Everyone Village offers to run Nav Center, save taxpayers $2.5M

Presenter: Lane County commissioners get a local offer to manage the Navigation Center—for a quarter of the current price. That comes after business owners and residents offer public comments July 22. Steve Gilbert:

Steve Gilbert: I’m Steve Gilbert, lifelong resident of Bethel. My wife and I both were born and raised here and we’ve raised seven kids in Bethel and haven’t found a way to get out of Bethel, for whatever reason.

[00:00:30] This is my first opportunity to talk to you guys today and I guess what I’d like to do is maybe back the bus up a little and go back to 2017-2018. Lane County had 1,600 homeless people. Lane County and Eugene at that time called this ‘a crisis.’ I’d kind of like to go back to that crisis.

[00:01:02] Lane County and the city of Eugene studied that crisis and came out with the TAC report. The TAC report laid out a plan to eliminate homelessness. That’s a quote: ‘to eliminate homelessness here with local government partnering with nonprofit organizations.’

[00:01:22] Mayor Lucy Vinis stated in 2019 State of the City the following regarding the TAC report: ‘We are no longer talking about a Band-Aid, we’re creating a strategic plan to strengthen our capacity.’

[00:01:40] Well, a not so funny thing happened on the way to eliminating homelessness in Eugene. This plan did not eliminate homelessness here, obviously. In fact, it fueled it. Eugene now leads the country in homelessness per capita and we’re growing at double digits every year.

[00:02:03] This can only be called a failure. It is a failure that is currently wrecking our neighborhoods and our businesses. As a kid, I remember my grandfather saying, I’m sure you’ve all heard it: ‘The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.’

[00:02:26] I’m not sure why we aren’t looking outside of this area to see what other communities are doing. I’m going to leave an article here that I hope that you read from a city called Denton in Texas.

[00:02:39] Presenter: Barbie Walker:

[00:02:40] Barbie Walker: When we look at the different nonprofits that we have in Lane County, Eugene, I believe we have something over 200 in the city, and that shows that we are a town of advocacy. We have grace, we have compassion.

[00:02:54] Now when we’re speaking particularly about the Navigation Center, I’d like to look at a couple things. I’d like to look at being physically responsible. I’d like to look at the money going in and the measurable return that we are getting. We have to look at our virtue signaling.

[00:03:08] Are we accidentally keeping people in their own crisis and in their own addiction? Now we have to look at a time and a place. Time fiscally, this budget, $4 million I believe is what we’re looking at for 75 people. How is that penciling out and what are the line items now in place?

[00:03:29] The Navigation Center is an extremely low-barrier building with low-barrier supervision for being good stewards to their neighbors whether it’s local loving businesses, schools, established neighborhoods, and the kids, whether it’s McDonald’s, the Riviera Center, the Dollar Store, what it may be. These established hard-working families in their neighborhoods might deserve better stewards.

[00:03:55] So I’m not opposed to nonprofits that are fiscally sound, make measurable progress for those they are serving, and are good stewards to their neighbors. So what I’m asking you is to please be organized, be pragmatic with our budgets, and be good stewards to your neighbors. We are asking you for help on this.

[00:04:15] Presenter: Stephanie Beckett:

[00:04:17] Stephanie Beckett: I’m a native Eugenian. I’ve been here all my life, 74 years old. And the concern that I have for the Navigation Center is that when I was young, kind of for a joke, somebody came and put acid in a candy bar and started me on drugs, really young, 16, from the South Eugene High School.

[00:04:39] And when I see a Navigation Center close to a school, it concerns me highly.

[00:04:45] And I’ve seen the homelessness and the wreckage of Eugene pick up and up and up. And so when we’re spending our tax dollars on the kind of things that we are, I am all for charity and mercy and things like that, but I went through five years of drug addiction after that and went through Teen Challenge, which was no government money and got set free from that, from drug addiction.

