A nonprofit organization that works with parolees and ex-convicts is looking to purchase a house in the West University neighborhood to provide a place where clients can live together in a supervised environment.
Flyers have been circulating in the neighborhood denouncing Sponsors, Inc. for the plan, claiming the organization works primarily with sex offenders and did not disclose that information when the West University Neighbors association passed a resolution in support of the organization at its March 3 meeting.
City officials and representatives from Sponsors, Inc. said such claims are unfounded and show a lack of knowledge about the program.
Ron Chase, executive director of Sponsors, Inc., said no decision has been made about whether sex offenders will live in the neighborhood house and said more information is expected to be finalized in late spring and early summer.
Sponsors, Inc. is open about its program and encourages open dialogue in the neighborhood and throughout the community, Chase said.
“There has been absolutely no attempt to conceal what we’re doing,” he said.
Though it was not discussed at the March 3 meeting that some of the organization’s clientele are registered sex offenders, Chase said the growing percentage of sex offenders in the prison population is such that it should be expected that post-prison supervision programs would be dealing with some of them.
Chase estimated there are between 75-100 parolees and ex-convicts living in the West University neighborhood. He said Sponsors, Inc. is looking to have better supervision for those people by providing them with a place to live and interact with employees from the organization.
The anonymous flyer circulating around the West University neighborhood states that the neighborhood association’s vote in favor of the organization’s plans “was held without adequate disclosure, and without the knowledge and consent of the vast majority of the neighborhood.”
West University Neighbors Chairman Drix Rixmann said the resolution the association passed merely agreed to open discussion with Sponsors, Inc.
“We didn’t open the pearly gate and do all this other stuff,” Rixmann said.
No formal agreement about whether to support the program’s presence in the neighborhood was reached, and more discussion about the details of the program will take place in the months to come, Rixmann said.
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy was listed on the flyer as a person to contact with concerns. Piercy wrote in an e-mail that she was not involved in the production of the flyer and is very supportive of Sponsors, Inc. and the program’s work in the community.
“(Chase) is held in high regard for his work in our community and he takes his community responsibility very seriously,” Piercy wrote.
Piercy said in a phone interview that she understood from other city officials that Chase said no sex offenders will be at the West University neighborhood location.
Chase said he wasn’t sure where Piercy heard that because it is possible some sex offenders will live there — there just won’t be any who are considered to be dangerous threats to the community.
“There are risk tools that parole and probation use to determine what level of risk the people pose to the community,” Chase said. “The idea that someone’s going to run out their front door and grab a baby out of the walker, that’s rare. That’s not the kind of people we’re going to have there.”
Piercy said she is confident that if sex offenders are included in the West University neighborhood’s Sponsors, Inc. program, they will be the least dangerous and will be under the best supervision possible.
“I know they do good oversight on the folks that they work with and are pretty rigorous about making sure that the community is not adversely impacted,” Piercy said.
University student Jill Forni said she learned about Sponsors, Inc.’s plans to purchase property in the neighborhood from a flyer posted on a bulletin board at her sorority.
Forni said a police officer had visited her house a few weeks earlier to discuss safety issues in the neighborhood and informed her and her roommates of the large number of parolees and ex-convicts residing in the area.
“We’re very nervous about it,” Forni said. “We were very surprised to find out how many sex offenders live around us.”
Eugene police officer Randy Ellis, who patrols the West University neighborhood, said Sponsors, Inc. is an outstanding community program that does positive work with the parolees and ex-convicts involved.
“The people who are at Sponsors and are working in one of their programs have a higher success rate than those who aren’t,” Ellis said.
Forni said she is not fully informed about the Sponsors program but wants to get the word out about the number of former convicts living in the neighborhood and learn about the supervision programs in place.
Chase said it may be impossible to persuade some people to allow former convicts to live in the area, but he said it is important that they get a chance to turn their lives around. Chase said representatives from Sponsors, Inc. will be at the West University Neighbors’ April 7 meeting to continue addressing concerns and to clear up any confusion or misinformation neighbors may have.
“That’s our goal in going to these neighborhood association meetings, … so people will know exactly what it is that they should expect,” Chase said.

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