Since April, Albany has been taking a new approach when police are called to respond to a problem with someone living on the street. You might call it the “shoe leather” system that gets people a path to being helped immediately and on the spot — “curbside” if you will. Casey Dorland, the administrative lieutenant […]
Scenes like this — people camping downtown on public and private property — are what some members of the Albany City Council don’t want to encourage. That’s why they worry about a portable toilet that’s been set up outside the First Christian Church since last fall.
New signs have sprouted along a segment of Albany’s Dave Clark Path, opening the possibility that people could be cited for trespassing if they camp on the riverbank below.
Albany Helping Hands is preparing to remodel a house in the Willamette Neighborhood for six women who can’t find anywhere else to live.
It began as a private project to help people in need. But it became a nuisance and even a threat to the woman who started it. So now her “blessing box” is gone.
Albany is about to stage another annual event to remember and mourn people who, without housing or proper shelter, did not survive the year. Remembering them is good, but doing something to cure homelessness would be better — if only we knew what that something was.
From bills on cougars to the homeless, it’s not as though the troubles of the governor have kept Oregon legislators from adding to the pile of proposed laws. The mountain of legislation keeps growing, even though most of the new bills stand little chance.
Dark topic on a sunny day: On homelessness
By definition, ending homelessness means having people find a roof over their heads. But as Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa has learned over more than 20 years as a volunteer working on housing, this is far more challenging than just providing a roof.
Tags: homeless, homeless shelters, Mayor Konopa, Perwinkle Place, tiny houses