TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Krishna Namburi, City Manager
SUBJECT: Safety and Livability Update
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A safe, clean and healthy Salem update
Ward(s): 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): CANDO, ELNA, NESCA, NOLA, Northgate, SCAN, WSNA
Result Area(s): Safe and Healthy Community, Strong and Diverse Economy, and Welcoming and Livable Community.
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SUMMARY:
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This report outlines Safe, Clean and Healthy Salem initiative progress and community engagement since October 2025. The initial focus is on downtown and northeast Salem. These two areas of Salem experience higher volumes of requests for police support and emergency medical response, and concerns about cleanliness and unsanitary conditions.
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ISSUE:
Information only.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Information only.
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FACTS AND FINDINGS:
On October 13, 2025, Salem City Council passed a supplemental budget to advance the Safe, Clean and Healthy Salem initiative. Since June 9, 2025, City Council has considered options to enhance safety, cleanliness, and health in the downtown and northeast Salem. At the June 23 City Council, July 21 Work Session, August 11, and September 17 Work Session City Council meetings, staff shared updates on continued engagement with businesses and residents, and shared updates on current community-led and City-supported activities to improve safety, livability, and cleanliness in two areas of Salem experiencing higher volumes of requests for police support and emergency medical response: downtown and northeast Salem.
Community Engagement: Broad, Inclusive Conversations
As Council conversations have progressed, staff have sought input from residents, downtown and Northeast Salem area businesses, the Salem Main Street Association, and representatives of service organizations, those with lived experience, and advocates for Salem’s unsheltered population. Summaries of these conversations have been attached to earlier Council reports. A summary from an October 8 engagement in West Salem and an October 24 engagement with the East Salem Rotary are attached (Attachment 1).
Staff continue to engage with interest groups, businesses, residents, and community partners. Conversations will continue with both downtown and northeast stakeholders, and staff will report this information to the Council in future meetings.
Actionable Strategy for Safety, Cleanliness, and Health
While staff continue to build a broader coalition of support for a holistic, comprehensive solution, City Council has advanced an actionable strategy (Attachment 2) with immediate, near-term, and longer-term options for City action and possibilities for future funding to support a safe, clean and healthy Salem.
Progress Report: Near-Term, Immediate Actions
• Since mid-July, staff have enhanced police visibility in both downtown and in northeast Salem by allocating additional overtime assignments, funded by salary savings, under the direction of a dedicated Sergeant.
• For greater efficiency and impact, staff are looking at employee engagement organized around teams focused on how we are providing existing services to improve safety, cleanliness and health outcomes. Through this type of employee engagement, we think we can increase our efficiency and have a greater impact.
• October 13, City Council approved a mid-FY26 Budget adjustment which provides six months of funding for:
1. Two additional Homeless Services Team (HST) Police officers to expand coverage to seven days per week. (staff & materials / services - $275,200, beginning November 2025)
Recruitment and selection process for two additional HST officers closed Monday, November 3, 2025. The new HST officers have been selected and assigned on November 17th. Training will occur through December, with the two new officers fully functional and 7-day-per-week coverage in place by January 1.
2. Piloting community health response model that would deploy integrated teams consisting of a Salem Fire Department paramedic, EMT-basic, and mental health clinician to incidents involving emotional disturbance, overdoses, and other health emergencies while also conducting proactive outreach to prevent emergencies before they occur. (Fire Department Costs: $200,000 for six months for an EMT-Basic and a Paramedic, beginning January 2026)
On November 4, 2025, Marion County’s Board of Commissioners approved funding for a mental health associate as part of the community health response pilot program. Staff meet with Marion County Health and Human Services on to finalize hiring timelines. Salem Fire has initiated an internal recruitment process to identify interested participants, with an external recruitment process to follow if needed.
3. Expanding cleaning services in high response areas to further improve health and safety. (Additional overtime, disposal and contracting fees for the Salem Outreach and Livability Services Team in the Community Services Department for $151,000, beginning November 2025)
Salem’s Outreach and Livability Services Team (SOS) were busy their first weekend of service, October 25 and 26. Despite the rain and blustery conditions, the SOS team picked up about 25 shopping carts, one couch, and two mattresses. On Saturday, the SOS Team helped a group of Central Area Neighborhood (CANDO) volunteers with a clean-up of Marion Square Park. By the end of the weekend, three truckloads of debris, mostly from the downtown and northeast, were delivered to the transfer station.
