01/09/2017 City Council State of the City Minutes

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Campaign priorities. This leads me to my first campaign priority: the Mayor's monthly report. I have developed the framework for an ongoing, dynamic list of projects that council and staff are directing— a real-time living tool to track our work and progress online. The idea is to provide a consistent update of where we are on important issues and ample opportunity for public input. Every month, I will release a short summary of the previous month's work and the work ahead for the coming month, with a link to my working document on the website. Look for the first monthly report the first week of February - it will be posted on the city's website; on my new blog; on Facebook; and in the newspapers. I also plan to continue to canvass as a way of reaching out directly to the public, most of whom do not have the time or capacity for attending meetings. My goal is to canvass each of the eight wards every four months. Councilors and neighborhood groups can direct my steps to areas of town where residents need to be heard. My second priority is to support ongoing efforts to address housing and homelessness, and to champion a new focus. One of the things I said when I announced my candidacy was that I want Eugene to be a place where everyone can thrive, as my family was able to do. It will be an ongoing top priority to make good on that promise. I'll begin by saying that I fully support the emergency and transitional programs the city has encouraged in the past five or so years - the rest stops, Opportunity Village, Occupy Medical, and now the tiny house movement. I am an advocate for Housing First, which seeks to stabilize people in housing and then address the causes of their instability. We should be proud of the success in housing over 400 veterans in 2015 using this model. This achievement resulted from the public/private partnerships of the Poverty and Homelessness Board. Building on the success in housing veterans, the Board now proposes to add 600 Housing First units over the coming five years. Some projects are already planned. We will make progress - the challenge is bigger than Eugene - but we will continue to model humane and sensible solutions. I join many others in our community and in the state who see the need for more emergency shelter in some form. While not always the most cost-effective solution, it may be the only humane short-term solution. As you know, I come to my role as mayor having worked at ShelterCare for seven years. Last year's United Way report should be alarming to us all. It found that 43% of Lane County households live in poverty. Too many families in our community are one missed paycheck or one medical bill away from homelessness. Too many families face increasing rent, with few alternatives for more affordable housing. This situation is not sustainable. The failure of families to thrive jeopardizes not only the futures of their children, it jeopardizes all of our futures. I plan to work on what is known as missing middle housing. This refers mostly to a housing style - to apartments and townhouses that meet our need for denser development, and can begin to fill our affordability gap. This fall, I engaged a pair of UO graduate students in creating a briefing book of the models that have been used throughout the country to increase missing middle housing supply, and I intend to work with knowledgeable stakeholders over the coming year to focus on some specific opportunities for the city of Eugene. Stay tuned. MINUTES — Eugene City Council January 9, 2017 Page 3 State of the City