The other day my roommate, Amelia Roque, came home from class and told me about a discussion in her USEM that she’d had. She told me about a man named Aaron who lives on the streets of Ashland and has two sheep with him to keep him warm.

I was curious to know more so I decided to meet with her professor. Carol Voisin is a City Council Member and homeless advocate in addition to being a teacher here at Southern Oregon University. She was kind enough to make some time for me to meet with her and ask a few questions.

Katie Sample: Okay so to start could you tell me a bit about your position with or relation to the Ashland City Council.

Carol Voisin: I am a city counselor. I’m in my second term.

Sample: Could you tell me about the recent ordinance you guys discussed in relation to Aaron with the sheep?

Voisin: That was an ordinance that the police chief in particular wanted to see happen. He said we can’t have citizens, homeless people, walking their sheep through town. And no one is doing that except Aaron so it was clear that farm animals needed to be banned from the city limits. I thought it should’ve just been for downtown.

However, there was an exception that I opposed. The exception was that anyone who has, or wants to walk or ride a horse or donkey can do so anywhere in town. Even downtown and into Lithia Park. Now, I voted against that amendment because it clearly indicates that if you have the money and can afford a horse or a donkey, of course you can take it downtown. But if you’re a person who has no income, clearly in poverty and has farm animals for whatever reason - I believe Aaron has them primarily to keep him warm, especially during the winter. Now he can’t do that and he doesn’t go to the winter shelters, he literally lives outside. So I thought that was really a classist kind of ordinance because it eliminates Aaron and allows anyone who can afford a horse or a donkey to ride and walk them throughout town. Aaron can’t afford that of course. The amendment passed then I had to vote against the ordinance, which I would have supported without the exception.

Sample: How about other, more domesticated, animals. Are the homeless here allowed to keep dogs and cats and what not?

Voisin: Yes they are. However we put a stipulation on that, it’s for anyone. You have to have your dog vaccinated with rabies and be registered with the county. We have been working - we, that is, several of us homeless advocates - working directly with a group of vets who volunteer their time and money and come to Uncle Foods before it open around 3 o’clock. The feed begins at 4:30, these vets will, for free, vaccinate cats and dogs with rabies or anything else they need to keep their animal healthy. They’re just great. We have had them come every three months so we’re sure we get the new homeless or anyone who may have gotten a new animal that is older than six months can come in and get free vet services.

There is one issue with that though. That was the law they passed, I believe I voted against that too. The vets do not give them that little tag but rather a piece of paper that says that that animal has been vaccinated on this date and it’s good for three years. Now why they don’t give them the metal tag, I don’t know. So I told the police chief and he said we’ll give them a warning and then hopefully they will let a homeless advocate know about this or the judge saying the dog does have it.

Now, the homeless do not have filing cabinets so we don’t know where the paper might be. We know there’s a record of it so we would have to call each vet that’s helped us out to see if that dog has been vaccinated. We’re trying to develop a database that will list all of them, it would have to be confidential. We have to do that, the police chief said he cannot do that. We want to do that to save any trouble or tickets.

Sample: That would be great. I heard about this because my roommate Amelia is in your USEM class and she told me that you guys had been discussing it in class. I was wondering, when discussed, does the general consensus sway for or against the ordinance? Is there back and both argument?

Voisin: Well, I gave them a moral dilemma. The moral dilemma was this: citizens of Ashland, who pay taxes, who are good citizens, who own businesses downtown, who like to shop downtown, have very clearly said they are upset with the behavior there. They’re upset with the trash that the homeless bring in, with the bad behavior and they want those travelers and homeless out. They want them off the streets, especially downtown. They specifically have said they think they’re in danger when they walk by them, that they are aggressive when they pan-handle.

Then also the women say they make derogatory comments, sexist comments. A couple told me - and I met with three or four of these folks - after they told a person, no they won’t give them money, that the homeless person followed them. They felt as if they were being stalked and they were afraid and think the police need to do something about this. Many of them want to have a full time, 24/7 police officer monitoring downtown with the authority to put these travelers/homeless people out of town or in jail. That is one side of the story.

Here’s the other side. We have homeless and we have travelers. The homeless basically claim that this is where they live and they stay here year round. They have no shelter, no money, they’re looking for work. Many times when I’ve asked them their reason for being homeless range from being kicked out - they’re all young men by the way - because of drugs or being homosexual or there was serious abuse in the home. The other reason I hear is that they cannot find a job or they find it exciting to be on the street but, overall, they really want shelter. Other reasons are that they have addictions or mental illness, that’s a huge one. There are so many bipolar and autistic young folks on the street that are homeless.

