In a surprisingly bold move, in the early minutes of the session, Councilor Alan Zelenka made a motion to authorize city staff to draft an ordinance to designate temporary safe and legal place to sleep from 9PM to 7AM on non-park, city owned land.  The motion passed unanimously, with Councilor George Poling absent.  The Council also directed staff to call a special Work Session on the first date at which all Councilors can be present to review and approve an ordinance.  Once approved, a Public Hearing will be held and the newly authorized “Rest Areas” can become a proud part of Eugene’s dramatically changing policies addressing issues surrounding those who are unhoused.  The Council backed up their voiced support of finding creative, financially feasible and effective new solutions with a clear sense of enthusiasm and commitment….and action.  At the next Session the Council will also seek to approve some of the four options proposed by city staff, most involving relationships between the city, religious, not for profit and private land owners.  The Council indicated agreement that a whole continuum of small, partial and temporary solutions are needed to meet the emergency needs and buy time to find longer term answers.

The Rest Areas, as proposed by Councilor Zelenka, will be on several selected, specially designated, city owned non-park land parcels.  They will offer a safe place to sleep from 9PM to 7AM, toilet access, garbage collection and lockers so that individuals can secure their items during the day, facilitating their ability to find work, housing, keep health appointments and conduct other personal business.

A major benefit of the Rest Areas is that they will draw people who now sleep downtown or in public parks away from those areas and into areas that are especially designed to meet the basic safety and sanitation needs of those who sleep in the areas.  Insufficient bathrooms, especially at night, has been a major health hazard to all citizens in Eugene’s downtown and public parks and the new Rest Stops will improve the public health of all citizens.  It establishes a new, more realistic and businesslike approach that will better meet the needs of the downtown and parks as well as the needs of those who need a place to sleep.  The City’s long term failure to address the problem has put those needs unnecessarily in conflict.

Another major business benefit is that the Rest Areas should save a great deal of the current $300,000 per year the Eugene city government is spending to clean up deserted camps, often vacated as individuals flee under police orders.  It will be far cheaper to take this preventive approach:  placing toilets and garbage/recycling resources in the Rest Areas so that people can clean up after themselves.  Not only has the City’s previous approach been a poor choice from a business perspectivie, it has posed health hazards for all and failed to meet the goal of chasing the unhoused out of Eugene.

Activists who have long been trying to persuade the Council to provide better solutions than in the past were impressed with the Mayor and Council’s obvious determination to do something substantive and to do it now.  “It took a long time to encourage them to actually TALK about this really gnarly problem….but once they decided to take it on, they took it on with gusto.  It us up to the rest of us, both housed and unhoused, to be certain that we give the Council the support they deserve for having the courage to admit that what we’re doing isn’t working and to start proving out better solutions”, said one activist.

On Saturday, February 9, at 1 p.m. the SLEEPS Strike Team will demonstrate for the unhoused. SLEEPS activists and their supporters will display signs, pitch tents, and rake the yard at the abandoned Trude Kaufman House at 996 Jefferson Street in Eugene.

With at least 1500 unhoused people living in freezing weather this winter, SLEEPS activists maintain that closure of the house indicates a lack of will on the part of the city to provide for its most vulnerable.

Gertrude “Trude” Kaufman donated the historic house to the city for community use in 1972, and it served as a senior center until December 2010. Now the house does not serve the community in any capacity, and the house’s trust fund is being spent only on the maintenance of the property. Some SLEEPS activists say that the home has the potential to provide shelter for unhoused children and their parents and could be managed by seniors and other volunteers.

Advocates for the unhoused in Eugene created SLEEPS (Safe Legally Entitled Emergency Places to Sleep) in opposition to Eugene’s anti-camping code, which criminalizes taking shelter in a tent or sleeping bag and using a heater or fire on public property.

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HEDIN BRUGH is a tough survivor and relentless activist who lives on the streets of Eugene.  He’s fought for the trees and environment for much of his life.  More recently, he’s fought against illegal foreclosures, fought for first amendment rights and now he is fighting for those who are unhoused.   Instead of resting secure in the knowledge that he can take care of himself on the streets, he constantly worries and works for those for whom he knows life on the streets is pure  hell.  “I worry most about families.  Especially women with children.  And men with children, there is no place they can go.”

Though the Mission recently accepted its first father and child family, their family space and that of First Place has long been full.  And lots of folks can’t manage the Mission environment or living in the basement of a church, with no privacy.  They might WANT to manage it but just not be able.

Hedin has been watching the shuttered Trude Kaufman House at 10^th and Jefferson for two years now.  And for the third time in recent weeks he and other SLEEPS activists are pitching tents at 1PM at the site to bring the community’s attention to the fact that this resource is sitting empty while the unhoused suffer in the cold.

“This is a generous community, “ says Hedin.  “If the city would lease this place to a not for profit, there are many unemployed and licensed carpenters, electricians, plumbers who would much rather being doing something useful than sitting around.”  He also says that the former senior center is a place where  many seniors who want to help but have no place do so could come and volunteer.  “The Trude Kaufman House is just eating up the fund the Kaufmans left.  The city should make it possible for volunteers to help there and bring unhoused families out of the cold.”

