On Halloween night in West Salem, account executive and outreach volunteer Jennifer Benavidez joined a small group outside a Dollar General to talk with people living outside. One of the people they met was 30-year-old Carmen Sanchez — six months pregnant, pushing a wagon with her belongings, and sleeping at Wallace Marine Park.
Carmen’s slide into homelessness was fast. She had been living in a group home, then moved in with a former friend who agreed to add her to his lease. After an argument, she says he kicked her out within two days. A friend dropped her at Wallace, where the baby’s father had been camping. With nowhere else to go and hoping for protection, she stayed in the tents along the river.
From Carmen’s point of view, Wallace Marine Park is “cynical and very dark.” She believes hundreds of people are camping there and describes trash, neglected dogs, untreated illness and open drug use. As a pregnant woman, she says even food and water often came with conditions and “manipulation tactics” attached, and nights were filled with screaming and fear…