And many of the people that are homeless or Navigation Center type of things really have addictive problems or situations and then you put a whole group of them together and I got some great ideas in those kind of things that was towards the darkness.

[00:05:28] I learned how to steal a little better, how to get a different drug and all of that. And so I’m standing up to say the location (a) is wrong and the amount of money when we outsource it to an outsourced thing for millions. We’re in trouble in the city and when we start closing down libraries and different things where we shut it down a little more, the police a little more, different things.

I just remember a cleaner, more fun Eugene Oregon. I’d like to see it return and I like to have true accountability where the money is going on things like this. I appreciate your time.

[00:06:05] Rayla Campbell: My name is Rayla Campbell and I’m here to speak with you guys about this Navigation Center. The location absolutely is wrong.

When you have a bus stop with children, elementary school children, and right outside that bus stop, you have people that are shooting up using different drugs, wandering around, accosting young children. Where is the equity for the children in the neighborhood? Where is the equity for the parents that are afraid to allow their children to go out for fear of what may happen to them?

This center is in the wrong place. It is way too close to schools, it is endangering the community and there needs to be some accountability for that.

[00:06:53] I again am all for nonprofits but location is key and when it’s harming the community and you see that children are in danger, what’s it going to take for something to be done? A child to prick their finger on a needle and have years and years of trauma and damage that may be done? Or what about if they come across just a little bit of fentanyl? Don’t even have to ingest it, they touch it and it goes into their body and that child dies.

[00:07:28] Is that what it’s going to take for you to realize the danger of what is happening right now and what we see going on in the community? It is there for everybody to see. And I don’t want my child to be hanging out with her friends after school and stumble across a sex offender who has just come out, who has just gone around the corner who shot up and then does something damaging, traumatizing to these children and it can happen.

[00:08:02] The same thing with the bus stop. We have had it happen in this country already where someone addicted to drugs right outside a Navigation Center got on that bus and held those children hostage. This is the importance of looking at what’s going on in the community. The amount of money is absurd.

[00:08:24] And there is another place for you to put this center where you’re not putting the children of Eugene in danger.

[00:08:31] Rich Locke: My name is Rich Locke. I’m a Lane County rural resident. I’m a business owner in Eugene, and I’m the founder and president of the Eugene Business Alliance.

To get right to the point, so we don’t skip it is, is that: This is in the wrong spot. It’s not that we don’t need a program like this, but it is in the wrong spot.

[00:08:54] I believe that Ms. (Kate) Budd’s presentation that was given to you folks last week stress the fact that this is a homeless-prone area, high crime, lots of arrests, and so on and so forth. But the way she explained it was, it was kind of a good place for it, and that’s furthest from the truth. That should have been a flag when we went to put it up, and it should not have been considered as an area to do it.

I believe it’s time to respect the citizens and the businesses of that area, and instead of everything that’s focused on the homeless-industrial complex.

[00:09:42] In the past, I’ve suggested at this place that we have several large complexes outside the cities and that would be ran on county property, the places where all homeless can go to, especially a place where the services can meet their customers, not the customers meeting services throughout all of our areas that are scattered everywhere.

[00:10:12] That’s the problem. It’s a patchwork of services and these places where they’re congested or they have lots of patronage, they’re not doing it in their parking lots, they’re doing it in ours and in front of our residents and around our children.

[00:10:29] I did want to bring to the point that the $4 million roughly that you’re asking to float this contract is equal to $53,000 dollars a bed and that’s just for housing. That’s just to put them there. Then you’ve got to add in all the other services on top of that.

[00:10:52] I’d like to point out also that the Equitable Social Solutions is based out of Kentucky. It’s part of a very large corporation that’s traded on the New York Stock Exchange at $11.5 billion of revenue per year.

[00:11:10] And it’s very proud to say that the 37,000 employees that they have generate $320,000 per employee.

