On Nov. 21 White Bird Clinic leadership announced the closure of its Front Rooms department after apparent budget cuts.

WBC Front Rooms was one of the primary resources for people who cannot access mainstream services, many of which are unhoused. Workers in the Front Rooms provide mail services, food, water, referrals to service providers, hygiene supplies and cold weather gear. 

The closure comes after the announcement that some funding from PacificSource is set to “expire” soon. According to Mike Yoshioka, director of programs at WBC, the PacificSource funding amounted to $1.8 million.

“The PacificSource Per Member Per Month funding, a cornerstone of our budget and accounts for over 20% of our revenue, will expire on Dec. 31,” the press release stated.

Although the announcement was officially made by leadership on Nov. 21, workers have known about the imminent closure since Nov. 13. 

Krysta Delfino resigned from White Bird’s Nest Department the day after leadership made the announcement and subsequently sent a press release on Nov. 18.

The press release stated, “The decision has come as a shocking surprise to Front Rooms employees as there was no previous indication of impending closure.” 

Some workers in Front Rooms have expressed concerns over the closure and what will happen next.

“A lot of changes have happened around the clinic in the past few years that made us feel uncertain around the workplace,” Delfino said. “The workers feel that management might not understand what it means to work in the front rooms and how difficult the training is.” 

Delfino said that Front Room workers function as crisis workers and receptionists, and that they also provide information, triage and give out survival supplies to people in need. 

“Who is going to train the new people, and where are these services going to go?” Delfino said. 

Delfino also said that workers who rely on rental assistance remain uncertain about what WB will provide in lieu of layoffs. 

In the days leading up to the announcement of the Front Rooms closure, Delfino said WB leadership kept the Front Rooms closure a “secret.”

The work environment was primarily democratic with a “consensus-based model,” where WBC workers from different departments would collaborate to make decisions for the company. Delfino said leadership stripped their ability to be a decision-making body, ultimately leading her to resign. 

“Instead of trying to improve it or try to put forward a different type of democratic decision-making, management told us we would no longer have the ability to be a decision-making body,” Delfino said. 

Delfino said it was a “big blow” to have the closure passed without a democratic consensus. 

“The decision was made to take action that would have less harm on the rest of the organization,” Yoshioka said in response.

The closure has been met with disapproval from community members and Front Room workers. A post made by the WB Front Rooms and NEST Union on Instagram was commented on by a number of users expressing their upset over the closure. 

Clients have also expressed concern about resources that will potentially be impacted by the closure. 

Yoshioka said there will still be mail, food, and “other service operations” available at 341 E. 12th Avenue, the old Front Rooms department building. The difference is there will be a reduction in the hours of operation. 

White Bird Clinic Front Rooms has been operating since February 1970. 

The rain on the west side of town subsides, allowing sun rays through sections of parted clouds. The burning sun takes over, showing no signs of ceasing, warming the dead-end street where Jetty Etty is parked in her lime green car.

Two people stand by the open car door, grabbing bags and other items before Etty heads out for outreach work. 

The Barefoot Defenders

Etty is the founder of the Barefoot Defenders, a local and radical advocacy group for the unhoused community in Eugene and Springfield. Its mission is to “remind people they are valuable, important, worthy of taking up space and being treated like human beings,” she said. 

Etty said there are “no typical” days for her. The only thing they share in common is the services provided to homeless communities in Eugene and Springfield. 

“Jetty Etty” is an alias used for the protection of her children from people who may be against the work she does for the unhoused.

This year, Etty was taken to court for trespassing while doing outreach work by disrupting a city council meeting during a July protest organized by the BD. In what she describes as a “win,” Etty reached an agreement in her case on Oct. 17 and was assigned 30 hours of community service with all other charges dropped.

“I am not a hooligan,” Etty said. “I am just stepping foot in places where people are and that’s illegal.” 

One of the reasons Etty said she accepted the deal was because she wanted to continue providing outreach services.

“If you’re on probation, you can’t break any laws. And if I am trespassing, I’m obviously breaking laws,” Etty said. “That’s how I got all these damn tickets.”

Etty started her car, empty boxes of Marlboro 27s in the cup holder and on the passenger side floor, and drove off from the dead-end street. 

A few minutes after 1 p.m., Etty arrived at the Barefoot House, home to fellow members of the BD. Supplies that go out to the community are stored there before being delivered to individuals in need of them. 

The home is a small hall-and-parlor type with a gate surrounding the property. Boxes with food for donation sit outside the front door.

Inside the Barefoot House, a bin with collected rain gear, ponchos, garbage bags and socks sits on the living room floor. 

Etty kneeled and considered its contents. She gathered the rain gear and garbage bags, all that was needed for an afternoon of outreach. 