As a result of this investment, Salem expects:
• Faster response to reports of unmanaged encampments and associated safety concerns.
• Increase in service contacts, referrals, and placements into shelter or treatment.
• Longer-lasting cleanliness and safety in parks, business corridors, and other high-impact areas.
• Fewer large unmanaged encampments and associated complaints
• Reduced costs and workload tied to repeated postings and large-scale cleanups.
• Fewer repeat 911 usage among identified high utilizers.
• More timely, appropriate care for individuals experiencing behavioral health or substance use crises.
• More calls where a fire company and/or ambulance remained available for other emergencies.
Longer-Term Actions
In longer-term, for FY27, the actionable strategy considers:
• Funding eight additional Police officer positions in FY27 to restore a pro-active community policing approach to needs in downtown and northeast Salem. The goal of pro-active community policing is to address issues before they escalate and work closely with service providers, businesses, and city departments to resolve underlying issues. (staff & materials / services- $1,663,650 annually)
• Maintain Salem Outreach and Livability Services (SOS) funding and sustain the SOS team before September 2026 to improve cleanliness. (staff & materials / services - $400,000 for 9 months)
• Learning from McKay Park pilot of small, single-stall public restroom, staff are considering installation of a self-contained, single-stall public restroom (commonly referred to as a Portland Loo) as part of the park improvement project. For future installation of this restroom in the park, a pad with electricity for automatic doors and lighting, water service, and sewer hookup is being prepared. While this pilot is underway, should Council direct staff, the City may explore possible locations in downtown area with electrical, water service and sewer hookup options.
• The recent community survey also identified drugs as a top priority after homelessness. The City is evaluating potential approaches and will return to Council for further discussion.
Possible funding resources may include: (1) possible additional revenue from the transition to paid on street parking to support additional safety and cleanliness services in downtown; (2) additional resources resulting from transition to City-provided EMS; (3) ending Tax Increment Collections on Urban Renewal Areas to return resources to the General Fund; and (4) continued efforts to secure Capitol District funding from the State of Oregon.
Other ideas of interest include further exploring:
• Expansion of Homeless Services Team, in co-response with qualified mental health professional
• Funding models, including collaboration with Marion County and private sector partnerships
• Engaging businesses, through an ambassador program paid for and/or managed by a downtown business improvement district or business association with the intent of keeping business districts welcoming, clean, and safe.
Update on Cross-Sector Collaboration, Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative
As part of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the City was selected for a year-long partnership around a key priority area in the Collaboration Track from the three available tracks (Data, Innovation, and Collaboration). There are 11 other cities in the Collaboration track from this 9th Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative cohort <https://www.cityofsalem.net/Home/Components/News/News/1671/>.
With a priority on public safety, the Mayor selected SPD Deputy Chief Brandon Ditto and Courtney Knox Busch, Chief Strategy Officer, to participate as the senior leaders to participate on behalf of the City of Salem.
The intent of this work is to build a cross-sector collaboration around public safety - more specifically, a pilot that brings together multiple perspectives (resident, business, service providers, those with lived experience) all together around downtown public safety and livability.
Bloomberg-Harvard was in Salem Oct. 7 and facilitated a cross-sector collaboration kick-off session. Along with other participants, City staff are preparing for the next steps, and likely regrouping in January. We hope to engender collaboration and build momentum toward a shared vision and outcome.
With the framework for this cross-boundary collaboration in place, we will expand to engaging northeast Salem area residents, businesses, service providers, and those with lived experience to improve safety and livability in northeast.
Topics for Council Discussion
The Council has not yet had an in-depth discussion about: (1) drug prevention and enforcement program or (2) public restrooms in downtown.
From Drug Prevention to Enforcement
Staff are preparing for broader community engagement on a drug prevention through to drug enforcement strategy. Staff are (1) documenting current practice along the continuum of services, partnerships, and resources available in our community to identify gaps; (2) preparing a strategy for community engagement around a vision; and (3) planning to return to Council with an update on our progress in 2026.
Public Restroom Research
At its September 25, 2025 meeting, the Bond Oversight Committee recommended that City Council receive an informational update on public restroom research. This section, along with the attached slide deck from the staff presentation to the Committee (Attachment 3), provides an overview of restroom types, their relative advantages and limitations in various settings, and order-of-magnitude capital costs, with emphasis on considerations relevant to the City’s park system.
