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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. It would be a surprise to absolutely no one listening that homelessness is a real problem in our community. There are far too many people living unhoused in the region, and this creates a dangerous situation for them in terms of weather exposure, violence and other safety concerns. And, of course, the problems associated with homelessness also create real hardships for business owners. Obviously, a solution to help both groups would be ideal. Today on the show, you'll learn about a new pilot program just getting started in Eugene that aims to assist both those experiencing homelessness and business owners. It's not a fix-all, but it does bring together existing groups and some new ideas that the partners believe can be a good start toward an ultimate solution. Darren Sparks, founder of the Tipping Point Private Foundation, and Katie Wilgus, executive director of Downtown Eugene Inc. I really appreciate both of you coming in to talk today.
Both: Thank you for having us, Michael.
Dunne: Darren, I'm going to start with you. You saw a challenge, a problem in the downtown area, and you wanted to do something about it. What did you do? How did you start this pilot program we're going to be talking about?
Darren Sparks: Well, I started by drafting a very qualified team to help me, because I didn't really know how to go about solving the problem. So I got together with some other folks, and I drafted Katie, who's with us today, obviously, and Anne Marie Levis, one of our local business leaders, along with Rusty Rexius, City Councilor Randy Groves, and, lastly, Brittany Quick-Warner from the Chamber. I got those folks together and said, I have a problem here I'd like to solve, but it's above my pay grade, so let's talk about what would make sense to solve our problem.
Dunne: And talk about the problem. What did you see?
Sparks: Going back in time just a little bit, I'm a retired former business owner. I owned a business out in west Eugene in the Green Hill Technology Park, and during the COVID era we had quite a few campers and RVs that invaded our area all at once. It was really interesting because it brought me face to face with a real ethical dilemma of wanting to help those individuals. We did, in fact, put some individuals behind a locked gate on our property to keep them safe, but it also had a real impact on the business. I could not recruit, I could not invest and bring my customers out to visit our location. So it got me talking with other business owners who had similar problems, but we didn't have any easy answers. Now, my situation got resolved rapidly because the parking circumstances changed where my business was, and the RVs and the unsheltered individuals moved elsewhere. But I was very keenly aware that that just moved the problem somewhere else, to somebody else. So, fast forward: I sold my business a year ago and wanted to go back to this problem and ask, what can we do that's compassionate toward the unhoused but at the same time removes obstacles that keep businesses from being able to conduct commerce? That's what I really saw, and that's the problem I posed to the team I just described.
Dunne: Okay, Katie, I'm going to go to you. From your organization's perspective, and yourself personally, how did you get involved, and what do you think your organization could bring to this?
Katie Wilgus: Well, I got involved when Darren pulled the group together. I think my first call actually came from Anne Marie Levis, who asked, "What would you do if there were some extra funds available? How would you use them?" Clean and safe was the first answer. As an organization, we've been running the Red Hats program downtown for many, many years, quite successfully. It's become a well-respected resource, so, of course, my first thought was, how do we expand that program?
Dunne: Darren, I don't want to use the phrase "herding cats," but I guess I will. It's difficult, obviously, to bring people together around such a challenging problem. What were the steps you took, in addition to finding people to join your group? How did you get it off the ground?
Sparks: One of the guiding principles was leaning back on my former and continued experience in philanthropy. I follow something called effective altruism, which is a lot like it sounds: giving in ways that can have the greatest impact. Some of the structure we put around this cat herding, as you described it, was, hey, we need to look at what we can do that follows the principles of effective altruism. It's known as ITN: impact, tractability, or how likely it is to succeed, and neglectedness. So we put those in place and said the program needs to have real potential for high impact, needs to address something that's otherwise neglected, but also has a fairly high likelihood of success. That structure helped the team right away identify the Red Hats program, which I knew nothing about, but they were aware of it and knew of its effectiveness. It could be more about amplifying an existing program rather than starting something new, which goes back to that tractability piece.
Dunne: Okay, Katie, a lot of listeners know about the Red Hats, but some don't. Explain what that program does, and take us through a bit of a history lesson on the Red Hats.
Wilgus: Sure. The Red Hats were formed in the early 2000s. They're funded through the Downtown Service District, an ordinance passed by City Council around 2000 at the request of downtown property owners, who said, hey, we're willing to accept a fee if we can have concentrated services in our downtown core. Funding has remained stable. It's never increased, but employee wages have increased, so the size of our team has dwindled over time, but they remain very effective, with a response time of about four minutes. They're around downtown to handle all sorts of things. I always say the Red Hats wear many hats. They can do anything from escorting someone to their car to helping move trespassers along, and they do that through de-escalation. But they're also there to help people navigate the sidewalks, figure out how to plug a meter, you name it. They're there to help.
