Four years ago, Cyn was asked to move her belongings from an encampment under the High Street Bridge over Pringle Creek, along with everyone else who was living there. So she crossed the Willamette River and moved into Wallace Marine Park. She’s been there ever since.Moving isn’t easy for Cyn , who declined to share her last name for privacy. It hurts her, physically. It’s stressful, bringing up bad memories from picking up and moving repeatedly as a child. With her health issues, it’s also difficult to transport her three dogs and the supplies she needs to survive outside.In November, she was asked to move again. She’d been camping near the center of the West Salem park’s natural area.She’ll likely go deeper into the woods.Cyn was one of dozens of people living in Wallace Marine Park who came out to Salem Soup Squad’s Monday, Nov. 24, meal service. The mutual aid effort visits the park twice per month to serve free food. That week’s menu included hot dogs and homemade chili.  As park residents ate, chatting with one another and letting their friendly dogs mingle, the nearby wooded area was busy with activity. Campers said the bustle of city crews and heavy machinery was the aftermath of a large camp removal from the prior week.  Cyn pointed a thumb over her shoulder as a garbage truck passed behind her, heading out of the park with a full load.“There goes more of our stuff,” she said. The 114-acre park has long been home to people in Salem with few other options. The number of people living in encampments in the park’s wooded areas increased significantly during the Covid pandemic, when the city of Salem designated Wallace Marine as one of two public parks where unmanaged camps would be permitted. Officially, that ended in 2022, though the city has tacitly allowed camping since.  In recent weeks, the park has gotten increased public attention as the community discusses public safety and the impacts of homelessness on businesses, especially in downtown Salem which is a short walk away.On Tuesday, Dec. 2, Marion County Commissioners hosted an unprecedented joint meeting with leadership from Polk County and the city of Salem, launching a new collaborative effort to coordinate resources and build a joint plan for the park.  The park is located in Polk County, but many of Salem’s services for homeless people are located across the bridge in Marion County.Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell led the meeting. She said the park is a focal point for homelessness, which she called the largest shared issue between the three government entities.  “I think it’s really easy in Oregon for governments to become the champion of their silo. It’s really difficult for them to figure out how to interconnect and work together without stepping on each other’s toes,” she told Salem Reporter last month. “I have a deep desire to figure that out. And why not just look at the largest space in our region, which is Wallace Marine Park?” The city of Salem recently dedicated more police officers toward outreach for people camping after the city council approved expansions in October. This month, the police’s homeless service team began visiting the park seven days a week, up from four. With more discussion about the future of Wallace Marine, Salem Reporter recently visited the park to talk to residents and those who regularly work with them to get a sense of what’s happening at one of the city’s largest encampments. The past several weeks at the park have felt different, Cyn said.  She understands that it’s flood season, and that she couldn’t keep her camp in a flood-prone area with the river set to rise in the coming months. She got a week’s warning from the city to move her belongings, which she appreciated, and an extension of several days when she got too sick to get it done in time.  But she’s also anxious about what’s to come. Rumors are circulating throughout the camp that there will be an increase in police raids, and several campers complained about less access to dumpsters. Gretchen Bennett, the city’s acting-in-capacity community services director, said in a Tuesday email that the late-November camp removals were part of the routine work to move people out of the park and into housing, “taking into account several important factors, including flood levels, and the need to protect the river from debris and pollution. Additionally, we help keep the area available for park patrons.” Cyn said she doesn’t want to live at Wallace Marine Park anymore. She has family she misses in southern Oregon, and every year she’s lived outdoors has felt like it’s aged her by five. But she doesn’t believe she qualifies for the available housing and shelter options in Salem, and said she’s been rejected from them before.  “We’re not all out here because we want to be,” she said. “A lot of us are out here because we have no choice.” Arya, 11, pokes her head out of her owner’s coat to get a view or his chili hot dog. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Two counties, city meet On Tuesday, the Marion County-led meeting’s primary focus was on violent crimes occurring at the park. Over 30 people, mostly from the counties and law enforcement, filled the Marion County commissioners’ boardroom in downtown Salem.  