Hedin is not only a tough activist, he is also a poet and playwright and is currently developing street theater for SLEEPS and writing a play that deals with issues around the unhoused.

Today SLEEPS formally asked the Mayor and City Manager to provide empirical, written information on how and when the City plans to follow through on the Mayor’s promises, made in the State of the City report Wednesday night at the Hult Center.

SLEEPS is formally requesting information on the specific allocations made by City Staff in December when the Council officially budgeted $225,000 for shelter for the unhoused.  $50,000 of this was a continuation of the St. Vincent RV/camping program, $25,000 went to provide sufficient funds for one family to be housed and receive other services through Shelter Care.  Other specific allocations were left to Staff discretion with the exception that several councilors asked that the Egan Warming Centers receive extra funds.  SLEEPS has asked for the specific actions taken.  “It was only a year ago that the City officially budgeted $100,000 for a 24/7 shelter to ‘last through the winter’.  That shelter lasted two nights.  We don’t want the City to gain public favor again by claiming it is going to spend big bucks to do something for the unhoused and then failing to do so.  We want accountability on every penny of the $225,000 allocated this time. Lives are at stake.”

SLEEPS also notes in the attached request that the Council has not yet approved any of the three promises made by the Mayor:  to provide land for a village; to appoint a committee or to review the laws and ordinances that “unfairly” affect those who are unhoused.

These three issues are three of the six Recommendations made by the Mayor’s Task Force on Homeless Issues, Opportunity Eugene.  The recommendations, made by a panel of 58 who served, were submitted to Council last March.  To date, only one of them, the village, has been seriously discussed and none of them have been approved. Although the project appears to be on track and staff was instructed to look for land, the Council has not discussed any details of such a village nor approved it, much to the consternation of Councilor Mike Clark who has resisted such “putting the cart before the horse” process.

SLEEPS is demanding a time line not only for the three recommendations promised by the Mayor last night, but also for the other three.

We do not doubt the Mayor’s good intentions.  We simply want the accountability demanded by SLEEPS to help make her good intentions be realized through putting pressure on staff and Council to act responsibly and quickly. Action is long over due.  People are suffering and dying and human talent is being lost to society.  Now is the time for promises to be kept.

“It took one death to start the Egan Warming Centers.  I wonder how many deaths it will take to modify the anti-sleeping laws? Why are we waking people up in the middle of the night when they’re doing nothing wrong, just sleeping? Where are they supposed to sleep?  How are they supposed to be able to think straight the next day?” (SLEEPS Activist)

24 unhoused persons and 4 others stood silently at the back of the State of the City address Wednesday night at the Hult Center.  Each carried the name of one of the 28 individuals who died, unhoused, in Eugene in 2012.  Many were made up as zombies to draw attention both to the deaths and to the city’s zombie like speed in addressing shelter and other issues for those who are unhoused.

The City becomes very annoyed when we don’t recognize their accomplishments and they have certainly taken some steps.  Eugene has a glorious past in terms of finding long term housing…but, frankly, I’m annoyed that they have dragged their feet on houseless issues.  The Rv/camping program serves less than 100 people…and the Egan Centers are only open a few nights a year.  It takes someone dying, I guess for them to do something…that is what started the Egan Warming Centers which are marvelous.   Maybe if enough people die loudly enough we can get the sleeping ban modified.  I mean, how much is it to ask the city to stop waking people up and telling them to go sleep somewhere its legal when there is no legal place to sleep?  People need to sleep to be able to have the wherewithal to make sound decisions and get themselves off the street.  It took one death for the Egan centers.  I wonder how many deaths it will take to just stop waking people up?

The Mayor went back and shook hands with each of the activists.  An overwhelming number of guests thanked SLEEPS activists for the work they are doing in highlighting the need for a safe and legal place to sleep.  Many expressed an appreciation for SLEEPS’ creative and peaceful activism.

Those committing civil disobedience and arrested were :  Walker T. Ryan, Kristen Brandt, Arianna Brickell, Christina Dill, Vickie Embree, Mary Broadhurst, Peter Grotticelli, Florence Emily Semple, Shantia Gambill, Derek Lewis, Dave. I. Piccioni, Terra Williams, Ambrose Holtham-Keethley, Julio F. Lopez, Jr. Mark Hubbell, Dan O’Connell, Graham Lewis, Larry Pleasant, Alena Cardinal, Scotty Perey, Sergeant Reynolds.

The night was a celebration of Free Speech and Assembly rights.  The protestors has originally started out to simply protest to draw attention to the City and County’s anti-sleeping laws.  However, at federal, county and city sites, the unhoused protestors were summarily dismissed.  In recent events the City has determined that indeed, protestors can protest on public land and tents are symbols which are covered under First Amendment free speech protections.  Protestors tonight hope that the County will soon come to the same conclusion.

Then SLEEPS can get on with its REAL work, modifications to the anti-sleeping laws that haunt those who are unhoused.

