EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- One year after the Occupy Eugene protest, Eugene City Council is moving on a possible city sanctioned transitional homeless camp.
Councilors met Wednesday afternoon, October 17, making several decisions about how to move forward with the possible camp.
"They have asked us to identify city-owned properties of an acre or more that are not parks land that meet certain criteria that could be used for transitional housing to house families in the future,” says Jon Ruiz, Eugene’s City Manager.
Tentatively, the project is being called Opportunity Village Eugene. While there are still a lot of steps to take before anything hits the ground, councilors took some serious action Wednesday.
Councilors directed the City Manager's Office Wednesday to narrow down a list of more than 300 potential sites for the camp. They'll put together a list of city-owned properties that aren't parks and that are larger than one acre.
Staff will also figure out how many residents live close to the potential sites; also any conditions with the land like environmental issues that would preclude the site.
The camp idea came from the Opportunity Eugene task force that emerged out of closure of Occupy Eugene site.
"One of the things that the council consistently wants to do is include the public not only in just this decision but a lot of different decisions and this is one of those that I know they'll be looking for public input as we continue to work through this,” says Jon Ruiz.
The City Manager’s office should have narrowed down list of possible camp sites by at Halloween meeting on October 31=. The city still hasn’t come up with framework for the camp such as how many people it would house or who would be eligible to live in the camp.
Councilors also voted today to draft the framework to extend the tent camping ordinance in car camping spots throughout the city.