Dunne: Darren, back to you. Business owners listening right now, how is this going to help them? Talk about the ways you're going to engage with business owners who obviously have challenges downtown.
Sparks: Great question, Michael. I think several things. One is dealing with behavioral issues. Sometimes they've got someone in their doorway who needs to move along, so now we have Red Hats to see what can be done, without having to escalate it to the Eugene Police Department. Additionally, we're trying to beautify the area, so one of our roles, and Katie can speak to this more than I can, is cleaning up the area. I also like Police Chief Skinner's term "orderliness." One of the ideas here is to bring more order to downtown and make people feel more comfortable there. The underlying idea is to make things more appealing, to bring more people downtown and increase commerce, so that those doing business downtown feel safe, and also feel like more consumers and more citizens are coming to visit their businesses.
Dunne: Katie, pick up the ball from there in terms of the cleanliness issue Darren just spoke about.
Wilgus: Yeah, we have a really wonderful city team, what we call the downtown team, the rapid response team. We know they're excellent at picking up large messes and also helping EPD when certain things need to be cataloged or thrown away. We're looking for a team that can enhance those services and focus on the smaller things: entering private property, looking under bushes, cleaning weeds out of cracks, you name it. To give you an understanding of how impactful this group already is, in the first five days of getting started, our team cleaned up 677 pounds of trash and weeds.
Dunne: Wow. So that's on top of city services.
Wilgus: That's on top of city services.
Dunne: Darren, I've had Chief Skinner in that seat several times, and one of the things he's always talked about is that he doesn't want to put someone with a gun, meaning a police officer, in a position of intervening with someone going through a mental health challenge. I think we can all agree with that. Talk a little about what this pilot program can do for people who are struggling with mental health challenges on the streets.
Sparks: Yeah, I think it's a key part of this. The talent of the Red Hats is that they're not threatening, and many of them have lived experience, so we're counting on the fact that they can be most influential in keeping emotions calm and most effective in moving people through, leveraging their expertise and, frankly, their credibility. That's a big part of this that we haven't really touched on. Our hope is that everyone fulfilling the various roles we've outlined, and we've talked about having beautifiers, ambassadors and true Red Hats focused more on behavioral issues, will have lived experience, preferably coming from Everyone Village specifically, though from any number of programs. It's a great part of the program that we should circle back to in terms of its strategic relevance.
Dunne: Okay, we'll do that in just a second. Katie, real quick, just to put some structure around this pilot program: When did it start? How is it funded? How long is it funded for? The nuts and bolts of the program, if you will.
Wilgus: Sure. The program officially started July 1. It will run until the end of September. The Tipping Point advisers will gather together before then to figure out whether it's truly being impactful, and what it would take to move it forward if it is.
Dunne: Okay, and the funding comes from?
Wilgus: The funding comes from Tipping Point. It's a grant that was gifted to Downtown Eugene Inc.'s 501(c)(3).
Dunne: Got it, got it. Darren, getting back to what you were teeing up a little bit ago, talk about the different partnerships, the goals for each of the doers, if you will, along this pilot program.
Sparks: Yeah, I think the difference with our program, going back to what I said at the beginning about the why, the compassion we want to have for the unsheltered but also for what's happening to the businesses themselves. I think the strategic part of this, having people who have come from unsheltered circumstances themselves in the past, is a very big part of it, because that gives them credibility for the work they're doing. Think about how that's a nice closed system: We're taking, as Pastor Gabe says, liabilities and turning them into assets. We're giving these individuals an opportunity to have a paying job, a paying wage, and to give back to the community. I think a big part of that is giving them aspirations from an employment perspective. That's true of each of the three roles we've outlined as part of this program.
Dunne: Darren, I'm going to stay with you. Maybe expand a bit on how Everyone Village is connected to this.
Sparks: Yeah, Everyone Village became a target right away for the perfect participants because of the structure Pastor Gabe has put in place there. They're accountable. He's not going to turn them loose until they've reached a certain level of capability, and they've been heavily screened. In fact, Katie's done some of the screening for the hiring to make sure of that, so that's one of our key partners, looking at those individuals and, frankly, at how they fit into each of the three roles. Not everyone is equipped to be a Red Hat. Some are equipped to be beautifiers. That's part of the process here.
Dunne: Katie, there are a lot of players in this. Talk about some of the partnerships you're involved with, as well as partners you want to be part of this.
