A local advocacy and outreach organization claims the city’s alleged ongoing response to people experiencing homelessness is against their cold weather policy. Advocates claim authorities have slashed tents and destroyed belongings.
Volunteers from Black Thistle Street Aid, a nonprofit that provides services to people experiencing homelessness, have been speaking out about city workers and the Eugene Police Department’s alleged “violations” against their cold weather policy.
“None of these people were committing any crimes besides simply existing in a city that doesn’t make it legal for them to exist. If you don’t have housing, that’s the biggest crime, really,” BTSA Co-Director Bridgette Butler said.
BTSA’s volunteer teams conduct outreach services every Wednesday. Butler said that in the past two weeks, they have heard multiple reports from people experiencing homelessness of sweeps during freezing weather.
BTSA encountered one person who was experiencing symptoms of frostbite. Butler said this person was at an encampment where EPD visited hours earlier for eviction and “slashed” tents and destroyed unhoused campers’ property.
According to EPD Public Information Officer Melinda McLaughlin, authorities are not typically involved in the clean-up of tents, but their presence is to deal with safety or criminal enforcement. If they encounter biohazards or substances that can harm people, they will get involved and cut the tent.
According to Amber Allan, housing and homeless communication manager for the City of Eugene, the current cold weather protocol states that during extreme cold weather, “the City of Eugene may pause or otherwise alter its process for assessing reports of unsanctioned camping in public spaces.”
Extreme cold temperatures are defined as at or below 32 degrees that persist for more than four hours.
Allan said cold weather protocols do not stand when a person is camping on private property.
“It didn’t use to have all those details, but they basically made it one giant loophole where they can keep sweeping people regardless of weather,” Butler said.
Current Oregon law states that unclaimed personal property after sweeps must “be stored” unless they have been deemed to have no “apparent value or utility or are in an unsanitary condition.” Items that are stored are kept in storage for a minimum of 30 days.
“That’s not the first instance of tents being slashed by EPD that we’ve heard,” Butler said. “Last Wednesday the other team, the ones that saw the sweeps, talked to a person earlier that day who also said his tent was slashed.”
Butler said there was a change in the language of the city’s cold weather policy which used to state the city would not “post unsanctioned camps with removal notices” or “remove campsites previously posted.”
Jason Davis, Lane County’s Health and Human Services Communications Director, said he was aware of the change, but the only thing that changed was the “formatting.” Davis said if the city changed the main criteria for the protocol, the county and HHS would have been notified.
“We plan to continue to be a thorn in their side,” Butler said. “Slashing tents in general should not be a practice of police, but most especially in evenings and freezing temperatures when to do so is potentially deadly and a person has no chance of replacing the item.”
The Daily Emerald attempted to contact those whose tents were allegedly slashed but was unsuccessful in reaching them due to their lack of a phone or other contact method.
