NEWS
B Y K E N N Y J A C O BY A N D M O R G A N T H E O P H I L
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
The mayor and City Council appear uninterested in knowing more about
whether the police are targeting Eugene’s homeless
ccording to Eugene Weekly’s analysis of Mu-
nicipal Court data, one out of every four people
whom the Eugene Police Department (EPD)
tickets or arrests for a non-driving charge is
homeless, and more than one-third of all the
charges brought in the city’s municipal court are filed
against people who lacked permanent addresses at some
point last year. [See “Criminalizing Homelessness,” in the
June 1 issue.]
Homeless advocates have been asking the city and the
police to make data regarding the homeless available for
years — the police routinely make data and other reports
available regarding calls for service and downtown safety.
EW asked the mayor and Eugene City Council if they
would, in their oversight role for city government, ask EPD
to release data about the department’s interactions with the
homeless.
Neither the mayor nor any member of the City Council
agreed to do so.
We also asked the mayor and city council members if
they could do one thing tomorrow to make the homeless
situation better in Eugene, what would it be?
A
MAYOR LUCY VINIS
The important issue
is that too many people
are living without safe
shelter. None of us be-
lieves that issuing ci-
tations is in any way a
solution to that prob-
lem, and I support the
message of advocates
that we should find bet-
ter and more humane
ways of responding to
this crisis.
This is the intention behind the city’s investments in
the Community Court and Community Outreach Response
Team, CORT — to divert people who have frequently
come into contact with the police and connect them to ser-
vices with access to shelter, health care, job training and
education. These programs also offer a pathway to partici-
pants to have their charges dismissed through performing
community service.
EPD’s contract with CAHOOTS, expanded last year,
and the Parks Ambassador program are additional initia-
tives the city supports. Both offer alternative approaches to
the traditional law enforcement and criminal justice system
to better work with people in our community who are ex-
periencing homelessness.
In addition, as you know, the city is working with our
partners on options for adding capacity to address the
needs of homeless individuals, including the possibility of
a public shelter, expanding the rest stop program and other
measures.
The City Council has in the past considered whether to
change the rules and laws regarding prohibited camping
and decided against changes except for the addition of pro-
visions to allow for permitted overnight sleeping through
the rest stop, Dusk to Dawn and car camping programs.
We simply need more legal places for people to sleep
so that police and others can direct homeless individuals
to those locations.
EMILY SEMPLE,
WARD 1
From my understand-
ing, there is no simple
Excel sheet with data
about the homeless. It is
impossible to accurately
try and pull that out. I
question if the homeless
are being targeted or if
it’s just misfortune — if
you don’t have a house to go to, you’ll probably often find
yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing things
that are legal inside but you have to do them outside be-
cause you have nowhere to go.
I don’t think anyone can simply “ask” for data about
the homeless to be public because I don’t think it is at all
that simple.
If I could do one thing tomorrow, I’d find that lepre-
chaun hiding the pot of gold that we need to have more
money and make some changes.
BETTY TAYLOR, WARD 2
Sorry — I can’t ask the po-
lice. I will ask the city manager.
I don’t think we could do
one thing tomorrow. Long term
— we need a homeless shelter
and single room housing. And
we need state or regional sup-
port. Eugene cannot take care of
everyone who comes to town.
I think the records should be public.
LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY INFORMATION
• Seneca Jones Timber is hiring Avel Salgado (541-
520-5941) to ground spray 56.9 acres with imazapyr
and triclopyr just north of Douglas Creek in west Lane
County. Call Ted Reiss with questions (541-689-
1011). Notification # 781-10167.
• Giustina Land and Timber (541-345-2301) is hiring
Johnny Salgado (541-520-6215) to ground spray
79.6 acres just south of Marlow Road with mixture of
imazapyr, glyphosate, triclopyr and metsulfuron
methyl. Notification # 781-10124.
• Giustina Resources (541-485-1500) is hiring Craig
Shimp, Sherwood, (503-467-1255) to ground spray
roadsides on 84.4 acres just south of Lowell across
Dexter Lake with glyphosate and triclopyr.
Notification # 771-10079.
• Giustina Land and Timber forester Garrett
Yarbrough adding glyphosate, aminopyralid,
metsulfuron methyl and imazapyr to ground spray
on multiple units in west Lane County. Notification #
781-02857.
ALAN ZELENKA, WARD 3
Did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
MIKE CLARK, WARD 5
Did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
GREG EVANS, WARD 6
In my opinion the one thing that can be done to improve
the condition of the houseless is to provide emergency and
more transition shelter.
The only way we can begin to provide any substantive
relief is to work with our county, state and federal agency
partners to find and dedicate more dollars and resources
to this issue. As you already know we are all challenged
to identify these resources due to the increasing disinvest-
ment in the public sector as a whole.
CLAIRE SYRETT, WARD 7
Did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
CHRIS PRYOR, WARD 8
If I could do one thing to-
morrow to help homeless-
ness I would persuade the
county to partner with the
city to provide a low-barri-
er public shelter. The City
Council has reaffirmed its
vote to commit $1 million to
create a public shelter, con-
tingent on the county step-
ping up to assist in operating
it. The county is the federally
recognized agency responsi-
ble for poverty and homelessness in Lane County, so their
participation is essential.
JENNIFER YEH, WARD 4, was not given the ques-
tions as she became a member of the Eugene City Council
after all other requests were made.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
This story was developed as part of the Catalyst Journalism Project at the Uni-
versity of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Catalyst brings
together investigative reporting and solutions journalism to spark action and
response to Oregon’s most perplexing issues. To learn more visit journalism.
uoregon.edu/catalyst or follow the project on Twitter @UO_catalyst.
POLLUTION UPDATE
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent
Tom Hunton (president of Huntons’ Sure Crop Farm Service, Inc.)
a warning letter on July 18 for placing wastes in a location where
they were likely to escape or be carried into waters of the state.
DEQ sent the warning letter in follow up to a May site visit that was
prompted by a complaint about Sure Crop’s facility on Milliron Road
in Junction City. During the site visit, DEQ observed wastes in a
stormwater ditch next to Sure Crop, along with numerous hoses
going to the ditch from a farm tank on the site. DEQ characterized
the situation as posing “a significant risk of environmental harm”
and indicated that it had “significant concerns” about the situation.
DEQ stated in its letter that it would refrain from referring the mat-
ter for formal enforcement if various corrective actions were taken.
— Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 24, 2017
9