Yachats council works to settle homeless shelter complaint, OKs new sheriff’s contract and to replace delineators

 

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

YACHATS – The Yachats city council dealt with a myriad of topics during a three-hour meeting Wednesday that shuffled through a deck of issues ranging from replacing vandalized delineators along Ocean View Drive to mediating a complaint about a former resident of a homeless shelter.

Council also tentatively approved extending contract-deputy services with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office for another year — albeit at a higher cost, discussed the long-awaited turnover by the county of a portion of Ocean View Drive that will allow the city to move forward with a grant request to help fund an estuary boardwalk and worked to fine-tune a grant program available to local nonprofits.

Seventh Street resident and Dublin House motel manager Brian Serbu spoke during the pubic portion of the council meeting to follow up on a formal complaint he lodged with the city manager about concerns he and some neighbors have concerning the five homeless shelters at Yachats Community Presbyterian Church.

It was not until some negative interactions with a former guest at the Don’s Place shelter that Serbu learned the shelter changed its focus last November to allow five local people to stay in the pallet shelters full time this winter.

Under its new model, the shelter housed a pre-approved group of individuals for six months through the end of April. Instead of nightly, weather-driven check-ins and having to vacate the units by 8 o’clock each morning, the residents have access to their units throughout the day with the ability to occupy them full-time through April 30. The new format will be re-assessed in May.

The five shelters, which are adjacent to the church, currently have three guests.

Serbu said the response he received from church pastor Bob Barrett and city manager Bobbi Price when voicing his complaint along with concerns from a few other neighbors was that “everything is sunshine and happiness.”

“But that has not been my experience or the three or four neighbors’ experience,” Serbu said.

Whether for long-term or solely for weather-dependent overnight use, Serbu said he and some neighbors do not want the shelter in the neighborhood. And he questioned council’s decision to green light the change to long-term use during a meeting last October without a public hearing.

“We all think it is an honorable and nice thing to be doing, it’s just our experience has been with at least one current person and people in the past, that we’ve had rough interactions,” Serbu said.

As an example of those interactions, Serbu pointed to a man who had been staying at the shelter who was rude when applying for a job at the Dublin House, purportedly rude to other neighbors and rude again when Serbu scolded him for dumping trash into a private bin.

Barrett, who also attended Wednesday’s council meeting, explained the history of the shelter back to 2022 when the city and church were seeking solutions to people sleeping outdoors during the winter.

“… we were trying to wrestle with exactly what to do about the unhoused population that was at risk of exposure and dying …” Barrett said, and who were not going to leave whether there was a shelter or not.

The solution was the pallet shelters for overnight stays during extreme weather. The city ponied up money for the shelters and Don’s Place provided volunteers to monitor them.

In an October presentation to the council prior to switching to the new model, Barrett said Don’s Place was used for just 21 days the previous winter.

“We realized we were not open enough (last winter) to make a significant impact,” he said. “It was not a good use of our resources … the beds just sat empty.”

Allowing people to stay longer without having to move their belongings back and forth — and having to go back out into the rain each morning with nowhere to go to keep warm and dry just made more sense, he said last fall.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Barrett told the council that prior to the pallet shelters the church had already been sheltering some individuals inside its building and allowing others to camp on the grounds.

“…it’s something that churches do …” he said. “They provide shelter, they clothe the naked, they feed the hungry. And that’s already been adjudicated in Brookings and Grants Pass where a city told the church they couldn’t do that and the Supreme Court ruled that ‘Yes they could’ — that’s what churches do.”

And while there was no public hearing prior to allowing people to stay over this winter, Barrett said the church did reach out to neighbors twice the distance of what would have been required by a hearing and then held “fairly well attended” informational meeting where questions were asked and answered and the take-away was that the plan was generally supported.

Barrett said the church has not received any formal complaints and that he did speak with Serbu but felt the grievance had not gone beyond the individual in question being rude.

