TROUTDALE, Ore. (KATU) — A yellow rainproof backpack that Daniel Leighton’s “mentor” told him never to lose sight of tells the story of a system built to help people like him, one he’s lost all trust in.
Among the stack of tattered papers in the backpack are rent receipts, medical documents, lease agreements, an eviction notice without any cause listed, and dozens of business cards of outreach workers from various nonprofits.
“They just tell me a story and then pushed me the other way until I am tired of hearing it,” he says of the many caseworkers he’s visited since being evicted from one of the sprawling homeless camps that occupied state lands in the Sandy River Delta nature park.
Now 62, Leighton, better known as Grizzley, has worked most of his life. He remembers regularly re-soling KATU Meteorologist Dave Salesky’s shoes as a cobbler for Gresham Shoe Repair. Salesky recognizes his picture and confirms the account…