Bravo to Gov. Tina Kotek for declaring a housing and homeless state of emergency on her first day in office. I’m thrilled to watch local officials from around the state answer her call and begin to take action in a coordinated effort. We desperately need to build thousands of new housing units and stop the cascade of marginalized renters falling into homelessness.
Not everyone shares that spirit of rolling up their sleeves and tackling this difficult issue head-on. Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary has taken a contrary approach to Kotek’s emergency declaration. Medary decided to cancel an upcoming hearing on Eugene’s proposed homeless prevention measure, Displacement Prevention Assistance (DPA), without a vote of the City Council. DPA is an upstream solution that has minimal cost to the city and helps residents move when they are evicted for a no-fault landlord reason or are hit with an unaffordable rent increase and have to vacate their unit. The city is in its third calendar year of discussions for this important measure, and it’s already passed numerous procedural hurdles and has a broad community coalition behind it.
We must ask ourselves if this is an acceptable way for Eugene’s city manager to respond to a state of emergency. Would they delay important policy solutions if we were facing a flood, fire or severe weather event?
This sequence of events highlights how unwilling and incapable our city is to respond to the housing crisis.
Kevin C. Cronin
Eugene
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519
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