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By Shaena Montanari and Natalie Walters
Howard Center for Investigative Reporting
Winter in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge is wet and freezing, a life-threatening situation for the area’s homeless residents even without a pandemic. Darcy Long-Curtiss understands that better than most.
The shelter that normally provided nighttime refuge was closed because of COVID-19, and federal aid money meant to help protect homeless people from the pandemic came late and with confusing restrictions. By the time Long-Curtiss, a councilwoman in The Dalles, a city of about 16,000 at the eastern edge of the gorge, got permission to erect temporary shelters, temperatures were already dipping below freezing. She had just one week to ready the site and make potentially life-and-death decisions.