They included Marion County Sheriff Nick Hunter, Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton and county health and human services staff. Those in attendance from the city of Salem included Mayor Julie Hoy, Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack, Fire Chief David Gerboth, Salem Housing Authority Director Nicole Utz and Bennett. Marion County leaders emphasized the crime occurring at the encampment. Bethell said it was top of the county’s mind since visiting the encampment a few weeks prior with Hoy. Commissioner Colm Willis then shared anecdotes and data about crime at the park compiled by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office using Salem police data, emphasizing that some residents had criminal histories, and focusing on the theft, physical and sexual assaults and drug usage at the park. He said that crimes are likely underreported due to fear of retaliation.Willis indicated support for removing the encampment entirely, a point he also raised during a prior Marion County discussion last month.  “Should we have a larger conversation about saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t a safe place’ … we say ‘There’s enough evidence that there’s serial criminal activity here, including sexual assault, violent assault,’ that sort of thing, that we pool our resources and say: ‘This isn’t the place for people to live this kind of life,’” Willis said.  Womack agreed that Wallace Marine had serious public health and safety issues, but, like others who Willis questioned, said that the people living there need somewhere to go.“There’s 200 people in the woods and the park. How do we go through a process to safely, humanely remove those folks from the park, and keep it clean after that?” Womack said.  Willis began to respond, saying “I would support -” before Bethell interjected.“We’re going to get there. I still want to continue to collect information,” Bethell said. She said that the point of the day’s meeting would be to plan next steps, and they wouldn’t ask for any commitment from the city without the full council present. “The mayor made that very, very clear,” she said. Grocery carts and debris at Wallace Marine Park on Nov. 24, 2025. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Crime at Wallace Crime at Wallace is a complex discussion, Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton said in an interview with Salem Reporter last month.“When we talk about incidents in the park, what does that mean? For me, I translate it to: a resident of the park committed a crime on another resident in the park. That’s harder to quantify. And that’s really much fewer than people think,” he said.  The violent crimes from recent years that come to mind, he said, are from housed people coming into the park.That includes the April 2024 fatal shooting of 29-year-old Charley A. Hodges, who was killed while trying to protect a friend from Arlie C. Thompson, a housed man who accused camp residents of stealing from him. When Salem Reporter asked Cyn, the Wallace resident of four years, her thoughts about crime at the park, she said her biggest concern is incidents like that. She said Hodges’ death impacted the community deeply.“That (shooter) wasn’t somebody from out here, that was someone from everyday society,” Cyn said. “Right after that, it felt like the whole world was imploding on me.” Public officials, campers and data reviewed by Salem Reporter did not indicate any major changes in circumstances at the park, or a recent surge of crime.Felton said that he wouldn’t recommend anyone go to Wallace Marine Park at night, but he said that’s also true of other large natural areas like Minto Brown Island Park, or Bush’s Pasture Park. He also said there’s crime under his purview happening in the more affluent hills of West Salem that gains less public focus.But he also doesn’t want to discount the apprehension and anxiety housed people in the community have about safety in the park, and he wants the campers there to feel protected.“One (violent crime) is too many,” he said. “There’s no acceptable amount of violent or sexual crime anywhere in the city, in West Salem, or any part of Polk County.” Felton said he believes the collaboration with the Salem Police Department has been strong, and has produced a high rate of convictions for incidents at the park.  Of 33 calls for service in October at Wallace Marine, the Salem Police Department investigated 16 crimes, according to data from the department. That included one assault, one burglary and one unlawful use of a weapon. There was also one charge of criminal trespassing, a common charge used to remove a homeless person from camping somewhere. A baseball is caked in mud in the center of a path through Wallace Marine Park. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Felton said that beyond the data, it’s also his job to fix the perception of safety at the park. He said that perception, and the prosecution of crimes, would improve with more resources for the Salem Police Department to patrol the area.