Eugene business leaders are calling for more security measures downtown, saying their customers and employees feel unsafe.
This comes despite statistics from Eugene Police that show reduced crime in the neighborhood this year. And some local homeless advocates say people living on the street are being unfairly scapegoated.
The assault
It started with an assault in broad daylight in downtown Eugene.
On June 17, a man approached a woman near 8th and Pearl and asked her for money, according to a police affidavit.
When she said no, he pulled on her purse and pushed her to the ground, said the affidavit. The victim told police she hit the sidewalk face first.
That incident sent ripples through the local business community. The victim is an employee at Summit Bank, which is located in the downtown core.
“Now every time somebody's asking you for money, in the back of your mind, you've got to think what's going to happen next,” said Summit’s President CEO and President Craig Wanichek. “And that's just a big difference. And it changed that day.”
Recent data from the Eugene Police Department shows the reported assault was an anomaly. In the first half of this year, there were 70% fewer robberies reported in the downtown area than during that time last year, and 31% fewer assaults.
Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said the department has recently filled some vacant positions downtown. And he said the neighborhood has designated patrols.
“We don’t do that anywhere else in the city,” said Skinner. “The city fights for all of the available resources we have, whereas the downtown actually has dedicated resources.”
But Carrie Hellwig Christopher, a partner at the downtown law firm Hershner Hunter, said these statistics don’t tell the full story.
“There are women who wear pants to work because they work in the downtown core, and they have received too many comments about skirts,” said Hellwig Christopher. “There are women colleagues who don't go get coffee by themselves.”
Jenny Bennett, the Market President with Summit Bank, said workers downtown often face people yelling profanities with unpredictable behavior. She said many incidents go unreported.
"I would love to be able to walk from this building to my parking space, which is through an alley, and not have to be fully aware and to feel like, 'Am I going to make it? Do I need to put on tennis shoes?'" said Bennett.
Wanichek said people won’t come downtown because there have been incidents, there's garbage, and, in his words, there’s “a lot of homeless people.”
He said Summit is committed to a thriving downtown, but seriously considering its options about whether to stay.
“If our clients don't feel safe coming down here, and that's how they really feel, then this is not a great place for a business location," he said.
Among the measures business owners have called for are a greater police presence, more downtown security officers, and harsher penalties on violent offenders.
The assailant in June's incident, Joel Cox-Lopez, pled guilty to fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. KLCC couldn't immediately confirm when he was released.
Homeless advocates respond
The campaign has drawn criticism. Some local homeless advocates say members of the business community are unfairly generalizing unhoused people as violent. Asking for money on the street is not a crime in Eugene.
“This hysteria about violence, I don't see it. You see more fights at 2 a.m. coming out of bars than you do with the houseless population," said Mark Perron, the Board President of the homeless outreach group RAVEN. "Mostly what we're actually talking about is there's trash on the streets. There's people sleeping on stoops. Yeah, there's only maybe 20 beds available tonight, 20 emergency beds—where are people going to go?”
This year, Skinner said the department’s number one focus is addressing criminal trespassing complaints.
Several homeless community members tell KLCC that people are now being pushed out of downtown and into the Whiteaker neighborhood, or even further west. Skinner said they're not being led to any specific area of town.
Sean Downing, a homeless person living in Eugene, said he actually shares some of the business owners’ fears—he doesn’t feel safe in the downtown core.
“You've got homeless individuals looking for opportunity because they've lost everything. They've had the city take it or any number of other things," said Downing. "And you've got individuals who are housed that are looking for vengeance.”
Downing said his belongings have been stolen by housed people. He said the solution to these problems is not to force homeless people out.
“These actions they're choosing to commit to, is not the path to betterment,” said Downing. “It is the path to hiding the problem and letting it fester.”
Gabriella Salas, a local community activist, said housed and unhoused people in the city don’t know how to communicate with each other.
“If we could get business owners with unhoused folks in a meaningful way, and start some conversations that maybe we could figure out what the real solutions are," she said, "without having to herd people like cattle into another section of town, and then you don't have to think about them.”
Salas said she often works with people facing mental health crises or substance abuse. She said every business owner and downtown security officer would benefit from a training in de-escalation.
But she said it would be even better if the city had more qualified crisis workers like CAHOOTS back on the streets. The mobile crisis intervention service shut down in Eugene earlier this year, citing financial issues.
Moving forward
Skinner said EPD has limited ability to deal with incidents that aren't explicitly criminal, and has made efforts to defer to its downtown co-responder or other social services for behavioral health issues. But he said the public should report even minor crimes when they occur.
"If we're going to use data to inform our decision making and allocate resources, then we need to know where crime is happening," said Skinner. "Whether you're in downtown Eugene or across across the city, call us even though maybe it doesn't rise to the level of an immediate response. We want that data point."
Hellwig Christopher from Hershner Hunter said there’s another factor that could help the sense of security downtown—people. She said there’s safety in numbers.
“You've got a bunch of bustling people around you filling the space up, and everyone feels safer,” she said. “And it's also much less likely that somebody is going to engage in a crime of opportunity that they're concerned about having witnesses to.”
Hellwig Christopher said multiple accounting firms and businesses like Starbucks have left the area in recent years, leaving downtown feeling emptier at many times during the day.
She said she doesn't want this discussion about crime to scare people away from downtown Eugene. She’s asking people to come be part of the solution.
“I hope more people come downtown to try to help solve this issue and support the activities that are going on, the businesses that are downtown, instead of running away or staying away," she said. "We need you.”
