Item A: Opportunity Eugene Task Force Update

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acknowledged that continued efforts are needed to ensure that efforts to relieve the burdens of homelessness are continued beyond the ending of the task force. To strengthen the voice of these recommendations and ensure continued innovation as needed, it is important for an ongoing voice to champion the topic and keep it in the forefront of policy issues. These efforts include the creation of a City of Eugene Commission on Youth and Homelessness issues as well as maintaining and fostering address the issues related to homelessness. There is also a continuing need for community involvement and education to build understanding of the condition of the unhoused in our community. Unhoused residents face not only the material challenges of homelessness, but also prevailing attitudes of rejection, resentment, lack of understanding, and a tendency to ignore the homeless as the unhoused face on a daily basis and make it more difficult for them to live with dignity. In addition to efforts being made by nonprofit service providers, there is a need for broader efforts to build bridges between the housed and unhoused in the community bridges of understanding, compassion and support to heal and unify the community across divisions. To build these bridges, it will be important to identify what sectors of the community to reach out to, what messages will work in our community, and the best ways of delivering those messages. Prioritized Implementation Items The Task Force identified key projects and actions to address the prioritized needs and to implement the recommendations of the task force. These actions are categorized on a time continuum dependent on the level of planning effort required for implementation: immediate, intermediate, and long term. These categories are not reflective of the level of urgency but rather the level of planning needed to bring these actions to full fruition. The top priorities identified by the Task Force are the need to address the critical and basic need for various levels of housing options, and for day use resources including access to restrooms, showers and laundry facilities. In addition, the task force indicated strong support for a comprehensive review of the laws and ordinances that impact the homeless population and a need to task a commission with long term sustained attention and focus on addressing the needs of the unhoused in the community. This body may also serve as a venue for implementation of projects and recommendations brought forth from this task force. The task force was aware of the limitations of resources presented by the current budget climate in the state. For this reason, the task force is recommending efforts that would: 1) require limited