While discussions around the Safe, Clean, and Healthy Salem initiative identifies public restrooms as an important community need, no dedicated funding sources have yet been established for their implementation. However, several park improvement projects funded through the 2022 Safety and Livability Bond include restroom replacements and the addition of two new restroom structures within the city park system.
The first of these projects, scheduled for construction in 2026, includes the installation of two modular, single-user restroom structures at McKay Park, along with other park improvements. Staff will monitor and evaluate the performance of these facilities to guide future applications, including additional restroom projects planned later in the ten-year bond program. While this installation is not intended as a one-size-fits-all solution, staff anticipates the potential for broader applicability across the city.
To inform current and future park restroom planning, staff research has focused on four specific structure types:
• Standard Restrooms (brick-and-mortar). Durable and customizable with amenities such as customizable lighting, ventilation, and flexible layouts. These facilities can also serve as multipurpose buildings with concessions, showers, office space, or mechanical rooms. Notable examples include the eight-stall pre-engineered restroom at Riverfront Park (installed in 2021) and two-stall units with external handwashing stations installed by other park providers and by the City of Los Angeles in urban settings such as Skid Row. While costly (approximately $360,000 for a two-stall structure) and slower to construct, standard restrooms offer long-term durability and moderate maintenance needs.
• Chemical Toilets (also known as a portable toilet or porta-potty). Low-cost, rapidly deployable, and relocatable options suitable for temporary or flood-prone areas. In Salem parks, vendor-serviced chemical toilets cost about $4,680 per unit annually with three cleanings per week on average. They provide minimal comfort, limited capacity, and reduced hygiene, requiring frequent servicing and prone to vandalism-related costs.
• Modular Single User Restrooms (e.g., The Portland Loo). Prefabricated, single-stall units designed for durability, security, and ease of maintenance. Constructed of stainless steel with open sightlines to enhance safety and deter vandalism, they cost approximately $273,000 per unit and are most efficient when only one stall is required. Examples include the Portland Loo at Eugene’s Downtown Riverfront Park and multi-unit installations at Marshall Park (Vancouver, WA) and Cully Park (Portland, OR). In locations with multiple units, seasonal flexibility allows operations staff to close some stalls during periods of low use while keeping at least one open year-round, reducing cleaning and maintenance needs during the off-season.
• Modular Self-Cleaning Restrooms (e.g., Urben Blu). Automated, self-cleaning units feature programmable wash cycles and remote monitoring to enhance hygiene and reduce-though not eliminate-daily maintenance needs. Estimated costs are about $370,000 for single-stall and $480,000 for two-stall units. These restrooms are best suited for high-traffic locations but may present maintenance challenges due to their technological systems. While none are currently installed in Oregon, a vendor reports active discussions with several agencies and anticipates at least one installation within the next one to two years. Similar to standard restrooms, these units can be adapted to include showers, office space, or mechanical rooms for added functionality.
Next Steps
• Fall 2025 - Council and Community engagement: City’s Strategic Plan. City Council holds a Work Session November 14, 2025 to set the mission, vision, values and goals for next 3 to 5 years for the City and community. In 2026, City Council will consider adoption of the Strategic Plan.
• January 2026: Budget Committee meets to consider the five-year forecast.
BACKGROUND:
At the June 9, 2025, City Council meeting, Mayor Julie Hoy indicated she would bring a motion at the June 23, 2025, meeting to direct staff to report on ways to increase police presence in the downtown to improve public safety. On July 21, City Council held a work session to consider comprehensive information concerning public safety and livability in the downtown and reflect on results of additional community engagement and concern for both downtown and northeast Salem. Throughout the summer, Council received information reports and considered potential service improvements in downtown and northeast Salem. On October 13, 2025, City Council unanimously approved a supplemental budget for FY26, adding resources to support the Actionable Strategy for Safety, Cleanliness, and Health.
Courtney Knox Busch
Chief Strategy Officer
Attachments:
1. Feedback from October 8 engagement in West Salem and an October 24 engagement with the East Salem Rotary
2. Actionable Strategy for Safety, Cleanliness, and Health
3. Bond Oversight Committee presentation from September 25, 2025