After being unceremoniously kicked off City land twice and county land three times, the City has now advised SLEEPS that their legal team has switched position and agrees activists have the right to protest on public land. They also advised us that, even though Eugene municipal code forbids the use of tents, that they can now accept that they are “symbols” and thus free speech as SLEEPS has maintained.

It is unknown whether or not SLEEPS Activists plan to sue the city over the previous unconstitutional evictions of the unhoused protestors as part of their overarching legal challenges of laws that discriminate against the unhoused.   The Civil Liberties Defense Center is currently developing a series of legal challenges focused on anti-sleeping laws as well as those used to harass those who are unhoused out of the downtown area.

This change in policy is an important step forward in SLEEPS’ campaign to effect meaningful change in Eugene’s anti-sleeping laws.  “We were pretty surprised when we first started out to protest that federal, county and city governments all violated our rights to assemble and our free speech rights.  We’ve had to spend several weeks now just protesting for the right to protest!”

With progress on the Federal and City level, on Monday SLEEPS will take a fourth “whack” at the County’s unconstitutional restrictions on free speech in order to be able to launch it’s protest against the county’s anti-sleeping laws.

Both City and County laws criminalize sleeping with Eugene’s first offense fine set at $200 for the use of a blanket, sleeping bag or tent on any public property or even in your own legally parked vehicle.  There is nowhere to sleep.  The anti-sleeping laws kill and have to be changed and SLEEPS is working to do just that.

EPD RUSHES TO SLEEP PROTESTORS’ RESCUE AT FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK

One would think that the last place free speech would be squashed would be at our own Eugene Library.

However, last Night SLEEPS Activists had to run to get an EPD officer to stop the library staff from destroying the images being chalked on the sidewalk as an informal part of the First Friday Art Walk.

“We need protection, come protect our First Amendment Rights!”, cried the activists to the officer.

To dramatize that our anti-sleeping laws kill, at the First Friday Art Walk SLEEPS protestors were chalking on the sidewalks the outlines of those unhoused who have died in Eugene. As art goers approached activists would sink and rise from the images.

When security guards at the Eugene Public Library went out and started washing the art away protestors explained that artistic expression is protected by free speech but the library personnel were having none of it.

The EPD Officer went over and advised the library folks that indeed, people in Eugene are still entitled to Free Speech (sometimes) and that the protestors were participating informally in First Friday Art Walk and were well within their rights.

Library staff graciously apologized for their misunderstanding and the sidewalk was rechalked.

Eugene Municipal code 4.815 forbids the use of blankets, sleeping bags, tents, cook stoves on any city owned property.  This means that those who are unhoused have absolutely no legal place to sleep. They have no way to protect themselves from the freezing rain.  Police and park officials are compelled to wake them up and tell them to move on, even tho there is nowhere they can legally move “to”.  If they don’t move, there is a $200 fine the first time, $500 the second.   Sleeping in your own car which is legally parked on city streets or parking lots can result in the same fines.  SLEEPS is seeking to modify 4.815.

SLEEPS pitches tents at the Trude Kaufman House today to highlight the fact that the city has allowed the historic home, donated to provide services to low income seniors, to lie dormant while 1500 unhoused people are out in the freezing weather.  The Kaufman home was operated as a senior center until December 2010 and lain dormant since, eating up it’s trust fund while it does nothing to serve the community.

The abandoned Trude Kaufman Senior Center is located at 10^th and Jefferson in Eugene.

The closing of the Community Gardens, the failure to use the Kaufman house are all signs of the lack of the will on the part of the City to provide for those who are most vulnerable.

At 9:30 Monday morning, December 7, SLEEPS protestors will be in place at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza to protest the County’s Anti-Sleeping Laws. At 10:00PM the Lane County Commission and public will gather for the annual State of the County address in Harris Hall, directly above the Plaza.

The Ninth Circuit Court has determined that denying those who are unhoused the right to sleep on public land and other acts that are the “unavoidable consequences of being human and unhoused” is unconstitutional.

SLEEPS has proposed that the camping laws, used to prevent the unhoused from sleeping safely and legally, be lifted during night hours in certain locations.

Currently the laws force the unhoused out into hard-to-persecute areas such as wetlands and wilderness areas.  These areas have no toilet or garbage facilities.  Fecal material, another “unavoidable consequence of being human” is spread throughout the pristine areas by rainfall and groundwater, contaminating and spreading diseases such as Hepatitis C. The current policy creates a public safety hazard for all Eugene citizens, both housed and unhoused and endangers our wilderness areas.

Sleep deprivation causes anxiety, paranoia, disorientation and a myriad of other psychological and other medical problems.  It is most commonly known as a means of torture because it undermines a persons ability to function.  Criminalizing and preventing sleep is unconstitutional and inhumane.

SLEEPS wants sensible policies that allow the unhoused to sleep safely in designated dry areas and to be provided toilets and garbage receptacles.  This protects all citizens and our environment.

SLEEPS demands that Lane County stop policies that criminalize sleeping, dehumanize those who are struggling with being unhoused, create public safety hazards such as the spread of Hepatitis C and destroy our wilderness areas.