On Jan. 6, longtime University of Oregon instructor and architect Kaarin Knudson became Mayor of Eugene.

Knudson replaces Lucy Vinis, who opted not to run for reelection after serving two terms. Knudson, who Vinis endorsed, ran unopposed in the November election after winning outright in the May primary.

Knudson said that she is honored to be the mayor of Eugene.

“I am very proud and it’s an honor to be elected as the next mayor of Eugene,” Knudson said. “I’m grateful to the voters for the strength of their support and it was really a pleasure to get to know so many people.”

“I’m looking forward to the ways in which we’re gonna work together to improve our community,” Knudson added.

Knudson is an Alaska native who ran cross country and track and field in the 1990s at UO. She was an All-American in the 800m and the indoor mile in track. She said that one of the most important lessons that sports taught her is being consistent. 

“The most important thing (I learned) is consistency, holding that vision and working towards a shared goal,” Knudson said.

Housing and homelessness 

One of Knudson’s top priorities is addressing Eugene’s housing shortage and homelessness. She said that Eugene’s current housing crisis is the “product of there being not nearly enough housing that people can afford.” 

Knudson helped found local housing advocacy group Better Housing Together in 2017 to “increase housing affordability, diversity and supply in Lane County.” She said that the city has a unique role to play in increasing the supply of housing through different strategies and partnerships. 

“Increasing the percentage of housing that we are delivering in our community, increasing the affordability and diversity and supply of housing in our community is something I’ve been working on for several years,” Knudson said. “The city has a unique role to play in supporting that outcome so we will be looking for partnerships and strategies that can be effective and productive.”

Knudson said connecting housing nonprofits and advocacy groups with the private sector could help increase the supply of housing in Eugene.

“A unique opportunity that we have now is related to connecting our nonprofit service community and advocacy community with the private sector and people who are working every day on the development of housing solutions,” Knudson said. “That’s a really important part of us meeting the housing crisis is actually building those partnerships and relationships and increasing the supply of housing that we have locally.”

Knudson said that Eugene’s state-enabled multi-unit property tax exemption program is an area that she wants to expand to increase the supply of housing.

“The multi-unit property tax exemption is one tool that we have and I would like us to look at how we can use that more effectively because while it gets a lot of attention, it has not been used that much,” Knudson said. “In comparison to maybe even the depression, it has not been a particularly frequently utilized tool. If you look in (Eugene’s) downtown, you can still count the projects that have received the (multi-unit tax exemption) on your hand.”

Knudson said that she believes that Eugene can achieve functional zero homelessness in the future, where homelessness will be “rare, brief and non-recurring.” 

“The potential for our community to reach functional zero in terms of our homelessness population … speaks to a whole host of partnerships between our city, county, nonprofit community, business community and neighborhoods,” Knudson said. “I think it is a very achievable goal especially when approached in working with a shared regional objective.”

Eugene’s budget gap

Knudson said she anticipates that the beginning of her term will also include working on the city’s budget. 

“I think also the beginning of 2025 is likely to include following up on any of the work that needs to be completed from 2024,” Knudson said. “That will include planning for our emergency services (and) planning for the budget that the city council will be adopting and making sure that we’re on stable footing.”

On the proposed fire safety fee ordinance that aims to close a $8 million budget gap, Knudson said she doesn’t see a way to maintain city services that Eugene residents expect without implementing it or something similar. 

“I have listened to the analysis from the community advisory team that worked on that process and I’ve seen the presentations that describe all of the cuts that (city departments) [have] already made,” Knudson said. “I don’t see a path towards balancing our budget and maintaining the levels of service that the community has asked for without implementing a strategy like this.”

In the long term, Knudson said that she hopes the city council can resolve the city’s budget problems.

“We will resolve our budget as required,” Knudson said. “I would hope that in the medium or longer term, we can dig in and look at what sort of shifts we might need to make so that we don’t have to spend so much time dealing with the same problem every few years.”

Success will be the result of collaboration

Knudson said that everything the city will accomplish over her time as mayor will be the result of partnerships.

“Everything that we accomplish in these coming years will be the outcome of partnership and connecting various areas of expertise to be able to give ourselves clear goals that have measurable outcomes,” Knudson said.