“I want people to feel safe, that they can use the park. For softball tournaments, taking a walk, parking their car. And so that’s a real thing for me, if they don’t feel that way,” he said.  During the meeting, Womack and Bennett, the community services director, shared information about the city’s ongoing work at the park through the police and cleaning teams. Bennett clarified that it’s illegal to camp there, but the city lacks resources in both enforcement and alternative shelter and housing options. ”We have a long way to go at Wallace. We’ve been chipping away, with relationships, with addressing safety issues as they arise and removing trash, but we obviously don’t control the inflow and we’ve continued to have gaps in what we need,” Bennett said.She said the main gaps include services and housing for people with severe and persistent mental illness and drug addiction. Sometimes they can’t find a program for someone the same day they’re receptive to participating in it.  Marion County commissioners also asked about what data the city and police keep, and the group discussed the potential of streamlining and improving collaboration and information sharing between entities, such as the city’s police and the county’s behavioral health team, or the region’s housing coordination system. Womack shared frustrations about the scale of the issue of homelessness, which encompasses mental health, addiction and more. He said it cannot be solved through law enforcement alone. He said that he believes the homeless services team’s model is the best model law enforcement can offer. “We are not going to coordinate properly until there’s high-level structured guidance that forces us to do that. And that has to cross boundaries,” he said. “There’s no office of homelessness. By its very nature, this problem demands cross-boundary collaboration. And we have to be a stakeholder at the table. We’re not the solution.” At the end of the meeting, Bethell took note of the next steps: asking the city of Salem to send regular updates to the counties about the work of their homeless services team, and putting together two groups to explore the issue, one policy-specific, and one specific to the criminal justice system.She said she’d eventually love to see a multidisciplinary team including law enforcement and health and human services, focusing on the issue. She also said that they’ll have to sharpen their focus during future meetings, which aren’t yet scheduled.“What is the main policy question that we’re posing to the jurisdictions, to try to find alignment to produce outcomes? And that, at some point, we have to get to sooner than later,” Bethell said.  The path at Wallace Marine Park slick with mud on Monday afternoon, Nov. 24, 2025. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) The natural area City Councilor Micki Varney assessed the ankle-deep mud in front of her, and forged on with careful, squishing steps. Either side of the trail ahead of her was covered in garbage, including something still smouldering in a grocery cart, and a tent that appeared cut open.They were belongings apparently left behind after campers were asked to move from that section of the natural area a few days prior.Varney had walked the same route in early November, when considering how to vote on the city’s proposal to explore a $1 million paved path through the area. She ultimately voted in favor, despite some misgivings. Bennett said improving the path would help make the muddy area easier to navigate, and that the city council vote allows the city to get the ball rolling on a community feedback and planning process. Actual construction wouldn’t begin until 2027.  Varney represents West Salem on the council, and came out to walk and talk about the park with Salem Reporter a few days before Thanksgiving. She stopped to talk to everyone she saw while walking the trail, including campers picking their way through leftover belongings. They all responded warmly. One person, overhearing a debate about which way to turn in response to impassable mud, appeared out of the woods to offer directions.Varney chatted with two women who were sitting on a pile of mattresses, surrounded by debris and sharing a pie. They said much of the mess, which they found gross, belonged to a “hoarder” who had since moved. One woman told Varney she’d gone to Salem’s Navigation Center for the first time the day before, and was considering going back. The center, operated by the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, shelters someone while working to connect them with an apartment.Further down the trail, Varney spotted a bulldozer and walked toward it. She came across a crew in orange vests working to clear trash from an area vacant of campers. Salem City Councilor Micki Varney talks to cleaning crews working in Wallace Marine Park on Nov. 24, 2025. