Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy wrote in a memo sent out on Friday that she’s decided to decline Whoville’s request for the campsite to be declared as a state of emergency.

In response to Whoville’s request, Piercy has asked the Eugene City Council to move rapidly with opening the second legal rest stop site.  The council decided over the winter holidays to legalize two sites. One of them is on Roosevelt and the other is at Northwest Expressway. Whoville’s approval to be a legal campsite was denied, and the city’s decision was to close down the site after the holidays when the first legal site was in place.

“On Monday, council will be asked to support extending the pilot rest stop program,” Piercy wrote in her memo. “If that is approved, Community Supported Shelters has agreed to oversee the second site and we will be able to begin the process of opening the second site. It’s important to recognize that while critical and humane – rest stops are not a solution to homelessness.”

Piercy went on to say that though they’re working with homeless groups such as the Egan Warming Centers, Cahoots, Buckley House, Looking Glass, Shelter Care and St. Vincent DePaul, the city is still aware that there needs to be a better and more permanent solution to homelessness.

“I am actively asking that we find some way to provide some basic shelter for those who are still using drugs or alcohol and are not accepted into any shelter we currently have, or at Opportunity Village or the rest stops,” Piercy wrote. “We will continue to work with our private and public partners to find more solutions to the unmet need we see in our area because we do believe that shelter is a basic human right.”