Then we have 200 children that are homeless, they’re a big part of our homeless community, you don’t see them much but they’re there. They don’t use them to pan-handle which they could do. The travelers are people just coming through Ashland. I always warn them there is no camping in the city limits and that there’s a feed on Tuesday. They like to know when the feeds are. Some are here for the marijuana grow , they really started stacking up to go cut weed. They wouldn’t earn money from that, they’d be paid in marijuana. many were heading to California where they could sell it and make some money. The travelers are here to work. The farmers that are using them for cutting do not have a place to put them. So they’re living on the streets and earn enough money to eat. They are the beggars, they are the most aggressive. We have no place to put them.

That is how I presented it to my class, a moral dilemma. You have those two groups. The citizens want them out of town and the travelers want to have the right to be in public spaces, that is their constitutional right. I asked my class where they stand on this dilemma and told them they have to back it up with their values. When we had a debate about it, they were overwhelmingly in favor of the homeless. There were two against, one as a devil’s advocate and the other thought citizens had the right to say “Hey, you need to take care of yourself. You need to learn how to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. You need to be able to find a job on your own. You shouldn’t be coming to our community and asking for help. Do this on your own because we shouldn’t have to use our money and our time just because you’re lazy and can’t manage your life. We’re doing it and you should be able to do it too. In fact, you should be giving back to our community not taking from it.” That is a common theme among citizens as well.

Of course there were counter arguments from the other students asking how they could do that if they’re alcoholic, if they’re mentally ill. How could they do that when they don’t get any sleep, do you know what it’s like to be sleep deprived? It’s horrible, they cannot sleep through the night. They are constantly awaked either by the cold or by other homeless or by the police. Believe me, on the street is a scary place to be. The homeless are far more likely to be beaten up or robbed.

Sample: Just to clarify, is there or is there not a homeless shelter here in town?

Voisin: There is what we call the winter shelter which just opened. It is for four nights a week, Monday through Thursday. Monday night is at the presbyterian church. Tuesday night is at Pioneer Hall. Wednesday night is at Trinity Episcopal. The last night is back at Pioneer Hall. We, homeless advocates, have to provide the volunteers for that. The city is not going to do anything, they give us the venue with a lot of restrictions. They have been full, meaning 25-30 folks, which is really crowding them in. The winter shelter will run through the middle of April.

There are three nights in a row each week that we don’t have it. We at least want something on Saturday nights. We aren’t having much luck with that. One thing that OHRA (options for homeless residents of Ashland) does, it is a nonprofit that helps raise money or find volunteers for anything that we do. They are trying to raise money to buy the building in which the center is located. If we can do that we can use part of it to open a shelter. It would be wonderful but the building is a million dollars. I don’t know how we could do that but it’s one of our goals. Have you been to the feed?

Sample: I haven’t.

Voisin: You have no idea what it is like until you’ve gone and felt the sense of community among the homeless and the volunteers that are there to serve them. They’re not there to help them, they’re there to serve them. There’s a difference. When you help it is always a little condescending but when we go down there it is their choice whether or not to come. Giving them back that decision making power really helps their self-esteem. It really respects the individual as a human being who is rational and has the ability to make their own decisions.

Sample: That’s really amazing. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Aside from what we’ve already discussed, do you have any other comments on the matter that you would like to add?

Voisin: I heard there was a group of folks who may want to do a little protest with Aaron, if he’s willing to do it. They want to rent a horse and have him ride or walk it through town a couple of times. A couple of them wanted to buy a horse but I thought wait a minute, it is a lot of vet expense, Aaron cannot afford that. The horse needs a place to stay, it isn’t like a sheep. A sheep can be outside, a horse can’t in this cold weather. You know, we almost take better care of our horses than we do our homeless. I don’t know how they do it. Even when I wake up in the morning it is so cold. I have no idea how they do that.

So we want this long term project completed within five years. We want to house all of our homeless and have a shelter for all of our travelers, like a hotel. The houses we want to build are the tiny houses. We want to find a place where we can put it so we can have a little village of tiny houses that are transition houses. In other words, they can have their own space, they don’t want to be in a big dormitory. That is the worst place to put them. They get assaulted, they get raped, we don’t want that. We want them to have their own space, these tiny houses could do that. We are gathering volunteers who may want to work on that, we’re going to approach habitat for humanity and see if we can get some funding from them. Then start fundraising and building, hopefully in the spring we can get a model for it. The homeless can have their own community, which they like, it’s amazing. So that is what we are working on long-term, a transitional village.

Sample: That sounds like a great plan. Thank you for all of the information and for your work as a homeless advocate.