‘Our biggest
responsibility
is you’ve got
people freezing
on our streets.’
—HUGH MASSENGILL
form of higher charges. Many homeless
people find shelter only in the Lane
County Jail, which costs taxpayers about
$359 a day per inmate.
SHELTER VS. HOUSING
But while Blue Ribbon Committee
members agreed on the need to act, they
were divided on just what to do.
For example, should the city focus on
building permanent homes or providing
emergency shelter? For decades the city
has focused on building permanent low-
income housing for people at risk of
homelessness. But that approach has left
many hard-core disabled or addicted
homeless people shivering without shelter.
“Our biggest responsibility is you’ve got
people freezing on our streets,” said
Committee member Hugh Massengill, also a
member of the city’s Human Rights commit-
tee. Massengill said he’d like half the new
money to go to emergency shelter rather than
just the 15 to 25 percent proposed.
But most of the local affordable hous-
ing establishment appears to strongly
oppose shifting resources. Committee
members Van Landingham, St. Vincent
dePaul Director Terry McDonald and
ShelterCare Director Susan Ban argued
strongly against shifting resources from
permanent housing programs.
Emergency shelters have “huge costs”
and “that takes every cent a community
has” for addressing the homeless problem,
Ban said. She said her numbers show that
emergency shelter is “the single most
expensive way to provide the service and
has the poorest outcomes.”
“Homeless people don’t really want
shelter, they want housing,” said Van
Landingham.
Massengill appeared unconvinced.
“Communities all over the country have
public shelter services.” Eugene has the
Mission, he said, but the church-run shel-
ter “has a huge religious component.”
McDonald said he’d heard “tension”
over the religious mission of the Mission
for decades in Eugene. But he questioned
whether taxpayers would want to foot the
bill for a nonreligious public replacement.
He said he’d like a tax vote to resolve the
dispute and say, “You that so strongly
oppose such a way of delivering services
have an opportunity to vote on it. Have a
good day.”
Mayor Piercy cautioned committee
members not to let the fractious shelter vs.
housing issue weaken their appeal to help
the homeless. Let’s “not approach this as
one thing versus the other,” the mayor said.
“It just begs people to pile up on sides.”
Committee member Ron Chase sug-
gested a compromise approach could be a
voucher system for emergency housing in
private rentals that was linked to programs
to help people apply for long-term benefits.
USING THE HOMELESS
Piercy also cautioned the committee
about avoiding enmeshing itself in another
fractious local issue — whether or not to
expand the urban growth boundary (UGB).
Developers have long sought to use
homeless people as a lever to fight regula-
tions against urban sprawl and against
impact fees. They argue that such regula-
tions and fees reduce land supply and
increase housing costs. But environmental-
ists have long countered that developers just
want to build high-profit expensive homes
on UGB expansions, and that efficient com-
pact growth and ending developer subsidies
reduce housing costs by lowering taxes.
The issue has heated up now after
developers successfully pushed Springfield
to fast track a UGB expansion Eugene
balked at. To address the homeless issue,
“what I’ve seen us support as a council
is new development,” said committee
member and Springfield City Councilor
Hillary Wylie.
TWO GENTLEMEN IN THE WASHINGTON-JEFFERSON PARK
DECEMBER 27, 2007 13