“There have been no issues as far as we know of,” Barrett said. “It’s been very quiet. We’ve had successes with moving people into housing, getting jobs. We’ve got folks now that could not, would not have been able to work if it wasn’t for what we’re doing. One of them just got a promotion and is saving money and is working at the possibility of (a) more stable housing situation.

“But the individual in question that was kind of rude and belligerent, was asked a few weeks ago to terminate his relationship with us. … He’s still here in Yachats. He’s living on the streets in Yachats now and will still continue being belligerent … He was here before he was in the shelter and he’s going to be here after.”

Sheriff’s contract

The council tentatively agreed – pending approval of the 2025-26 city budget – to continue contracting with the sheriff’s office for deputy patrol services 20 hours a week as part of a sharing agreement with the city of Waldport that the municipalities agreed to last July.

The new contract will cost Yachats $95,487 – a 3.5 percent increase over the current contract, mostly due to a cost-of-living increase bargained by the deputies’ union.

Since coverage began last August, deputies have responded to 437 calls for service in Yachats, Sheriff Adam Shanks told the council Wednesday “which is a fair number.”

The city has sent out a couple of community safety surveys to gauge public opinion, one before the sheriff’s contract began and one last weekend, the city manager said. A feeling of security along with the deputy’s presence is being noticed by residents who responded to the second survey with a lot of positive feedback, Price told the council.

Replacing delineators

The delineators along a 1,300-foot stretch of Ocean View Drive, placed primarily to keep cars from parking on the west side of the road and to create a pedestrian lane, have been experiencing “severe vandalism,” which is nothing new but something that has been happening “more and more and more,” Price told the council.

“It’s something we need to address and something that needs to change because what we’re doing is not working,” she added.

At last count, vandals had destroyed 38 of the delineators. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating.

Discussions at the Parks and Commons Commission and the Public Works & Streets Commission suggest either switching to the more resilient delineators like those installed along U.S. Highway 101 or switching to something totally different.

The council discussed concrete barriers used to divide freeway traffic, cement curbs of varying heights, extruded concrete curbing, cement planters, painting a painted bike/pedestrian lane, wood railing or prefabricated curbs.

“My preference would be either short Jersey barriers or extruded, something nine to 10 inches high …” Mayor Craig Berdie said.

Councilor Catherine Whitten-Carey said no short barriers should be installed because of the danger people will trip over them. Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessy agreed. Whitten-Carey also insisted gaps are necessary to allow groups passing each other to get around each other when needed. Planters were eliminated for the amount of care and space involved. Councilor Barry Collins said he favored the Jersey barrier or extruded concrete with breaks so people can pass in and out.

Council eventually settled on extruded concrete dyed with an earth-tone – height yet to be determined – as the best and least expensive option.

Community development grants

Price plans to launch a 2025-2026 grant program in July to formalize a process to provide grants to nonprofit organizations and initiatives for projects that contribute to community development.

A projected $140,000 would be available — if approved during the budget process — and divided into two pools: $75,000 for projects that enhance visitor amenities and $65,000 for uses that strengthen the community. Application opportunities will be divided into quarters during the year and then reviewed and scored by a selection committee before being presented to the city manager.

The maximum grant request being considered is $15,000, but the council and staff are still discussing that maximum along with other nuances. A final review of grant requests will be finalized by the first of the fiscal year in July 2026.

Money for the grants come from the city’s visitor amenities and general funds. The amount available each year will be determined during the budgeting process.

Applications must be submitted through a link on the city’s website at www.yachatsoregon.org.

In other news:

• Lincoln County commissioners approved the jurisdictional transfer of a portion of Ocean View Drive from the county to the city at their board meeting Wednesday. The long-awaited decision will allow the city to move forward with applying for an Oregon State Parks’ grant to help fund the planned Yachats River walkway.
• The non-functioning blinking lights at the pedestrian crosswalk across U.S. Highway 101 in downtown has parts that are being repaired and will be fixed as soon as possible.

 

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for the Lincoln Chronicle, formerly YachatsNews, and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com