This is Eugene

Dear Eugene City Council: What the hell are you doing? Really.

Let’s review. You allowed homeless people to be banned from public property, until someone realized it was heartless and unconstitutional. Nice. 

You realized broken, homeless people were hanging out with their dogs downtown, so you banned them for a while (is that still a thing?) Very cool.

You noticed that homeless people smoke, so you’re sending cops to track down anybody smoking on public property. Twilight-Zone cool.

You gave the finger to a new state law that would help people suffering from the housing crisis, making it frustratingly difficult to build an additional unit to rent out to someone on your property. (Special thanks to Emily Semple for that punch to the poor.)

You’re trying to sanitize the city with boot and fist when most of us just need a hand. We’re tied to the tracks here, and you’re shoveling coal into the engine of a silent train coming straight at us. 

I recently was no-cause evicted and I see few housing options — virtually none are affordable — and I’m a little pissed.

Yes, there are negative impacts to Eugene businesses with downtown Hoovervilles. Forcing more of us onto the streets isn’t helping. So come and work for us! Do your job and run The People’s business rather than running poor folks off the only property they have — public property.

Steven Coatsworth

Eugene