Neighbors Feeding Neighbors says City’s actions against it are unconstitutional

Neighbors Feeding Neighbors (NFN), a faith-based, no-barrier feeding program, has been serving meals at Washington Jefferson Park for the last 11 years. The organization says extreme raises in permit costs by the City of Eugene and harassment of their volunteers by the Eugene Police Department, has made serving the community harder. NFN with an attorney is saying that the actions the city has taken are unconstitutional and are exploring multiple options to keep the service operational in the neighborhood.

NFN received a permit from the city in 2023 from the City of Eugene to operate under the overpass at Washington Jefferson Park, after a ten month fight that included previous threats of arrest by EPD. A year later the City said it would not renew its permit over noncompliance with its liability insurance requirements. Organizers believe that the Whiteaker Neighborhood Council sending a letter to City Council asking for the denial of the permit just the week earlier had a major part in the decision too.

“The City of Eugene has raised concerns about unhoused folks existing in the park. Unfortunately, I understand these concerns. Unhoused people existing is not the problem, it’s the systemic issues that put them on the streets. We need to address the root causes of homelessness, not just the symptoms,” Blair Hickok, Secretary for NFN said in her opening remarks at the organizations press conference Tuesday.

On December 5, tensions rised when multiple police officers arrived at Washington Jefferson Park while NFN was operating and threatened to arrest their volunteers. The organization made a call for support and the next day dozens of community members showed up in solidarity and defend the feeding operations.

In their last permit, the city charged NFN $480/year now they are asking for $15,400/year. The organization says it fundraises less than $10K year, so it would not be able to afford that.

NFN says they are actively looking for a building nearby that can be a more permanent solution for services. Part of the reason they serve under the bridge is to have a cover from rain and they want to have a building with tables that would provide their patrons with even more dignity. However they refuse to be pushed out of the neighborhood. The Whiteaker neighborhood has a large population of unhoused people, and NFN believes in the philosophy of meeting people in where they are at.

In their current battle with the City of Eugene, NFN has retained attorney Matthew Watkins. Watkins argues that many of the actions the city has taken are unconstitutional. He has sent a letter (embedded below) to several officials outlining their case.

Additional next steps the organization listed out was reaching out to businesses and neighbors. EPD has told them they have heard complaints and they intend to knock on doors nearby, not to argue with them, but to solve their complaints. NFN encourages people to sign up to volunteer, community members can also donate to the organization through PayPal.