[00:11:22] Janet Ayres: Janet Ayres, and I’ve been a resident of Eugene for over close to 40 years now and I’ve witnessed open drugs, filth, beyond a Third World nation might see on a daily basis. And my observation is this—and I concur with all the other speakers, everything they’re saying, spot on—I’m looking at it from the expectations.

[00:11:53] We have a diametrically-opposed Multiple Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) where you’re pulling property off of the public tax rolls. Approximately 60% of us are left holding the tax bill and most of a lot of us are retired on fixed incomes and there have been innumerable quite a few tax increases without a vote by the people.

[00:12:27] This Navigation Center, as Rich quoted: $53,000 per head per year. I make less than half of that a year and there’s no incentivization for the people low barrier. There has to be expectations and goals instead of giving a free bed.  

[00:12:52] Unlike the others I would like to see a phasing out of these facilities. I think it’s an industrial profiteering by nonprofits and NGOs coming in, and a lot of their CEOs are making $300,000. They’re making gravy off of us.

[00:13:10] So please be good stewards of us taxpaying citizens. And pay heed to what we’re saying at this microphone. You may see this tragedy of people using drugs and wasting their lives but there has to be a level of expectations of: We as a people, we elect you to serve for us and start hearing what we’re saying, instead of just doling out the money and giving the tax giveaways and leaving just fewer and fewer people left to cover that tax bill.

[00:13:53] I have to be on a budget in order to have a home, so should the county, so should the city. And so far, the scorecard is miserable.

[00:14:06] Sarah McKinley: Hello, I’m Sarah McKinley. I’m a mom of four, two that go to North (Eugene High School). I’m a small business owner and a property owner near the Navigation Center. I want to start by clearly saying: I support shelters. I support helping unhoused in any way we can. We need these services And we need them desperately. But I do want to share, North Eugene High School is right down the road, so close.

[00:14:35] It’s an open campus, and if you go there during the school day or even after the school day, it’s filled with students. Packed, OK? Even not during the start of school and the after school, because kids come and go at North Eugene. Students are walking to Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree, McDonald’s, Domino’s during and after school.

[00:14:54] Track and cross-country athletes run our neighborhoods. They run the back, the bike path. There are three bus stops that our children are in and on, right in that. We have a brand-new school built by the community, a bond, and it’s growing. The school is growing. We have two new fields that will be filled with families, and the traffic will increase intensely right there in that area. And it will be families. So.

Students should feel safe walking through our neighborhoods. Parents should feel comfortable letting them go for snacks or school project needs.

[00:15:42] As I’ve asked before, have you reached out to the school? Have we reached out to 4J? Have we asked the school security teams: ‘What’s going on? How is this impacting them?’ It is really crucial to know, I mean, we’ve talked to the community groups, but have we talked to the schools? Have we talked to the parents?

[00:16:03] I listened to the last meetings of the Navigation Center and the work sessions and it is really wrong to believe that the small businesses and the families are in support of this just because we haven’t heard them. They are compassionate people and they want to help and they don’t know who to complain to. They don’t know how to organize.

[00:16:24] North Eugene is a low-economic school. We all know that. They don’t know where to put these complaints. I’m a small property, you know, a business owner and property. When my fences get cut I can make a report to the sheriff, but that’s all I got. What else can I do? And so, like, damage is being done all the time and we don’t know who to complain to. We don’t know who to talk to. We don’t know who’s responsible. And many people are actually afraid, they’re afraid that their names will, you know, it’ll get back and there’ll be repercussions.

[00:16:58] Natalie Crowder: Hi, I’m Natalie Crowder, and I live in the River Road area and have been there since ’74. So I’ve seen lots of changes in River Road. My children went to North Eugene High School and all the elementary schools.

There are several things. I have gone door to door and talked to people, people that have said, I live in this neighborhood, I’ve had multiple instances of these fine individuals caught in broad daylight in our driveway and stealing. When confronted, they’re very confrontational and aggressive.

