Eyeing Homeless Issue, Former Mayor Says City Needs a Policy – Not a Law

By Pauline Masson –

After rejecting two versions of a proposed law to make it illegal to sleep in a tent, camper or RV in Pacific – with a penalty of a fine or imprisonment – aldermen will take up the the third version of the bill next Tuesday. 

Former Mayor Herb Adams says he would like to see aldermen say No a third time and set their sights on creating a policy for government to respond when people find themselves without a home.

Police Chief Scott Melies, who called for the law and helped to craft it started the discussion by targeting property owners who allowed illegal camping on their property but aldermen refused twice to act on a measure that made criminals of citizens for the use of their property. 

Unwilling to give up on the measure, Alderman Jerry Eversmeyers pushed for a third version of the proposed law that would only target individuals who camp on city owned property. He believes that the city needs to protect its undeveloped property from homeless camps.

This version of the prposed law will come before aldermen on Tuesday.

In an interview with Hometown Matters, I asked Adams, the longest serving Pacific government official, how the challenges of homelessness compared with challenges that the city has faced in the past four decades. 

“We’ve had homeless people before,” he said, “and we didn’t put anybody in jail.”

Adams said he would like to see aldermen have a public discussion with civic leaders, church leaders, the school district and citizens, and – after hearing what the community wants – establish a policy of how to address the issue of homeless.

“Our city dealt with homeless persons after two recent floods when people were forced out of the homes,” he said. “It never occured to us to do anything but help.”

“Talk of fines and imprisoment for homeless is not the way to deal with the homeless issue,” he said. “We should have a policy, not a law, as to how the city will respond to the homeless. When you make a law that is going to include punishment.

“Rollerblading is prohibited in the park pavilions,” he said, “but we don’t arrest the the skaters. They are just run off.”

Adams said he questions where the passion to enforce laws against homeless originates.

“Some homeless people have issues” he said. “I think about homeless veterans who are just trying to survive and then we would make them face consequences. In my years in office we had citizens complain about neighbors who live in houses. Yolanda  and I travel, we’ve seen the tent cities in other communities but there is more to homelessness than that. Some homeless are families and some are homeless through no fault of their own. Why would we, as a community, want to complicate their lives.”

“We don’t need to empower the police to act,” he said. “We need a policy, not a law. Law means punishment. If we place a penalty on their heads, we haven’t solved the homeless problem.”

I have to tell you . . . as an absolute and unreconstructed advocate for caring treatment of homeless people, I should say that I had no idea that Herb Adams would offer such a clear cut description of how our community could and should respond to people among us who find themselves without what Chief Melies would describe as habitable housing.  

When I learned ten years ago that there were seven children enrolled in the school district that were considered homeless, I set myself the task of trying to help. With the help of then school superintendent the late Randy George, Dan McClain and I started Safety Net, a fund raising committee to provide the needs of the homeless students and their families. Mary Beth Schmidt and Carol Johnson quickly joined us.

That was before the back-to-back floods in 2015 and 2016 when upwards of two hundred children in our school district were in the families whose homes were destroyed – damaged beyond repair – by the floods. Their families landed in relatives basements, in tiny apartments, and yes, in loaned campers and RVs until they could re-establish a family home. For two weeks many of them ended up sleeping on Red Cross provided cots in the Tri County Senior Center.

Some families are still trying to reestablish the quality of home that they had before those floods.

Our community responded by helping. Although it was slow going – after years of families living in temporary housing, the City of Pacific was able to obtain grants and buy back many of the homes and help the families re-establish habitable living quarters.

Safety Net helped, in a more modest way, by providing funds for all school activities, transportation, medical needs and through gift cards from loal restaurants, hot meals for the entire family.

During one winter, two young single parents lost their jobs and apartments and were sleeping in their cars. Safety Net put them in a motel temporarily and found a job and living quarters for one of them.

Recently we have helped re-establish a young couple where the husband was out of work. They had two school age children and an infant. Safety Net provided temporary housing then helped in getting them into habitable rental quarters.

These were people in our coummunity – our neighbors – who were without “habitable,” living quarters. 

Churches, civic groups, and scores of individuals have contributed to this Safety Net effort.

We are a caring community. The idea of making criminals of individuals who find themselves without adequate living quarters is distressing to me.

I do not doubt Chief Melies desire to rid the city of persons who take illegal drugs or steal to perpetuate that habit, which he associates with homeless individuals. But those activities are not limited to homeless people. Individuals who live in fine houses and good apartments get themselves into that kind of trouble. I offer Chief Melies unqualified support in responding to illegal drugs and stealing.

But it is my prayer that the board of aldermen will, like our former mayor, at least look for a more humane way to respond to individuals who do not have a home.

If you want to weigh in on this issue, please talk to your aldlerman.