|
I' s
<br /> 2B THE REGISTER-GUARD EDITORIALS&LETTERS SUNDAY,OCTOBER 27,2002
<br /> • at T'',eo frr-(11pnatsit
<br /> ALTON F.BAKER,Publisher,1927.1961
<br /> ALTON F.BAKER JR.,Editor and Publisher,1961.1992
<br /> EDWIN M.BAKER,Publisher,19824987
<br /> ALTON F.BAKER III,Editor and Publisher DAVE BAKER,Managing Editor
<br /> FLETCHER LITTLE,General Manager JACKMAN WILSON,Editorial Page Editor
<br /> SCOTT M.DIEHL,Finance Director DENNY WILLIS,Associate Editor
<br /> JIM GODBOLD,Executive Editor PAUL NEVILLE,Associate Editor
<br /> •
<br /> An Independent Newspaper
<br /> The Register-Guard's policy is the impartial publication in its news pages of all news and
<br /> statements on news.On this page,the editors offer their opinions on events of the day and
<br /> matters of importance,endeavoring to be candid but fair and helpful in the development
<br /> of constructive community policy.A newspaper is a CITIZEN OF ITS COMMUNITY.
<br /> Helping the homeless
<br /> Existing program preferable to tent-city approach
<br /> One might think, based on the law-enforcement problems. The city
<br /> seven-week-old protest that in- then devised another approach, one
<br /> cludes a tree-sitter who is that has been a marked but low-
<br /> perched above the Lane County Park profile success.
<br /> Blocks,that Eugene has done nothing The program,approved by the city
<br /> in recent years to help accommodate in 1999,allows people to camp in their
<br /> the city's homeless population. cars or trailers in
<br /> parking lots scat-
<br /> The reality is that city officials, tered throughout Eugene. Adminis-
<br /> along with local social service agen- tered by the St.Vincent de Paul Soci-
<br /> cies, churches, homeless advocates, ety, the program works by enlisting
<br /> the Eugene School District and others, the cooperation of public and private
<br /> have done much — and more than landowners who are willing to let a
<br /> many communities — to meet the few homeless families live in vehicles
<br /> needs of the homeless. parked in their driveways or parking
<br /> Certainly more needs to be done, lots. Participants include the city of
<br /> and city officials have signaled their Eugene, the Eugene School District,
<br /> willingness to do so. But protesters churches and a number of private
<br /> should recognize the substantive work business owners. An average of 110
<br /> that local officials already have ac- people stay in the 60 approved sites
<br /> complished.And they should work to each night, with uncounted dozens
<br /> reinforce and expand those existing more also staying in the back yards of
<br /> programs rather than insist that the local residences under the city's re-
<br /> city yield to their impractical demand vised camping ordinance.
<br /> to create a tent city to accommodate Certainly there's a need for addi-
<br /> homeless campers. tional homeless camping spaces. But
<br /> The protest started last month after the city's program already has done
<br /> a group of homeless young people much to meet the existing need. By
<br /> were ousted from their illegal camps contrast,Portland's Dignity Village of-
<br /> along the Willamette River and near fers 65 legal camping spaces and
<br /> Skinner Butte under the city's policy serves a homeless population and
<br /> against camping.As a gesture to the metropolitan area many times the
<br /> protesters, officials revived the city's size of Eugene's.
<br /> Council Commission on Homelessness If the protesters really want to help
<br /> and Youth,which had been disbanded address homelessness in downtown
<br /> two years ago. Eugene, they should abandon their
<br /> The protesters recently have counterproductive tactics that have
<br /> formed a group called the Eugene alienated business owners and visi-
<br /> Homeless Initiative and called on the tors to downtown and find ways to
<br /> commission to establish a designated improve the city's existing homeless
<br /> place for homeless people to camp, camping program. If they're really
<br /> one modeled after Portland's Dignity dead set on establishing another car
<br /> Village.If that idea sounds familiar to camp,they should start searching for
<br /> Eugene residents,it's because the city a site with suitable location and zon-
<br /> has tried this approach before with ing and with neighbors willing to
<br /> little success, have a homeless camp in their midst.
<br /> After much community debate and Our guess is they'll soon fmd,as local
<br /> planning in the early 1990s, the city officials found in the early 1990s,that
<br /> established a car camp on a corner of such a search is doomed to failure
<br /> the WISTEC parking lot off Centenni- and that a dispersed camping pro-
<br /> al Boulevard near Autzen Stadium. gram is a better alternative.
<br /> The camp ran sporadically from 1993 After a meeting last week with the
<br /> to 1995 and then was discontinued be- newly revived Council Commission on
<br /> cause the city could no longer afford Homelessness and Youth, some pro-
<br /> to operate it and because the site was testers said they felt disappointed and
<br /> displaced by construction. ignored by the city. A more reason-
<br /> Next, the city tried another ap- able and productive response would
<br /> proach—designating industrial areas be to recognize the work that the city
<br /> of west Eugene as legal on-street already has done on behalf of the
<br /> camping zones.The concentrated pop- homeless and to commit to helping
<br /> ulation of homeless people created improve the programs that are al-
<br /> aesthetic, sanitation and ready inplace.
<br />
|