[00:17:28] We have another person that says (this is a person that works at the diner): ‘The disgusting drug use and blatant disregard for people and businesses are at an all-time high. Sidewalks and buildings being used as toilets, any nook and cranny, constant fighting and screaming. I work at the diner and I’m sick what I see at every shift.’

[00:17:49] Because I work or live in River Road, I go to the post office, I go to the Dollar Tree, I go to many places but I don’t frequent it as much anymore, especially in the evening because I don’t feel safe.

[00:18:01] Some of the things that I have seen—and I have pictures on my phone—of a chop shop right behind the Navigation Center where 20 bikes were torn up and they were using that as a chop shop and selling, I’m sure. I saw blatant drug use.

[00:18:18] There’s a bus stop right near the apartments that 175 families live in. Three women were sitting right on that little metal thing and were doing drugs and exchanging and buying drugs to people. It is happening right in the face, right in our neighborhood. It’s dangerous.

[00:18:40] I heard at the city council meeting about a 12-year-old girl that went to the Hult and she was accosted and you know negative things were said by the homeless people. Well, what about our kids in River Road that are standing at that bus stop. that inhabit the apartments right next to the Navigation Center and that walk to the high school? Do we not care about those children? Do we only show compassion to somebody going to the Hult?

[00:19:11] On Sunday I witnessed and was involved in CPR right at the end of the shopping center by the Navigation Center. A man totally—he was dead. We were able to revive him. And when the paramedics said, I asked if he was going to be okay as I was leaving and their quote was, ‘Fentanyl crisis, we deal with every day in Eugene.’

[00:19:35] And that’s true, we do, all of Eugene. But we have a lot of it out there and we do really do deserve better out there. I do believe in places that we can have help for these people, but we’re not helping them by just giving them a meal and a shelter.

[00:19:53] John Crowder: John Crowder, resident of Eugene for 81 years. I grew up in Eugene on College Hill. I could walk downtown with my friends, do anything I wanted. Well, that was what, 75 years ago. Eugene has changed, I’ve witnessed it.

[00:20:10] The community around Santa Clara/River Road, they live in fear. They actually live in fear. Businesses will not call the police because they’re going to get retaliatory action against them. Families don’t go shopping in the center and you’ve heard a lot of testimony here.

[00:20:31] So where do we go from here? You have a budget of over, I looked online, over $1 billion. You got a lot on your plate. And so then I went and looked at the mission statement. It says, ‘We responsibly manage available resources to deliver vital community-centered services with passion, drive, and focus.’ Where was the word ‘safety?’ Where was the word ‘livability?’

[00:20:58] I went to the city council meeting last week. Presidents of banks got up and spoke because their employees are afraid to go to work. They’re afraid to go to work and we have families in River Road that are afraid to go shopping. They’re afraid. As responsibility of this county and city residents need to be safe and they aren’t safe because of the Navigation Center.

[00:21:26] 2022, folks on the board made the contract. You’ve had three years for that center to be there. It does not belong there. It’s like a cancerous growth. What do we do when we have cancer? We go through and we correct it. You folks have the power to make a decision to correct what’s going on in River Road / Santa Clara and encourage you to do it. Thank you.

[00:21:52] Presenter: Grant Johnson:

[00:21:53] Grant Johnson: I’m an Oregon resident. I was born here in Oregon. I left in 1978 to serve the country, United States Air Force, and begin another career as a civil servant, and I’ve been gone. I was gone for over 44 years, but when it started looking like I was able to move back here to my home state, I was watching the state. I was watching Eugene for the last few years.

[00:22:19] And it saddens me to see the decisions that have been made not only locally but by our legislature. I met with (Rep.) Nancy Nathanson at one point and I asked her the simple question: Why would the legislature open the door to drugs, just to open the door knowing that there was not going to be positive outcomes?

