Downtown Salem leaders and service providers outlined a mix of safety, services and business support efforts Thursday morning, as city officials reported paid parking revenues are outperforming projections and a new co-response team is starting to divert behavioral health calls away from police, fire and hospital emergency rooms.
The community forum — part of a Salem Main Street Association series organizers said will rotate among downtown venues through 2026 — also previewed updated grant options for businesses and a temporary pause on sign code enforcement while the city collects feedback.
REACH pilot begins downtown
Salem Fire Department Chief David Gerboth said the city’s REACH pilot — Rapid Engagement, Assessment, and Community Health — launched Jan. 20 and pairs a paramedic and EMT with a Marion County mental health professional. The team is working 40 hours a week in the downtown core, with schedules expected to flex over time.
“We started what we call REACH,” Gerboth said. “It’s a Rapid, Engagement, Assessment and Community Health team.”
Gerboth said the goal is to relieve busy engine companies from lower-acuity calls and connect people to treatment and longer-term services.
City Manager Krishna Namburi said REACH is part of the city’s Safe, Clean, and Healthy Salem initiative, aimed at faster responses to unmanaged encampments, more referrals to services and fewer emergency room visits. The six-month pilot is backed by $180,000 from the business community alongside county behavioral health staffing, she said, and the city is seeking $2.75 million in state funding to sustain the work and expand community policing tied to the initiative.
Paid parking revenue tops forecast
Namburi said Salem budgeted $1.4 million in paid parking revenue for the current fiscal year, but the program brought in about $1.2 million in its first six months. If the pace continues, annual revenue could approach $2.4 million, she said, though the fund still faces software renewals, security and cleaning costs, and deferred maintenance in city garages.
“With $1.2 million revenue for the first six months, we actually received a lot more than what we projected,” Namburi said. “The parking fund is doing well.”
City leaders said the stronger-than-expected performance helped prompt the City Council’s recent vote to terminate the downtown business parking district tax and issue refunds retroactive to July 1, 2025.
Union Gospel Mission updates
Union Gospel Mission Executive Director Craig Smith said the men’s mission has roughly 200 overnight beds and about 300 total beds and “we’re not full,” even as the organization served more than 15,000 meals last month. He said UGM is renovating its women’s mission in Keizer, expected to reopen with 84 beds for women and children.
Smith said the nonprofit is exploring partnerships to improve outreach and better connect people to available beds and programs. He also raised concerns about drug activity and prostitution near the mission’s cul-de-sac, calling it a continuing problem that disrupts recovery efforts and pulls vulnerable people back toward addiction.
“There’s a criminal element that preys on the most vulnerable people in this city,” Smith said.
Grants, sign code review and next steps
City staff said grant resources in Salem’s urban renewal areas can support bricks-and-mortar improvements, and that the Riverfront Downtown URA recently expanded eligibility so tenants — not only property owners — can apply for permanent sign grants.
On sign code enforcement, Namburi said the city will pause enforcement for the next few months to gather business feedback and adjust the process before enforcement resumes.
“When something is not connecting … I think it’s a good time to take a pause and take a step back,” Namburi said. “We’ll be pausing enforcement for the next few months.”
During Q&A, residents and business owners pressed for more foot traffic downtown and clearer accountability for nuisance behaviors. Organizers said Oregon Department of Transportation representatives will be invited to a future forum to address questions about jurisdiction, maintenance and encampments on state-managed corridors.
