Sprinklers soak people staying on Ashland's night lawn

ASHLAND, Ore.- Some people experiencing homelessness on the night lawn in Ashland say their wellbeing was jeopardized after sprinklers came on early Friday morning.

People wearing donated clothing and blankets met with Southern Oregon Housing for All after they were woken up by sprinklers at 5 a.m. on the lawn the city allows for sleeping. Sprinklers are usually supposed to go off on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00 a.m. there.

“There’s things that can’t be replaced,” says 62-year-old Terry Allen, who sleeps on the lawn. “The padding that I slept on, it’s soaked, you can’t take that to the laundromat, there’s different things that people have, my electronics are all shot.”

Allen has COPD and says being hit by the sprinklers in the cold morning air triggers his health condition. “I‘m homeless by circumstance, not by choice and for them to do anything like that is just unacceptable.”

Beca Battaglia lives on the night lawn. “Right when we were all asleep — it gets coldest before the dawn. And so my sleeping bag was soaked, underneath me was soaked, now I‘m freezing and I‘m just trying to sleep the rest of the night and get a few more hours of sleep.”

She says moments like these create unnecessary problems. “We’ve been concerned for our safety and we’re concerned for all of us. We’ve been a community lately. I mean this isn’t even the point, we shouldn’t have to be stronger and more of a community just to get rights.”

Director of Ashland Parks and Recreation, Rocky Houston, says all city sprinklers go off at 5 a.m., so that the water isn’t evaporated, but the night lawn is specialized to go off at 11 a.m.

A staff member that was unfamiliar with this mistakenly set the timer to the standard time.

“It was a really unfortunate mistake, and I apologize on behalf of our department for the inconvenience it created for everyone,” Houston said. “We’re doing our part in regards to making sure that the places in our part are safe and clean and are open for the public use — how you’re housed is not a barrier of use from our parks.”