COTTAGE GROVE – When mayor Candace Solesbee announced at the beginning of the July 23 special meeting that St. Vincent de Paul rescinded its offer to assist the City with its homeless crisis, the chambers erupted in applause.
According to SVdP executive director Bethany Cartledge: Following its May 18 work session which focused on how the City has handled its unhoused crisis since 2021, council advised city staff to develop a business plan with SVdP on May 28 to continue discussing how the nonprofit could potentially impact the City.
SVdP was interested in bringing money and other resources to Cottage Grove to assist the City in addressing its unhoused crisis through managed camps. It had already gained all funding necessary for the Hwy 99 site and was in the process of solidifying funding for a connector site.
According Cartledge, all money previously intended for this project is being returned. She said the grand total was roughly $2.3 million.
Some funding was from grants, which SVdP had not yet gotten its hands on, but was guaranteed it would be awarded. Jack Boisen, SVdP director of operations, said most was through state funding, though, adding that all those funds will be returned to the state and given to “the next project in line.”
The plan was for SVdP to start by operating two sites: Hwy 99 and the connector site. SVdP hoped to transition people from unmanaged sites to SVdP sites so the clients are monitored.
But the potential for this nonprofit to handle most fiscal and managerial responsibilities related to the City’s unhoused people is no longer on the table.
Mixed reactions
There were almost 60 people who attended the July 23 special meeting in person with another 66 who joined virtually, and the general consensus of the public was that SVdP’s premature exit from the community was a good thing.
“Transparency is vital to rebuilding trust between the taxpayers and the City,” ward 2 resident Tanya Myers said. “Putting a third party in charge of our homeless crisis is like hiring an outside firm to locate and hire a city manager: dismal at best.”
However, some members of council were clear that the loss of SVdP’s assistance was far greater than many realized.
“All of this hate scared off a nonprofit who was going to put a million-plus dollars with the services in our community. This is a bad thing,” councilor Mike Fleck said. “Our job is to actually bring resources into town, not lose them. This is just so sad for me. I really think this was a no-brainer decision that would have solved 90% of our problems, and you can agree or disagree with that, but do it respectfully.”
Correcting misinformation
Solesbee said at the July 23 special meeting that, according to the mayor and city manager of the City of The Dalles, SVdP is currently being sued by the City of The Dalles.
Fleck was quick to tell the mayor that “that’s not the same organization,” which Cartledge ultimately agreed with.
“Someone had said we were being sued in the City of The Dalles, and that’s inaccurate. That’s a different St. Vincent de Paul. I do not have the power to run every St. Vincent de Paul in the United States or even in Oregon,” Cartledge said.
SVdP’s letter to the Grove
Councilor Alex Dreher brought up a letter that SVdP staff shared with council as an official statement to withdraw from the potential collaboration.
“St. Vincent de Paul spent a tremendous amount of time researching a business plan so they could close the unmanaged camps in our community and open managed ones where there will be accountability, access to services, and likely the people who are not from here would leave because they no longer have free rein to do whatever they want in poor ward 2,” she said. “We have driven out the largest, most successful homeless service provider who does not want to do business in our community anymore because of the recall.”
In the 1,300-word letter obtained through a public records request, Cartledge attributed community division as a major factor to pull the plug on the project, citing two particular reasons to council:
“First, the recall vote,” she wrote. “Your community needs time to determine how you collectively want to approach helping the homeless in your city, and to arrive at a uniform strategy. We endeavor to enter a community with city and general public support and work hard to collaborate transparently with city staff and community members to ensure we are addressing problems.”
“Second, collaborative partnerships with elected officials are critical to the success of our programs, and we are concerned the services we offer to not currently have the necessary support,” she wrote, illustrating her point with a recent unannounced pop-in to a SVdP neighborhood site which caused “surprise, discomfort, and disappointment.”
Councilor Greg Ervin said at last week’s meeting that he was the councilor who visited the aforementioned site.
After “multiple offers of tours and open communication with elected officials,” Cartledge wrote that the nonprofit was disappointed that he did not communicate his visit beforehand.
Since writing that letter, Cartledge said she has spoken with Ervin, and the two have “cleared things up.” She added that this was more about the falter in what used to be considered strong communication between SVdP and the City.
“We feel no ill will toward him, and we hope we can continue working with the city councilors,” Cartledge said. “We feel we were able to clear that up (with him) directly.”
Cartledge continued by writing that she wanted to give the City “time to recalibrate,” adding that she was open to a future discussion – but only after the community and its leadership get on the same page.
“As we have been put in a position to return the funding, we will not be able to secure it again for some time,” Cartledge wrote. “If our goals align in the future, and there is community consensus, we would be happy to discuss with the City of Cottage Grove avenues to provide excellent services that meet the needs of your community.”
Cartledge said she “even had asked if there was any way the State could earmark funding for Cottage Grove because we feel really strongly in support of helping that population, and we’re hoping that there will be some possibility there, but it’s really unknown.”
Cottage Grove’s next steps
City manager Mike Sauerwein said city staff has already discussed what other options there are for Cottage Grove to tackle its unhoused crisis, but none are ready to be announced publicly yet. Sauerwein said he may bring these options to council at the Aug. 12 meeting, but he was quick to add that the Aug. 12 meeting is already jam-packed, and there may not be enough time for this to be addressed.
