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JENNINGS Carrie A <br /> From: Tom Musselwhite <br /> To: homeless @csf.colorado.edu <br /> Cc: JENNINGS Carrie A; PDEFAZIO @HR.HOUSE.GOV <br /> Subject: Re: N.I.M.B.Y. <br /> Date: Thursday, November 14, 1996 3:13AM <br /> Hi Sal, My name is Tom Musselwhite and I operate a four bed short -stay <br /> transitional house for street -level alcoholics and addicts on Blair Blvd <br /> here in Eugene. Last year, during National Hunger and Homelessness <br /> Awareness Week the City Council directed city staff to institute a <br /> taskforce <br /> to look at the need for increased public sanitation facilities <br /> (restrooms /toilets) . <br /> During civil disobedience at Scobert Park a few months ago the "toilet <br /> taskforce" agreed to place a portable toilet in our front yard mostly as an <br /> attempt to defuse the tension in the park. Scobert Park is only a few <br /> hundred yards from us and one of the issues was the lack of public <br /> restrooms, (really the issue is class specific enforcement of law, and <br /> policing policies designed to drive "under- consumers" epitomized by the <br /> "homeless" out of town). <br /> The toilet was pulled out today on the recomendation of the police <br /> department. <br /> Shortly after the toilet was removed the Eugene Police showed up in force <br /> to <br /> restore chaos in the neighborhood and a homeless family (single mom, two <br /> teenage girls and one teenage boy) appeared on my front porch with all <br /> their <br /> belongings IN THE POURING RAIN. It seems that the State Police (and dogs) <br /> were making a sweep along the Willamette River (where they had been camped) <br /> driving the campers out. Although state law (HB2482) now requires posting <br /> encampments before sweeps, state troopers are reported to have told campers <br /> they were not required to post in advance of the sweep because the area is <br /> a <br /> city park. <br /> The removal of the toilet was precipitated by property owner (name <br /> deleted), <br /> a very fat jellyroll of a (explicative deleted), who owns a number of <br /> commercial and residential properties in the neighborhood. <br /> (NAME DELETED) complaints were that the toilet had no place in "his <br /> historic <br /> district" and that it facilitated abuse by addicts. We are situated <br /> directly in front of the Whiteaker Public Safety Station. The police have <br /> now convinced me that they are impotent, inept, and not interested in <br /> dealing with anything specific like a "drug deal ", it must be easier to <br /> simply deal with the "target" population in mass. Sitting here now looking <br /> out my office window I see a deal going on right now out on the sidewalk <br /> (without the toilet there). <br /> The Public Satfety (Police) station wouldn't allow placement of the toilet <br /> in there parking lot (a much more reasonable place than our front yard) I <br /> can only suppose, because they also foster the notion that you obviously <br /> don't deserve to use a restroom if you can't afford one. It seems clear <br /> that the Director of the Public Safety Station ...nevermind, (Can you tell <br /> I'm seething a little.) <br /> Over the course of the past month that the toilet has been present here we <br /> Page 1 <br />