While reading Taylor Perse’s article about upcoming housing for the homeless, funded by local health care (News, 10/2), I look forward to how this “51-unit Housing First development for individuals struggling with homelessness” will greatly impact the community.

Set to be finished in December 2020, this project has already received $3 million out of $13 million needed for the MLK Commons by local health sources. Drawing from how members of the state of Oregon support the need to lessen the issue on homelessness, it brings my attention to neighboring states and how they tackle their city’s issue with homelessness.

The state of California is also proposing to fix homelessness with housing, but what makes this MLK project different is that this housing unit will also provide social services to help these individuals find a job and get mental care.

As homelessness has been an ongoing issue in the city of Eugene, it’s refreshing to see that a concrete project will be supported by local health care organizations, thus reinforcing the idea of community. Community here is not defined merely by the Merriam-Webster definition of people with common interests living in a particular area.

Rather, the members of the city of Eugene are creating a new definition for community-inclusive support and care for one another. By tackling more than one issue of our homelessness here with this project, both concrete units to live in and also services to help better themselves, this MLK project could become the first of a revolutionary solution towards helping our community.

Grace Sim

Eugene

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