[00:22:45] And what she told me was is that the legislature voted what the people wanted, and I looked at her and I said, ‘I have a hard time believing that.’ And then when they decided they were going to turn that back around, then it looked to me like they were making a decision based on a failed plan.

[00:23:05] So on a local level here, and I agree with everything that’s been said so far and I can’t add a whole lot more to that, but I would like to say that while I’ve lived here for the last three years, I’ve seen a downturn. I’ve seen more danger, more unsafe living around our area, and it’s shocking.

[00:23:27] And I’ll tell you I’m a compassionate person. I would like to end homelessness. I would like to end the drug addiction. But it seems like every organization that I speak to, nobody has the answer.

[00:23:42] And yet, what we want to do is we want to bring this into the neighborhood. We want to place this around where businesses and kids are walking down the street, and it just doesn’t seem to be that we’re really coming to a simple answer.

[00:23:56] I agree with the fact that there’s places around Eugene that could be better placed. But not a place where they’re just free to do whatever they choose to do. There has to be some accountability and our government structures have got to name what that accountability is, and there has to be that type of action when people are going to break those laws.

[00:24:22] Amanda Hvass: My name’s Amanda Hvass and I was raised in Eugene and when my husband and I got married 20 years ago, we decided we wanted to stay because we loved it so much.

[00:24:33] I’m currently raising three boys here, and we live in the South Eugene area, and my middle child is developmentally delayed. He was in a wheelchair up until the age of seven. He started to learn how to walk. It’s really exciting to see him live his life. Ollie is able to sign and to hear with cochlear implants. He can walk now, and that’s pretty incredible for someone who really early on in life, we didn’t know if he would live.

[00:25:00] So part of his education at North Eugene, they’re doing a great job. They have their hands full, and they still take the kids, the special ed classroom, and they walk down River Avenue—in order to go to either the grocery store to get food for their culinary class, or they go to McDonald’s for a special treat. So thank you, North Eugene. You’re, like, buying my kiddo French fries at like 10 a.m. He really enjoys it.

[00:25:29] So I wanted to speak to the Navigation Center, the placement of it. I really love that our city is full of compassionate people and I would advocate that we might be able to find a different spot that would better serve all needs of the community.

But the concern around this very vulnerable population walking down that area, it’s a big deal to take care of this vulnerable population. It’s a really big deal. And I don’t hear a ton of people coming out to advocate for our children or our special needs children who can’t even speak for themselves.

[00:26:12] And so when you’re making these decisions, I just ask that you would think about this very vulnerable population trying to move within this space and find out a really successful way for us all to work together.

[00:26:25] Joseph Washburn: My name is Joseph Washburn. I am a Springfield resident, a father of four, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, and currently a director at Everyone Village emergency shelter off West 11th. I am definitely not anti-shelter.

I struggled immensely after I separated from my service finding meaningful employment and community. At Everyone Village I found both. I finally feel at home being around the unhoused and it’s taken me a while to realize that just because you live in a home or a house doesn’t mean you’re not homeless.

[00:26:56] I have one point of dissent from many of the other people that have already commented. I think location is key, but I do not agree that this is the wrong location. I think if different things were occurring, it would be a acceptable location. And I think really that’s what’s at the crux of that point there. It’s not that this is a bad place to do this, it’s what’s going on there is not the place for that stuff to be occurring.

[00:27:21] We have our shelter amongst other businesses and a major apartment complex next to us and a homeowners association there. We have people walking their dogs with their kids through our area all the time. We have businesses where people bring their children right next door to us.

[00:27:37] That’s not the problem. It’s what’s going on at that location. That is really at the core of that problem.

I think fiscal stewardship is a really big issue that is at the core of my comments today. Our contract, our NTE, was for $810 ,000 last year. Granted, we did spend a little bit more than that on some one-time funds. We serve a comparable amount of clients, 70 versus 75.

