County moves to Extreme Risk, City passes new plan for unhoused

Lane County moves to Extreme Risk

Oregon moved Lane County back to Extreme Risk Friday, a move up from High Risk that the county was only in there for a week, earlier than the previous timeline. The state will now monitor COVID-19 data weekly for the next three weeks. Oregon will next announce any changes to risk levels on Tuesday, May 4 and make it effective on Friday, May 7 if there are changes.

Under Extreme Risk, all of Lane County’s indoor dining will shut down again. For indoor entertainment establishments 500 sqft or larger can have 6 people total and “minimum number of employees needed to operate the establishment”. Smaller entertainment venues can have only have one employee and one customer. Oregon is giving offices guidance to require remote work if able and close offices to the public if possible

City of Eugene approves new plan for unhoused

On Wednesday, the City Council approved the new ordinance for car camping and tent camping in the city. The City’s “Safe Parking Sites” will allow 60 vehicles per group and the “Safe Tent Sites” will allow up to 40 tents per group. Once the sites are up and operational current sites that the city gave temporary clearance to during the ongoing pandemic, such as 13th and Chambers and Washington-Jefferson Park, will be closed.

The City is working with businesses to find and acquire sites, no decisions have been made yet. An advocate for the unhoused that works for White Bird, but was speaking for theirself, brought up that while businesses were clued in on this proposal being on the table, many of the unhoused people they talked to were not aware. Another concern brought up was how camps such as Washington-Jefferson serve a transitional purpose for the unhoused before getting a job or housing as it brings them back into the community.

It is unknown at this time what the rules the City will provide for the new camps. The City’s rest stops are too high barrier for many, such as the prohibition of drugs and alcohol. The City says they are considering with the new camping sites to set aside specific groups where drug use is allowed if they are taking part in a drug addiction program.

Testimony and deliberations on this item and others went long enough that the vote took place on the Wednesday work session instead of the Monday Council meeting, thus action on the proposed 1059 Willamette housing was postponed.

Local Links

  • Jay St. James tells Vice her story of how Eugene Police Department officer Christopher Drumm stalked and raped her. This was shortly a few days after Drumm was sent over by EPD to St. James house for a domestic violence call. EPD later released a statement (that I will not be linking to) where they outed her by using her legal name. They said that Drumm was placed on leave and later resigned after that. They also say that the DA is conducting a grand jury for the matter. EPD did not speak of other measures they have taken.

  • Over a dozen organizations have sponsored a letter calling for the rejection of the current proposal for 1059 Willamette. “Rather than help create affordable and accessible housing that Eugene so desperately needs, this development project is likely to accelerate gentrification and homelessness,” the letter reads.

  • Several community members shed light onto what they called a conflict of interest at Monday’s Eugene City Council Public Forum: the staff member hired to run the CSI Kevin Alltucker, which currently is set to provide more than a majority of its funds to the Eugene Police, is married to Irene Alltucker, who is the Director of the Eugene Police Foundation.

  • “The University of Oregon agreed to a $200,000 settlement with Monica Bray, a former UO associate dean who alleged whistleblower retaliation in a lawsuit filed last year.”

  • UO is suing Officer Troy Phillips, who served as a K9 handler for UOPD, for fabricating evidence in his stop and prosecution of Eliborio Rodrigues on October 27, 2018. Rodrigues was killed by EPD a little more than a year later.

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