Bike rides sometimes take me to the entrance of Simpson Park, as here last July.
Simpson Park, on the Willamette River downstream from Albany, has become a haven for homeless camps, but local authorities are trying again to clear the campers out.
Two women went to the Albany City Council Wednesday and spoke on behalf of the people living among the trees and bushes in the undeveloped park. They complained that when they were there the day before, officials came in and told the campers they would have to leave.
The women said they had been going to the park for two years, talking to the residents and trying to help them. The people there, they said, have no idea how to live and no one had ever taught them.
City Attorney Sean Kidd addressed the situation briefly. He said that sheriff’s deputies had gone into the area on Tuesday, contacted 36 camps and made at least seven arrests. Arrests for what? He didn’t say.
Simpson Park is not a park in the traditional sense. It is mostly wilderness and lies in the city of Millersburg. But Albany has a conservation easement granted by the Simpson Timber Company in 1997.
This easement requires Albany to take care of the area, even though it’s in Millersburg.
A sign at the entrance says the land, or part of it, was the site of Simpson Timber Company’s former plywood mill and is “dedicated to the communities of Albany and Millersburg, Oregon.”
Because the land is not in Albany, the city police do not patrol it. Instead, the area is within the jurisdiction of the Linn County sheriff. The sheriff’s office is in charge of Millersburg law enforcement.
Kidd told the Albany council that the Millersburg City Council would likely consider the issue of homeless settlements in the park. Evidently some Millersburg businesses near the area had raised complaints.
If campers are rousted out of the wilds of Simpson Park, the question is: Where will they go instead? (hh)
In 2021, this map display showed the extent of Simpson Park.
Albany police DO in fact patrol the parking lot multiple times a day, and go down the Simpson trail and past Talking Waters to where the encampments are.
“If campers are rousted out of the wilds of Simpson Park, the question is: Where will they go instead? (hh)
Excellent question, How many of them are on some kind of assistance? Subsidies with no rules to speak of gets you more people wanting subsidies. What government demands for minimal habitable housing affects how much housing is available. A few months ago there was a house next to the tracks with a missing owner that was given untold thousands of dollars of fines and the property was taken, people kicked out on the street, and became homeless. Which is worse, 5 people using an outside porta toilet, or those same folks camping by the river with no toilet………… it is a choice. And do not even start to think about how many are addicted to whatever drugs that Oregon has made almost legal.
The first question is: What should the minimal housing be? but it can’t be done here alone, both Corvallis and Lebanon bring homeless to Albany and drop them off, I have personally witnessed Benton County Sheriffs dropping homeless at the base of their side of the bridge. This can not be done by local folks, the better system you make the more arrive from elsewhere. This will not be fixed by the crowd we have in Salem now, they thrive on dependence. You want a different outcome, put different people in charge.
you should run, i’ll vote for you, stop talking and go for it,
Leave them @ Simpson park….next stop will be the 22 million dollar yellow brick road…they can camp next to sat. market & get handouts…oh my free food..
Im 64 my wife 62 we both work full time. Rent is raised $50 each year. At this rate we will be homeless soon. Affordable housing ?
Not in Albany.
Only for the rich to buy homes.
dude, i live on disabilty and i bought a house in albany in 2021
maybe its some of ur life decision that are going to make you homeless
Can we say greyhound therapy will only take care of the problem
sure we can grayhound them “somewhere” and that “somewhere” can grayhound them right back, so do you see any issue with that?
Just moved someone who set up a home behind my office building. APD was great in support. Where he goes, I have no idea? This is a community problem with very difficult solutions. These are human beings with lives I cannot begin to comprehend, they are just surviving which at some level we all do.
Thank you, Mr. Edwards. Nice to read a comment on homelessness other than the hateful comments of some of Hasso’s followers.
I know a person living there. He sometimes helps me with some yard work and has for several years now. I see him all the time mowing peoples yards around the neighborhood. When I asked him about the location where the city was building new camping place Marvins Garden he said it looked like a concentration camp as they were so close together. I thought the reason they built that area, which didn’t work out, was because the state was requiring something be done to help the homeless but haven’t heard anything since. Some people will always be camping somewhere and not being in housing. Some just like it that way but don’t want to be smashed together.