At a meeting Wednesday the Eugene City Council and Human Rights Commission talked about ways to move forward to end the homeless crisis in the community.
The Commission asked the council to move toward a housing first model for homeless people. This means putting people into housing with social services support. Human Rights Commission member Ken Neubeck says the community seems ready to take action.
Neubeck: “I think there’s a real desire to do more. There’s obviously not enough in the way of resources. So, we really need to increase the numbers of people involved in addressing these problems and tap into the creativity and mindfulness of a lot of people in the community.”
Neubeck says another huge need is for a publicly funded shelter for the homeless, which Eugene lacks. The HRC also wants Eugene police to stop citing people for sleeping on the streets, when they have nowhere else to go. EPD Chief Pete Kerns was at the meeting. Mayor Kitty Piercy has asked Governor Kate Brown to release funds to help end the homelessness crisis.