—.Oregon Daily_ _
Emerald
Wednesday, November 2, 1988
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 90, Number 46
_Inside_
• Working for work study, Page 4
• Peace Corps on campus, Page 7
• Is it hot in here?, Page 7
• Athletes of the week, Page 9
I_
Walkin' in the rain
drab your umbrellas and don your galoshes, Eugene's famous drizzle is back.
Walking between classes could prove to be a wet experience for the rest of this week.
The forecast calls for increased precipitation through Thursday.
Photo by Jim Marks
Halloween blaze burns house
By Gerrit Koepping
Emerald Contributor
All was not well near the
University Halloween night —
a fire caused $31,000 dollars
damage to a house on Patterson
Street.
Firefighters arrived at 951
Patterson St. at B p.m. Monday
to find the top of the building
in flames. Firefighters were
alerted of the blaze by a phone
call from a tenant in the build
ing.
By the time firefighters de
clared the two-alarm fire under
control at 10:15 p.m.. two fire
engines, two medic units, and
2H firefighters had been called
in to battle the blaze.
Although no cause for the
fire has been found. Eugene
Fire Department officials be
lieve the blaze started on the
north side of the building in a
nun-occupied ground floor
apartment.
The house originally was
built as a single-family dwell
ing at the turn of the century,
and currently houses 10 ten
ants. At the time of the fire,
three people were in the build
ing and all of them were in the
lower floors.
The three made it out un
harmed after being alerted to
the fire by Jim Elers, who saw
smoke and ran into the build
ing to warn the occupants.
Elers said he was unable to
reach the upper floors of the
building to search for and warn
others.
“The whole place was encir
cled in flames; there was no
way to set in there,” Klers said,
adding that he had smelled
smoke two hours before he
rushed the building.
Tim Birr of the Eugene Police
Department said the fire moved
rapidly through the building.
"We got a fire that spread
very rapidly through the interi
or of the building. Mostly it ap
pears to me to be in the upper
levels of the building. Howev
er, the whole building was
charged up with smoke. This
building is what we would
classify as a quick burner, it’s
an old building, there is proba
bly very little fire stopping in
it,” Hirr said.
Birr also said the building is
a maze of apartments, which
made it dangerous to search for
people inside, and that the roof
contained many concealed
areas.
Hirr said the building recent
ly had “a problem with squat
ters.’'
"There were people who
were staying here without au
thorization," Birr said.
Last week residents filed a
complaint with Sacred Heart
General Hospital, who owns
the building, notifying it that
there were squatters in the
building’s basement.
Mishael Veysey, a tenant of
the building next door, said un
authorized people have been
using the building for some
time.
“There have been people
squatting in it for the last two
months. Police have kicked
them out numerous times, and
they kept moving back in. But 1
am pretty sure it was empty at
Turn to Fire, Page 6
March for homeless
brings issue to the fore
Emergency winter shelters needed
By Betsy Clayton
Emerald Associate Editor
Concerned residents and
homeless people will rally to
day to increase awareness
about Lane County’s homeless
population problems and to
spur local politicians and agen
cies into action.
Titled "March for Shelter,”
the rally will begin at noon at
the downtown mall fountain,
where Superintendent of
Schools Margaret Nichols and
LLS. Rep. Peter DeFazio will
speak. Participants will then
march from downtown to the
Lane County Courthouse to
hear speeches from mayoral
candidates Jeff Miller and Emi
ly Schue. and from some home
less people.
The goal of the march is two
fold, said Marsha Brooks
O'Connor, program manager of
Brethren Housing. "Our first
desire is to create an awareness
of the crisis, because the home
less situation is an invisible
kind of thing," she said.
“We also want to get some
cooperation with the city and
the county. We’re asking they
treat this as a disaster, and that
they come up with an emergen
cy shelter site for these folks to
make it through the winter,”
Brooks-O’Connor said.
Since 1986 the homeless
population in Eugene has been
growing, said Don Roster, di
rector of Eugene Emergency
Housing. In the fiscal year
1986- 87, the Family Shelter
House turned away 283 fami
lies, or about 1.000 people. In
1987- 88 the house could not ac
commodate 697 families, or
about 2.400 people.
"Already the first three
months of this fiscal year we’ve
turned away 294 families, just
over 1.000 people,” Koster
said.
In addition, the amount of
time homeless people stay at
the shelter has increased. In
1986- 87 the average length of
stay was 9.5 days, while in
1987- 88 the average increased
to 14.5 days. Currently, the av
erage stay is 20 days, Koster
said.
"For every one-day increase
in the average length of stay we
serve 60 fewer families on an
annual basis." Koster said.
“But there is no limit to the
time they can be here. We work
with folks till they find a place
to stay. If we turn them out, it’s
just perpetuating the problem.”
According to State Employee
Division statistics. Lane County
has 47.500 people listed "at
risk for being homeless."
which is about 17 percent of
the county's population.
"People of Lane County need
to see this as a disaster county
wide and an immediate emer
gency shelter is needed,” Kos
ter said.
Both Koster and Brooks
O’Connor point to a lack of
Turn to Homeless, Page 6
i
UO prof ponders the Philippines
By Greg Hough
Emerald Reporter
Nearly three years after Phil
ippine President Corazon
Aquino’s stunning rise to pow
er, her democratic government
is "a great disappointment.”
according to University associ
ate history professor Glenn
May.
May, who is co-director of
the Southeast Asian Studies
department, will talk of recent
Filipino society tonight as the
featured speaker sponsored by
The Friends of The University
of Oregon Library. The free
lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m.
in the Gerlinger Alumni
Lounge.
May also will speak about
his visit last summer to the
Philippines in his lecture,
“The Philippines: The Con
temporary Crisis in Historical
Perspective.” He said his
speech would focus on the
Philippine economy and on
the rise of the communist New
People’s Army (NPA) in the
country.
According to May it is these
two factors — the NPA and the
economy — that most threaten
the political stability of Aqui
no. who took office in early
1986 on a wave of Filipino and
U.S. support that sent former
President Ferdinand Marcos
into exile in Hawaii.
“There’s a major civil war
going on (in the Philippines)
now,” May said. "The amount
of killing there is incredibly
high. At least 20 percent of the
country is now controlled by
the NPA.”
Turn to Philippines, Page 6
Philippines
Lfc.
Photo by Andre Ranieri
Associate history professor Glenn May has traveled to the
Philippines and says he is concerned for its future.