[00:28:02] We have significantly fewer employees. I have one full-time navigation person and six people that do direct services. You compare the $810,000 with $3.3 million, that’s four times as much, and we’re getting comparable results: We only have slightly better access to permanent housing and positive exits.

I really think that we can definitely do this better. I think that the $5.13 million that was invested in that building, that building could potentially be sold and that money could be reinvested in smaller properties where we’re just like in the city of Eugene doing development for longer-term housing, pairing it with a short-term need for shelter.

[00:28:45] We have un- and under-utilized properties all throughout the Lane County and the city of Eugene that are primed for these things. And what I would love for us to do today is to stop perpetuating the insanity. If we keep doing the same thing hoping to get different results, we’re not ever going to get there. And I also want to encourage that we don’t have any knee-jerk reactions and overcorrect.

[00:29:06] I would love to see us have a measured plan that scales down this gross overspending and at the same time addresses the concerns of our community which are incredibly valid and tends to the people who are beautiful and amazing that I’ve come to love that we serve every single day.

[00:29:21] Gabe Piechowicz: Morning everybody. Gabe Piechowicz, Lane County resident, father of four, former EC CARES employee (so advocating for kids that need that support) and the founder and executive director of Everyone Village.

[00:29:31] I’m here to tell you commissioners that it is actually very possible to operate the Navigation Center at considerably lower cost and still achieve the same if not better client outcomes and definitely better neighborhood outcomes for everyone that spoke.

[00:29:44] To prove this, I’m going to share a quick set of comparables similar to what Joseph shared. Everyone Village FY25 data, Navigation Center FY25 data, all complete as we just wrapped that year up. Both low barrier emergency shelters. Both funded through public dollars. 70 clients at E1V, 75 clients at Nav Center. Contract amount E1V $810,000 per year, Nav Center, $3.3 million for FY25.

[00:30:07] Exits to permanent housing, E1V, 46%. Exits to permanent housing, 38% at Nav Center. Exits to positive situations, 50% E1V, 40% Nav Center. Now, that’s a clear comparison.

[00:30:22] And let’s just say, for argument’s sake, they’re serving higher-acuity clients, we all know that, but it would balance out because we’re already outpacing them at performance outcomes for client services. Yet the fact would remain: $810,000 for the same product, or $3.3 million.

[00:30:37] The choice seems really clear to me in the measure of fiscal responsibility.

[00:30:42] For the same comparison, and we can look at safety, as Joseph noted, Everyone Village in a much more dense residential area than the Nav Center is. And we’re a welcome presence in our community. We increased the livability of that neighborhood. And I dare say we’ve gotten good strong comments and data from our neighbors that we’ve actually increased the property value of some of our area residents around us.

[00:31:01] That is staggering and compelling, and we need to take a hard look at different ways of doing the same thing. And that is what we’re suggesting today. The Nav Center project and programming should not cost $3.3 million per year. It should not. We can do better. We must do better.

[00:31:18] So I look to you now, commissioners, to be the brave and smart leaders this county needs and I as your constituent demand. There are at least three better ways to move forward with this project that we can share with you from the Everyone Village side. We have strategy, data, and ready-to-go ideas. We’re happy to share those with the county if they see fit to move forward in a new way.

[00:31:38] Our future is so bright if you will lead us—as many times as it takes to get it right. To not be afraid to try and try again, to try different things, to look creatively at the problem. We’ve done that in spades at Everyone Village. You’ve all been there and you’ve all affirm that we’re doing some really remarkable work out there and we’re here to share it.

[00:31:57] We don’t besmirch the Nav Center, we just know we can come alongside and create a much better scenario for everyone involved and save our very tight bottom line and limited resources quite a bit that we can spread out in other ways. Thank you.

[00:32:09] Presenter: One homegrown Eugene provider offers to deliver the same or better outcomes for the Nav Center for a quarter of the price, as Lane County commissioners hear from businesses and residents in Northwest Eugene.