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The shortage of housing across the country is a key contributor to homelessness. But it does not explain how Eugene has become a nationally recognized leader for homelessness.
Back in 2019 former mayor Lucy Vinis announced that, through a partnership with Lane County, “We’re creating a strategic plan to strengthen our capacity to help people stabilize their lives.”
After years of coordinated efforts between the city, county and many nonprofits, homelessness in Eugene has grown faster on a per capita basis than almost any other city nationwide. Today, Eugene is known for its homeless programs and is a destination for chronically unhoused people.
As a longtime business and property owner in the Bethel neighborhood, I have witnessed the Highway 99 corridor and bordering neighborhoods be in stress and decline as a result of their strategic plan. Meanwhile, the city has further increased our costs of operation by adding a payroll safety tax and new “fees” to stormwater charges.
Local leaders maintain that homeless individuals do not relocate to access services. However, both Lane County’s 2023 and 2025 Point in Time counts of unsheltered people asked: Where were you when you became homeless?
That question revealed that at least 20% of the county’s homeless population arrived here already unhoused. This is evidence to me that chronically homeless individuals will actively locate to areas that offer services or more favorable conditions over their current city.
There are many examples of chronically homeless people moving to Eugene. The case of a man shot by police last year after stabbing two Springfield police officers is just one of many. I have been told the local nonprofit Housing Our Veterans averages four calls per day from homeless veterans around the country that have heard about Eugene and intend to come here.
Homelessness is not distributed evenly across Lane County. About 75% of Lane County’s homeless population is located in Eugene, according to county data. Springfield is second highest, at 10%. Why doesn’t Springfield have the homelessness crisis that we do?
Chronically homeless individuals come here from other cities in Lane County, in Oregon and around the country. Chronic homelessness is especially concentrated on the Highway 99 corridor in Bethel.
They come to Highway 99 because that is where the city of Eugene, Lane County and nonprofit groups implemented their strategic plan to concentrate chronic homeless services.
The burden this puts on our city and county services is readily visible. Police officers and fire staff get stretched to the breaking point with calls for service dealing with homeless issues. The district attorney’s office and courts are likewise struggling to keep up with the resulting case load.
As a result, Eugene has little if any capacity for consequences when crimes are committed. Our “boots on the street,” the police officers and fire professionals that are dealing with this crisis daily, know this too well. Please do not take my word for any of this, talk to a police officer or a first responder — or better yet, do a ride-along and see for yourself.
Highway 99 is the epicenter of Eugene’s crisis. Instead of addressing the issue here, Eugene police created a special task force dedicated to addressing chronic homeless problems in downtown Eugene! Now our City Council is considering grant money for the impacted downtown business owners.
This begs the question: Why are businesses in the Highway 99, Bethel and Trainsong areas denied similar police task forces and grant programs? It is difficult not to conclude that our city and county leadership simply intends for the crisis to remain contained in our neighborhoods.
Concentrating the vulnerable chronic homeless population along a four-lane highway was an inherently dangerous choice by Eugene and Lane County.
Earlier this year, I walked with representatives from Smart Growth America when they visited Highway 99. They could not recall any other city in the country placing high-density chronic homeless services directly on a highway.
The lethal risks of this layout were entirely predictable, yet city and county leaders ignored them. And expansions continue here. What has happened to Highway 99 is no accident. It is the direct result of negligent urban planning by Eugene and Lane County.
Now that the damage has been done to Highway 99, Eugene is seeking input from the community and consultants to make it safe again.
We must be deeply skeptical of any official promising a “strategic plan” to solve a crisis they can neither budget for nor control.
