By James Hehn, Pendletonian Times
PENDLETON, Ore. – Pendleton business owners seem to think that the homeless should go somewhere warm and stay out of their sight rather than in view of the public. City Councilors say that something should be done at the local level and the Mayor wants to schedule a workshop.
During a discussion at the end of the Pendleton City Council agenda on February 4, 2025, Pendleton Mayor McKennon McDonald asked if anyone wanted to discuss anything that was not on the agenda and Councilor Sally Brandsen stated that she’d heard from “an exacerbated number” of Pendleton business owners complaining about homeless people being near their businesses during the month of January. According to Brandsen, the City of Pendleton is doing everything in its power to advocate for small businesses and energize the downtown, however, this homeless problem needs to be looked at with a macro lens because there are businesses that have issues like having to invest their money into installing camera systems and turning off their water outside the building.
Councilor Carole Innes commented that she would like people to know that not all of the people who cause these problems are homeless and stated that she wished people would take that type of conversation out of their vocabulary. She said that it is true that a lot of the homeless people who have nowhere to go are visible and get blamed for a lot of things, but not all people who cause problems downtown are homeless.
Pendleton Police Chief Charles Byram was present at the discussion and said that Brandsen, is 100% correct about what’s happening in the downtown corridor but that the numbers don’t substantiate the fear of what people see on the news or what they view on Facebook. According to Chief Byram, the statistics show that in 2024, there were zero homicides and zero stranger-rapes in Pendleton.
Pendleton Police Department took 2,800 calls for service in 2024 that resulted in 1,600 arrests.
According to Chief Byram, the calls that Pendleton Police Department are addressing include the fear of crime and addressing family or neighborhood disputes, things that he says “other [professionals] could be [handling] … [but these same] people [who claim that Law Enforcement needs] to be out of [the mental health] business [and to send social workers instead … require police escorts due to being yelled at and assaulted.]
Councilor John Thomas replied that the only solution he sees is involving nonprofits such as Neighbor 2 Neighbor, who can get out and work around the structural deficiencies and get community needs met.
According to statistics published on their website, Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Pendleton Inc. was open for 75 out of 77 days during the 2023-24 Winter Season and served a total of 115 guests. The minimum number of guests on a given night was 7, with the maximum being 29 and the average being 16. 37 volunteers contributed 1,069 hours and 45 minutes keeping the shelter open and worked a total of 281 volunteer shifts.
Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Pendleton Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and cash donations are tax-deductable.