle of the night, will they make them leave? Right there and then, or will they say “You have to find someplace else” and then walk away?
They have no intentions of vacating Screamsville for Marvin’s Garden. And I’d like to be able to sleep at night.
Hasso, only one of the Councilors was away, the other was attending on line.
According to the clerk’s summary, only four votes were recorded. It says one absent councilor was excused and another had left because she couldn’t connect online.
but she had been there thru much of the meeting
It’s always a nice thought that the city comes up with ways to try to humanize their behavior by treating it like a camp ground with visions of homeless singing Kumbaya in their kennels while smoking crack. Maybe Ms. Smith would make a homeless camp at her house to memorialize poor Marvin. It is easy to offer these weird solutions because they require such little effort on the cities part until it goes all crazy. The police department will not have fond memories of Marvin’s garden to share when the city comes up with their next hair brained solution to help the homeless.
Considering the federal and state mandates, your palatable & plausible solution is…?
And how much is the City reimbursed for these “mandates”. If nothing, why would you comply?
I’ll suggest that very intentionally not complying with federal & state mandates will cause one helluva lot more grief (and expense) than trying to adhere to the new rules…
The carousel is public property, has trash and restroom facilities. The park is nearby to go to during the day. St. Mary’s is not far away nor Chance. Maybe some other downtown area. The homeless problem should not be the sole responsibility of the areas the city considers undesirable and low income. The people in these areas struggle to keep their homes by working hard jobs such as I do. We need to feel safe in our homes, let our kids play outside and enjoy our lives as much as you do.
So are the going to vet THE SEX OFFENDERS that will live literally 1/2 block from the kiddie pool? Or is that little detail escape everyone? I think the businesses close by deserve non lawbreakers. People who by no fault of their own, homeless. The drug community and the theft community need not apply. My tax dollars are funding this.
I still contend that “we” load’em up & truck’em to the OSU campus. Acres & acres of open lawn to camp on. Plus, those kids working for a degree in the Social Sciences would have a ready pool of critters to work practicums on. OR, there are lots of open corners in way up N. Albany that a camp could be set up!! You advocate for’em, locate them in your neighborhood…NOT MINE!!!
No disrespect to Marvin I knew him personally when I was a kid although back then we called him starvin Marvin. But we need to get rid of what will obviously be a failed idea of a campsite that only holds 15 people. I mean 15 people seriously. Doesn’t the council in this city take the homeless situation real seriously I mean there are way more than 15 homeless people in Albany obviously this is not going to do. Get rid of what is a stupid idea and let them camp out in the wood s instead. I mean all you people out there are going to be complaining cuz the homeless are going to invade your areas I mean get real it’s not just albany’s problem this is a national epidemic. Everybody has a right to live somewhere into dwindle it down to 15 slots in this city is ridiculous it’s not going to help the problem not one bit. I think the Albany city council members are a little out of the loop when it comes to how big the problem really is and this is coming from somebody who was homeless for several years. I think before they tackle and problem like this for all homeless maybe they should spend 30 days being homeless then maybe they might have a real idea. Get to know the community of the homeless personally and the challenges that they face personally. If anybody disagrees that’s fine but I’ve been there and done that and I got a better perspective than the cities council members do that for sure!!!
The state made a law that requires cities to provide these campsites equipped with water and a fire extinguisher if they want to enforce a ban on public camping. If the city doesn’t have a place like that, they can’t stop people from living in the parks.
Now, if the city puts this campsite, as you suggested, out in the woods, how many people do you think are going to travel that far instead of just staying where they are? They already live across the street from EVERYTHING in this city, why would they walk for hours every day? They won’t.
You need to realize that a lot of homeless people REFUSE to follow laws. There’s a camp located across the stream from me and they demand they have the “right” to scream at the top of their lungs EVERY NIGHT. Not just to me and my neighbors, but they scream it at the cops. Then the cops just leave. And I get to listen to this shit CONSTANTLY. The cops don’t even make them leave when they break laws, why would the screamers change anything at all, let alone having to travel for hours every day?
“Get rid of what is a stupid idea and let them camp out in the wood s instead.”
That option has already proven to be an unmitigated disaster. No commuity has solved the problem. So I’ll ask it again: What is your palatable & plausible solution within the legal parameters? (Some of the “solutions” bandied about here range from Iudicrous to asinine…)
Ray: Same answer that worked before homelessness became a problem: jails, poorhouses, and mental hospitals. Also, jobs. There is a major amount of work needed in our forests if we are to stop these fires and reverse our rural towns and counties from going broke. Why are we letting illegal aliens and semi-legal migrants work for cheap or under the table, while US veterans have to ask for charity and sleep on sidewalks? Or any US citizen for that matter?
This problem could be resolved fairly easily, but too many agencies and “non-profits” are dependent on homeless people to let this racket go. Easier to legalize drugs and petty crimes and continue to individually profit by maintaining the status quo under the false flag of “helping.” In my opinion.
Homes is the answer!! Homeless minus the less equals home. The city’s ideas are in the same range as you suggest. Just depends on what side of the tracks you are on. Denial is the city’s fall back answer to everything. Denial is not a luxury in our lives. Reality is shoved in our face everyday. It is absolutely awful for the city to expect us to take care of the problems that they are tired of dealing with. The city needs to put on their grownup pants and make a real effort instead of herding homeless people around the city like cows.