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Eugene, Oregon city council UNANIMOUSLY endorses plan to allow overnight camping for homeless
http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29774654-75/council-ordinance-public-camping-homeless.html.cspThe Eugene City Council today endorsed the idea of temporarily allowing overnight camping for homeless people on city-owned vacant land and other properties with willing owners.
Councilors approved a motion by Councilor Alan Zelenka that will lead to a proposed ordinance to allow overnight camping for 120 days on undeveloped, city-owned properties, though not in improved parks or environmentally sensitive areas. The motion also would allow overnight camping on land owned by churches or nonprofit agencies, and on privately owned commercial and industrial sites with the permission of their owners.
The camping would be allowed for four months to see how it works.
Zelenka’s motion, approved on a 7-0 vote, was the council’s response to the urging of homeless advocates who have been asking the council to repeal the city ordinance that prohibits overnight sleeping in parks and other public places.
--snip--
Councilors approved a motion by Councilor Alan Zelenka that will lead to a proposed ordinance to allow overnight camping for 120 days on undeveloped, city-owned properties, though not in improved parks or environmentally sensitive areas. The motion also would allow overnight camping on land owned by churches or nonprofit agencies, and on privately owned commercial and industrial sites with the permission of their owners.
The camping would be allowed for four months to see how it works.
Zelenka’s motion, approved on a 7-0 vote, was the council’s response to the urging of homeless advocates who have been asking the council to repeal the city ordinance that prohibits overnight sleeping in parks and other public places.
--snip--
More at the link.
PB
17 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Eugene has a wonderful -- well-deserved -- rep. 
If everything goes well, I'll be there this year and, as always, wearing as little as possible except a smile...
PB
Might have to go again this year.
The Eugene Weekly is our local free newspaper. Here is part of the story from back in January: The City Never Sleeps
Conrad Barney started a hunger strike Dec. 11 to protest the treatment of the homeless. He says he’s been roused by the police while sleeping, and it’s different from waking up housed. “You’re in this state where you’re tired. It’s Oregon, and it’s wet and cold. When you find a place, if you’re uprooted from that place, you have to start from the drawing board to find another place,” he says. “When you’re running on no sleep and still having to be moving around, active, carrying lots of weight — because you have to have your house on your back — it takes its toll.”
Homeless rights advocates created SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) in opposition to Eugene’s anti-camping code, which criminalizes taking shelter in a tent or sleeping bag or using a heater or fire on public property. SLEEPS and other activists say it’s inhumane to criminalize sleeping.
“I don’t think it’s controversial in the general public,” SLEEPS’ Jean Stacey says of repealing the camping ban. “I think it’s very hard. EPD [Eugene Police Department] can’t move on its own. It has to be instructed by the council.” That’s why SLEEPS has repeatedly set up “pop-up protest camps” (houseless and housed people sleeping in temporary tents) at City Council meetings and held the names of 28 homeless people who have died in the last year at the 2013 state of the city address. Stacey says that the police often prioritize serious crimes over addressing homeless people sleeping, but when it’s slow, they say they have to address laws being broken.
SLEEPS often conveys its message via erecting the pop-up camps in prominent places to protest the anti-camping code. “We’ve been evicted out of some of the best places in town,” Stacey says. “We’ve been 86’ed out of the federal building, the court building, the city building and several other city properties.” The city finally recognized SLEEPS’ right to use tents as part of their free speech at their current site at the vacant Trude Kaufman Senior Center — as long as they’re not using the tents to sleep at night.
<more at link>
Homeless rights advocates created SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) in opposition to Eugene’s anti-camping code, which criminalizes taking shelter in a tent or sleeping bag or using a heater or fire on public property. SLEEPS and other activists say it’s inhumane to criminalize sleeping.
“I don’t think it’s controversial in the general public,” SLEEPS’ Jean Stacey says of repealing the camping ban. “I think it’s very hard. EPD [Eugene Police Department] can’t move on its own. It has to be instructed by the council.” That’s why SLEEPS has repeatedly set up “pop-up protest camps” (houseless and housed people sleeping in temporary tents) at City Council meetings and held the names of 28 homeless people who have died in the last year at the 2013 state of the city address. Stacey says that the police often prioritize serious crimes over addressing homeless people sleeping, but when it’s slow, they say they have to address laws being broken.
SLEEPS often conveys its message via erecting the pop-up camps in prominent places to protest the anti-camping code. “We’ve been evicted out of some of the best places in town,” Stacey says. “We’ve been 86’ed out of the federal building, the court building, the city building and several other city properties.” The city finally recognized SLEEPS’ right to use tents as part of their free speech at their current site at the vacant Trude Kaufman Senior Center — as long as they’re not using the tents to sleep at night.
<more at link>
The passage of this measure by the City Council is start, but it's really only a start.
I knew the vote was happening soon, but don't get the Register Guard or check online very often. Would have got the news in tomorrow's EW I'm sure.
Nice to know there are other Eugene area DUers.
