The only contested Eugene City Council race in the November election is for Ward 1. Candidates Emily Semple and Joshua Skov faced off at a City Club forum Friday.
Skov and Semple both consider themselves progressive. But they approach things differently. Semple says the biggest issue in Ward 1 is homelessness. She advocates for a public shelter—perhaps on the site of the torn down city hall.
Semple: “It has water. It has electricity. There’s no houses next to it and the sheriff is across the street. Let’s take that empty City Hall lot that we’re not going to build on for quite a while, use a corner of it, start a rest-stop, see how it goes.”
Skov says Eugene, like other towns, is in a housing crisis and needs a broad approach to making it more affordable. He also supports a public shelter but...
Josh Skov: “That’s not something you just build. It’s something that you have to run. If it’s not like a housing first facility as I have suggested in my strategy, it actually is more of a band-aid.”
Ward 1 includes Eugene’s downtown core and areas to the south and west. Current Ward 1 City Councilor George Brown is retiring.
The City Club of Eugene airs Monday night at 6:30 on KLCC.