Three of he 15 spots at Marvin’s Garden were occupied by tents on Saturday afternoon, two others by little piles of stuff.
At Marvin’s Garden, the city of Albany’s designated camping site for homeless people who have nowhere else to go, the first residents appear to have moved in.
The bike took me past the site at Ninth Avenue and Jackson Street Saturday afternoon. The city-owned lot at the corner has 15 tent spots. There were tents on three of them, and two had some assorted stuff.
It was about a quarter to 2, and I didn’t see any people.
At the nearby city lot on Jackson Street, a large camping trailer was parked. The lot is intended to be used by people camping in their vehicles.
Code compliance officer Kris Schendel had estimated there would be room for nine vehicles. But if big RVs are allowed, the lot might hold only three or four.
Designating an outdoor sleeping or camping site for the homeless is a first for Albany and many other Oregon municipalities.
They’ve done this so they can enforce their general bans on camping in parks and on other public property. A federal court has held, and Oregon has passed a law, that people can’t be barred from sleeping on public property unless there is some place available to them where they can rest.
Albany picked its site because the city owns the previously vacant property and it is within a block or two of two privately operated homeless shelters.
This week the city council named the place for Marvin Studer, a well known Albany homeless man who died in 2011. (hh)
At the site designated for people living in their vehicles, there was one trailer Saturday.
At 5:30 am Screamsville was still loud as ever. Police showed up and the screaming continued for a while. I’m not sure if anyone was carted off, but a few hours later the screaming carried on and lasted hours more. Their tarpaulin house is still there. There were junkies lying on the sidewalk around 9 am.
Why did the city spend thousands of dollars on this campsite if people are still allowed to live in Kinder Park? Why did the APD hire a park ranger? I’ve waited months for the screaming to stop. I shouldn’t have to wait any more.
Give it a couple more days until it “Marvin” is “functioning” so the police can more easily enforce the no camping laws in the Kinder Park neighborhood. Apparently they can’t/won’t force them until there is an alternative place? It makes you wonder if they’ve rescinded disturbing the peace laws?
I’ve also had people passed out across the concrete path, forcing me to ride out on the “grass” to avoid them. Also, people “sorting out” their “stuff in the middle of a Y, blocking 6 possible directions of travel at once, while totally oblivious of others trying to get by.
That also brings up the question of what are they going to do with the people that refuse to camp at Marv’s? It just costs absurd money (with all the PERS employees involved) to put them in jail. They’d just release them the next day to repeat.
After three months of not being able to sleep at night and getting death threats screamed at me, I’ve run out of patience. If they’re letting people camp at Marvin’s Garden, then it is ready. They haven’t offically rescinded that part of the municipal code, 7.08.010 – Disorderly Conduct, they just refuse to enforce it. Which is something I intend to table at the next city council meeting on the 16th.
It seems to me the only purpose of designated campsites is to keep people off the courthouse lawn and from the downtown business area. The rest of the city will remain a free-for-all. Why would Mayor Johnson care if people are screaming in Kinder Park? He doesn’t have to listen to it. They’re too busy promoting this “July is Albany’s park & rec month! Get out and use the parks to promote your healthy lifestyle!”. Nevermind that is just plain unsafe to go to the park.
I was told that there was a deceased man there by the bridge at Kinder Park this morning, maybe part of the screaming
I didn’t hear anything about that, but I know the screaming came from the same source it’s been coming from for months, that tarp house between the church parking lot and the bike path.
How Nice
Hasso, you seem obsessed with this story. Between your coverage of the Council’s various machinations and the so-called Marvin Gardens “construction” phase and now the actual moving-in excitement … well, let’s just say you seem overly focussed on the entire situation…and your obsession begs the question: why?
Well, let’s just say you seem overly focussed (sic)on Hasso…and your obsession begs the question: why?
Just to be clear, people, “begs the question” does not mean what you think it does.
Thank you
It’s a public interest story. He’s reporting information that may not be otherwise available. He’s also providing a forum for us to discuss these issues.
Our local government spent thousands of dollars on this, why would people not be interested? Why would you consider these simple news stories an “obsession”? I, for one, would be pleased to see MORE coverage on this topic.