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Don Stalik, owner of Industrial Maintenance Cleaning, was managing the cleaning. His company contracts with the city to remove garbage from the area. Stalik said that part of his job is cleaning effectively. But another part is to talk to the people camping in the park, and to give them as much empathy, care and time as possible during the clearings. He’s been working in the park for about three years, he said.“You could be (homeless) out here. I could be out here,” he told Varney. “That’s the reality. People out here, sometimes, they get a little bit aggressive, but I know that’s just a sign of them being overly stressed. We’re here, and they’ve gotta move, they’ve gotta pack up everything, and that’s super stressful.”Stalik said that of the people he’s talked to while working, many don’t want to leave because they don’t want to live in a shelter with rules like a curfew or with random room searches. Some liken it to being in jail, which Stalik said he doesn’t understand, personally. “This is rough living out there, in the wintertime. Everything’s wet, everything’s molding. It’s a horrendous way to live,” Stalik said.Varney agreed, and said building trust to get people to accept help was a slow process.As Varney made her way out of the woods, she told Salem Reporter that she believes there’s been good progress made at the park since Covid. She recalled a time where there was camping all throughout the park, stretching south to the boat dock. As of late November, the area had no visible camping beyond a few parked cars.  The last intensive count of people living in the park was done a few years ago, when 250 people were counted. Bennett said they don’t see those numbers today, though the population sees newcomers as others move out.Along with the city’s teams, another consistent presence at the park is Northwest Human Services’ outreach team, which visits the park every Monday. Their medical team works at Wallace three times a week, providing basic medical care, and books follow-up medical appointments.  They’ve treated 270 people there in the past year, and provided over 1,000 medical services.Kevin Holloway, a nurse on the team, said in an email to Salem Reporter that they tend to see older people in Wallace, and a lot of chronic illnesses. He said that he doesn’t believe the needs to be greater or more complex than other areas of Salem.“(There) is also a baseline level of mobility required to live there since residents are 1-2 miles from any resources and usually not on a paved path,” he said. “We do, however, currently have one client at Wallace we’re working with who is wheelchair bound and cannot get out of her camp due to the mud.” Varney said that as she enters discussions with both counties about the plan for the park and as the city considers options for the path, she wants to serve both recreational park users and unsheltered people making camp there.“I want this park to be available for all users. I want people to be housed as much as possible,” she said.Varney said she believes the city should restart its Wallace Marine Park work group from 2023 and 2024, which she said had good discussions. Bennett, who facilitated the discussions, shared a list of key points from them with Salem Reporter. They included getting people into shelter and housing faster through better coordination, adding more shelter space for people to go and being a regular presence in the park to build relationships. Those challenges remain, she said.Jeremy Gordon, Polk County commissioner and chair of the Homeless Alliance, said the counties have sent a survey out to providers to see who’s doing what in the park. He said their hope is to get a sense of what services are active in the park, and where the gaps are for people. He also wants to gather information like the demographics of campers.“Not to come up with a quick, easy solution, because that doesn’t exist, but to get a common understanding of the situation,” Gordon said.  Cyn is scared she won’t make it through the winter, and said she’s tired of being homeless.  If she’s forced to move out of the park entirely, she said she’ll probably just end up at another camp in town with a new group of people. She’s also considering giving one of the shelters another chance, even though she’s uncomfortable asking for help. “Starting over, it’s just not easy. We’re not all bad people. Some of us are really good people, we just got dealt a really crappy hand in life,” she said. She credited Salem Soup Squad volunteers for helping her survive this long. She’s lost faith in a lot of services in town, but comes out whenever she knows she’ll be able to see her favorite volunteers. Talia Lenker serves a chili hot dog at Salem Soup Squad’s Wallace Marine Park event. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) RELATED COVERAGE: New Trump administration policies on homelessness ask Salem providers to follow methods they say don’t work Council approves plan for Wallace Marine Park improvements as encampments in SE portion decrease Effort backed by Mayor Hoy to make homeless camp sweeps easier advances Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251. 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