08/14/2026
PUBLIC STATEMENT REGARDING THE AUGUST 12, 2026 ARREST AT PARKER'S PLACE Parker's Place Village
It is so easy to take the credit when things go the right way but difficult to say I screwed up and should have done better. Our Safe Beds First project Parker's Place Village is my dream and vision to make things better so the buck stops with me when things go wrong...that is why I have been so hands on with everything about this project to learn how to make it better for everyone.
Yesterday, August 12, 2026, Gary Nichols was arrested by Grants Pass Police at Parker's Place Village on a Wisconsin warrant reportedly involving a s*x-offender registration violation.
I want to address this directly, explain what Gary's role actually was at Parker's Place Village, and explain what we are doing going forward.
First, Gary was much more involved at Parker's Place Village than the description of simply a "security guard" suggests.
Gary and his wife entered Parker's Place Village on June 22, 2026, as part of the first 40 people admitted into our new low-barrier shelter. Parker's Place Village operates under a Safe Beds First philosophy. Our purpose at intake is to get people out of tents, vehicles, sidewalks and other unsafe situations and into a safe bed. Because we are intentionally low barrier, we do not require identification or collect extensive private information from a person simply to provide that emergency bed.
Gary quickly became our number-one volunteer.
He worked with residents to help them understand and follow the rules so they could keep their beds rather than lose them and have to return to the waiting line. He helped with intake and assigned rooms and beds when I was not personally handling the bulk intake process. He worked with residents having problems. He helped encourage accountability. He even worked to bring churches and other community members into the Village on Sundays to help feed approximately 150 people.
Before Parker's Place Village opened, I had also seen Gary and his wife regularly at MINT while we were developing this project. My understanding from conversations with Gary was that they had been involved there for almost 3 years. During early discussions about Parker's Place Village, Gary and his wife were even discussed as possible on-site managers. Based upon that history and their longstanding involvement there, I made an assumption that appropriate vetting had already occurred. I should not have made that assumption. This is nothing against MINT, it is against me only!
That part is on me.
When Gary and his wife entered Parker's Place Village on June 22, however, they entered just like the other people seeking emergency shelter: through our low-barrier Safe Beds First process. We did not perform a criminal background check as a condition of providing them a bed.
But there is also an important distinction between providing someone an emergency shelter bed and giving that person a position of responsibility within the Village.
We are (I am) learning from this situation.
Effective immediately, we are tightening our procedures concerning background checks for volunteers who are placed in positions of responsibility. We will also be reviewing background-check documentation and requirements for ALL service-provider personnel working within Parker's Place Village where appropriate.
I want to be clear at the same time, Parker's Place Village did not stop operating because one person was arrested.
Today, August 13, our "next person up" system worked exactly as it was designed to work. Chaney has stepped forward as our next lead volunteer. Two people left the Village because of violations, and two more people who needed shelter received beds — people who may now be sleeping in a safe place for the first time in years.
That is what this project is about.
There is another difficult issue that needs to be discussed openly.
Information that has surfaced concerning Gary indicates a serious Wisconsin conviction dating back approximately 20 years. The current arrest, however, has been reported as involving a Wisconsin warrant concerning an alleged s*x-offender registration violation. Gary is entitled to have that current matter handled through the court system, and we should not pretend that a social-media post is a courtroom.
Parker's Place Village also has to protect everyone who stays here.
We discourage registered s*x offenders from staying at Parker's Place Village because young people and other vulnerable individuals may be present. At the same time, we operate an approved low-barrier emergency shelter, and our intake process has been intentionally focused on getting a human being into a safe bed first rather than conducting an investigation into that person's past before allowing them to sleep indoors. This s one of the reasons we created semi private rooms with only two people in each room instead of large congregate areas. Most of the time all guests are choosing their room partners. In the case of Gary in the 50 nights he was with us he was always staying with his wife.
This incident shows us that the standards for admission to an emergency bed and the standards for holding a trusted volunteer or staff position cannot necessarily be the same.
That is a lesson I accept and learned from the last 2 days.
I am not going to pretend that I got everything right here. I failed to make sure that an independent background check was completed before allowing Gary to rise into a position of significant trust and responsibility. I apologize to the Grants Pass community and those in the village and I will do better and so with this project!
I do not believe the Safe Beds First program or Parker's Place Village failed. Tonight August 13, 2026 we will go over 6,000 Day/Nights of people staying safely at Parker's Place Village not out is unsightly and mostly inhumane camps. Every night that number goes up between 146 to 150 of people mainly being off the street. So I might have failed in this situation, but the project is flourishing and I hope the community sees that!
In fact, I believe that as Parker's Place Village continues bringing people who may have been disconnected from systems and services for years into a structured environment with rules, accountability, services and daily interaction, we are inevitably going to uncover other difficult issues.
When that happens, we will deal with them.
We will learn.
We will make changes when changes are needed.
And we will keep putting people into safe beds.
My commitment from the beginning has never been that I will always be right.
My commitment is that I will always try to get it right.
That commitment continues today.
Thank you,
Bernie Woodard
Bernard J. Woodard
Founder, Parker's Place Village
Elk Island Trading Group, LLC
Safe Beds First