Wilgus: Absolutely. It's been an incredible process, and amazing to watch how quickly this has all come together. The Chamber stepped up. I also work for the Chamber as its downtown solutions strategist, and it supported me every step of the way, allowing me to step away from some of my other duties to focus on this. I approached the city and said, hey, one of the barriers I see is that we don't have a place to store our garbage cans and our tools. Do you have a little extra space, and do you have dumpster space where we might unload the things we're collecting? The city was incredible. It stepped up right away and said, yes, we will make space for you, we will come alongside you through this pilot. Downtown Eugene Inc. is obviously supporting the Red Hats. It's been a full partnership, and I think what we're looking for now is who might come to the table if this were to move forward. There are some obvious candidates, like the county, and, of course, business owners, property owners, the list goes on. But that's our job: to figure out who else should come to the table if it's a success.
Dunne: Darren, this is probably a philosophical question, but I think you're well-positioned to answer it. There's sort of conventional wisdom in Eugene and other cities that could be summed up as, business people are sick and tired of homelessness in the community, and homeless people feel victimized. Is one of the things your organization is trying to do to create understanding, I don't want to say between "sides," but maybe I have to, on both sides of this issue?
Sparks: Yeah, you hit it exactly right. That's precisely what this is. It's a difficult situation, but both things can be true. We can be compassionate toward the unsheltered, who need help and deserve opportunities, but we don't have to shy away from the fact that sometimes their behavior has real harm on businesses. Both are just true, but that doesn't mean we have to revile each other and take sides. There are creative ways to look at the problem and figure out how to come together, and that's the approach our group likes. We feel like we're addressing and being respectful of both sides, recognizing what needs to change on both, and trying to create a system that can support both. We're hopeful that this kind of program doesn't have to be Eugene-specific. If it works well, it can be something other cities may borrow from.
Dunne: Well, I'm going to jump to Katie on that, because were you able to look around and see other cities doing something rather novel and interesting with this, or was this wholly organic, based on learned experience here in Eugene?
Wilgus: There are certainly other cities pulling in people who are returning to the workforce to do clean-and-safe work. Portland is a perfect example. I think this partnership, and how closely everyone is working together, may be somewhat unique, and, like Darren said, I hope we can be a model city.
Dunne: Okay, one of the critiques of Eugene is that there are so many organizations trying to do a lot of the same things. I've heard many times that Lane County might even be oversaturated with nonprofits. Is the idea of lassoing different organizations to row in the same direction where success could come from in what you're trying to do?
Sparks: Yeah, I think it is, a little bit. I think synergizing what's already being done, and then utilizing the strengths of each, is critical. And I think the other part of it is just how well an organization operates. There are a lot of organizations out there doing things, but not all of them are doing them well. I think one of the things we're trying to do, and Katie gets all the credit for this, is really outline a program and a series of metrics to decide what we're doing well, what we're not, and make corrective action. We haven't demonstrated that yet, because we're just getting started, but the hope is that through operational excellence, as well as synergizing the strengths of other groups, that's what can make this one really sing.
Dunne: Okay, Katie, come September, when this first part reaches its conclusion, what does success look like to you? And what does success need to look like to other organizations that may want to join?
Wilgus: I think, more than anything, we have to see that this is a value-add to our street-level businesses and downtown property owners. We want to know that it's truly impactful, and, of course, that it's also impactful for the people we're employing. I have to tell you how heartwarming it's already been to see business owners coming out of their shops to thank our team, and to hear from our team how meaningful this work is. I'm hearing that it's hopefully going to lead to more long-term housing, which will open up beds for other people. They have spouses who are now proud of them, and they're feeling proud about being contributing members of their city.
Dunne: Okay, Darren, I'm going to give the last question to you, since you kicked this thing off. What's your hope for come September, when it initially ends, and then hopefully beyond that?
Sparks: Well, I think my hope is a little grander than just whether the program literally did what it was intended to do, as far as, is it safer, is it more orderly, does it look better, have we beautified. In addition to that, has it led to things like downtown merchant optimism? Are we seeing behaviors from them where they're leaning in, not on the sidelines, but participating? It may be little things, like whether you lock your door, or whether you put plants out, or whether you decide to put your tables out on the sidewalk, demonstrating that you believe the program is working, and therefore you're participating too. But the last part that I think would be the home run is whether it's working really well with the Everyone Village individuals participating, so that the strategic part of this really takes hold and looks like it self-perpetuates, and therefore becomes a model for other cities. And, of course, with all of that, you would hope the matching funds we're looking for would be forthcoming.
Dunne: He's Darren Sparks, founder of the Tipping Point Private Foundation, and she's Katie Wilgus, executive director of Downtown Eugene Inc. Thank you both so much for coming in and talking about this exciting program.
Both: Thank you for the invitation.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, we talk with our own Zach Ziegler about his feature story linking campaign donations to special favors for a local timber executive. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
