KLCC’s Brian Bull learns homeless were moved from world championship venues

A city council candidate acknowledges that for the World Athletics Championships, homeless persons were displaced to improve the city’s image. At the Maple Room, the Eugene City Club is moderated by award-winning journalist Brian Bull.

[00:00:13] Brian Bull (KLCC): And Barbie, same question here. Do you need the question repeated?

[00:00:17] Barbie Walker (Ward 7 council candidate): Sure. Let’s go ahead and repeat it.

[00:00:18] Brian Bull (KLCC): Sure. Many homeless advocates during the 2022 World Track and Field Championship said that the city was focused more on polishing up its profile and shifting the unhoused away from many venues. Do you feel these concerns are valid and how might you do things differently?

[00:00:36] Barbie Walker (Ward 7 council candidate): Right. So when you have the world looking upon you, you do have to up your game a little bit, right? We do have to be attractive to certain things—like the world—so that they continue to come to our beautiful Hayward Field and our city.

[00:00:49] So we, we did have to do some, some major, major cleaning.

[00:00:53] John Q: Award-winning KLCC journalist Brian Bull learns: Homeless persons were displaced to improve the city’s image for the World Athletics Championships. We’ve asked the city to comment, and we’ve also asked Lane County commissioners to investigate, using detailed homeless data from the summer of 2022.