“so-called Marvin Gardens”… really? The spot IS called Marvin’s Garden. You know how I know? I watched the city council meeting. You know how I knew there was a Youtube posting of our local government in action? From this website and thanks to Monsieur Hering’s articles.
Why??? The same could be asked about your negativism. That’s all you ever provide.
Now I have dependants my tax money will go to……how about get a JOB!!!! Get your head on straight AND QUIT MAKING EXCUSES FOR THESE PEOPLE!!!!! You want them ASSIMILATE, QUIT BABYING GROWN ASS ADULTS!
Alot of homeless people lose hope. Most of them are dealing with addiction and mental illness. So show some compassion.
Because allowing people to do drugs, create crimes against others, dig in garbage cans, and live in squalor is compassionate and humane?? It’s that type of thinking, that I am replying to, that is the source of the problem.
The law requires Albany to allow camping on the designated public property when no shelter beds are available.
Did the city confirm that no shelter beds were available?
If shelter beds were available, will enforcement action (eviction from Marvin’s Garden) be taken?
The law requires a place to pitch a tent, with access to drinking water and a fire extinguisher and it has to be at least 300 feet from a waterway. Albany has at least one place ready now at 9th and Jackson. But apparently there’s nothing the police can do to evict people from even the parks, let alone the designated campsites.
My neighbors and I have been terrorized by screaming and fighting because we live next to Kinder Park and the cops can’t/won’t do anything about it. It seems to me that Marvin’s Garden will be occupied by the homeless people who don’t want to break laws, while the problem residents will remain hiding in the bushes and/or beating each other up on the playground.
I knew Marvin for several years when i was a trustee at the eagles club. I was a trustee there and i made sure when I’ve seen Marvin in the alley behind the club and if there was a meal being served at the club for an event, there was 2 things that not only me but several other members would make sure he had: a meal and of course his black and mild cigars.
So are these “permanent” camping spots or are they only to be camped at during certain hours…ie: for overnight and temporarily? Because there have been a couple of tents there for a couple of days now.
Why don’t we consider incorporating our city as a privately-owned corporation and make each property tax payer a proportional shareholder? Private property is still safe, even from the edicts of the ninth circuit.
Excellent suggestion.
But Marvin’s Garden is living proof that there is real power in defining a city’s primary role as politicians & bureaucrats serving the “public good.” This means whatever the power brokers define it to be – hence dumb ideas like pandering to homeless campers.
Shared equity (resident owned cities) would probably result in more peace and prosperity. Where do I sign up?
They are in it for the money just like Portland Olympia and Seattle
We need to stop using the word homeless to represent drug addicts or the mentally ill. Drug addicts today use drugs so powerful they are rendered incapacitated and often literally kill themselves. If people are out of their mind or addicted to drugs they need help not a home. Our words should separate those who need a hand up from those who are a danger to themselves or others. The latter we all should have no tolerance for. “You can get help or you can go to jail”.
My point to the council
I believe the camp is a step in right direction there are a lot of trouble makers who are loud I agree they ruin a lot for all homeless individuals. I’m sorry for those ones that are always causing problems I wish they would get the help they need. Homeless
How long will it take before the murders,rapes and fighting starts? Ya all know it’s gonna happen there. Do they do screenings? Who’s in charge of ppl going in there? I’m glad they have some place to camp but hey
Didn’t it pass for 200 million in money for them and they get that little space? Which the city owned anyways? Just saying.
Any update on why there’s a non-compliant homeless camp still operating on the Periwinkle Bike Path? There’s half a dozen people living next to the stream, there’s no fire extinguisher and they built a rickety tree house that’s full of and covered in garbage.
Half the time the cops say that it’s in the park and they’re trespassing. They still don’t make them leave. I thought trespassing was a crime. The other half of the time they say that it’s on the property of the Oak Street Church of Christ. I thought they had to get a permit? Or was that just a practical joke on us from the city council? Good one, fellas, har har.
I am so damn sick and tired of the constant SCREAMING. Does this city not have any shame? I’m pretty sure that if I parked a shopping cart next to the mayor’s house and screamed my lungs out every night, they wouldn’t coddle me.