Only making a few steps outside the Barefoot House, an unhoused man on a bike, Kenny, calls out to her and she offers him a poncho: the first provision of the day. 

Etty said she is well known by the unhoused community in Eugene. She said, if they are homeless and on Highway 99, “I probably know them or they probably know of me.”

Encampment Sweeps Now

After a few more rounds of deliveries, Etty commented on encampment sweeps that her organization contends are unlawful because city workers won’t provide campers with the required 72 hours of notice, per Oregon Revised Statute 195.505.

Amber Allan, Housing and Homeless Communications Manager with the city, said the city continues to follow state and city laws and has local partnerships that seek a “humane” response to unsanctioned campers.

“The City acknowledges that this is a complex and sensitive issue,” Allan said in an email correspondence. “We understand that some community members advocate for a change in City rules and practices to allow people to camp in public. However, many in the community have expressed strong desires for faster and more lasting responses to unsanctioned camping and its impacts.”

 “I had 45 people show up to camp,” Etty said as she pointed through her open car window to an area where campers settled after vacating Seneca Road camp on July 18. “And then we got served with a 72-hour notice. They came back 23 hours later and gave everyone 15 minutes to get their stuff off the land.”

Etty, along with many unhoused, use an app called Regrid which shows property boundary lines to indicate where camping may be permitted. When questioned by neighboring business owners or law enforcement as to why encampments settle in a specific area, Regrid is the first line of defense.

The day of the July sweep, Etty received trash bins that were donated to help with trash disposal. 

Sarah Horton, an unhoused woman with a psychology degree, said that “she has been a saint. When we don’t know what to do, we call Jetty, and somehow she fixes it.”

Despite making efforts to keep the people she helps from littering and causing damage to land, Etty said she has had little to no support from city officials after asking for garbage disposal receptacles. 

“They could accomplish a lot, if city officials would even work with people who are not 501(c)(3), like Barefoot Defenders,” Etty said. “It pisses me off that the city refuses to listen to people who are boots-on-the-ground. They won’t listen to me.” 

Etty said she has made efforts to collaborate with the city council and so far has only gotten a response from Councilwoman Emily Semple. 

“This is an issue I’m concerned about and it’s totally visible,” Semple said. “The city’s got a budget shortfall. This is a conundrum, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Semple said she has presented the issue to the city manager with no actionable responses thus far. 

Despite having no direct support from city officials, Etty said the flame that keeps her going won’t be “extinguished.” 

Catalyst for Activism 

As a five-year-old, Etty attended her first women’s rights protest in Idaho in 1991. She said her “hate” for police motivates her to keep going, the origin of which stems from the relationship she had with her father.

“My dad was the kind of cop who you would see kneeling on someone like George Floyd’s neck,” Etty said. “I was interrogated my whole life by my father so there’s a huge part of me that fights for that reason.”

A portion of Etty’s passion for the work she does also stems from her mother’s influence. Etty said her mother often encouraged her to donate her fast food to unhoused people they would encounter.

“I remember her saying ‘that could be your guardian angel God sent here to test us. We should always be kind to those people,’” Etty said.

This reaction stood in stark contrast to her father’s opinions who would say “those people are trash, drug addicts.”

Etty has not been in contact with her father since 2018.

“These are the underdogs,” Etty said. “There’s a huge part of me that fights for anyone who is being oppressed, especially within the police system.”

The work she does, although aiming to create a lasting positive impact, is “never enough.”

“We haven’t done enough to help people,” Etty said. “I am really scared that everything we get them is going to be taken away in a few days.”

Etty looks into the distance through her windshield as she remembers the first interaction she had with a group of homeless teens outside of Cowfish bar on Broadway. One of them was a 16-year-old girl who ran away from an unsafe home. 

“There is so much more to homelessness than we even understand or know,” Etty said.

Etty exits her car, cigarette smoking in hand, as she approaches a bus-turned-home on the side of the same dead-end street where the afternoon started.

The post Jetty Etty: Defender for the unhoused appeared first on Daily Emerald.

October marked two months of Mobile Crisis Services’ Lane County six month pilot.

Professionals from Lane County Health and Human Services and the Behavioral Health Division have served the community for two months through the Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County .

The program assists those experiencing a mental health crisis and was started as a way to address the mental health needs of people in Eugene and more rural areas of Lane County. MCS works primarily as a way to de-escalate crises and mitigate police involvement.

Olivia McClelland, behavioral health clinical services manager at BHD, said MCS-LC has received a “significant” increase of calls from areas in Oakridge, Cottage Grove and Junction City.

MCS-LC averages around eight to 10 calls per night, and are seeing a “steady” increase in weekly calls from metropolitan and rural Lane County, according to McClelland. Additionally, MCS-LC professionals have expressed challenges with hiring.

“Our biggest challenge has been staffing in terms of mental health services across the state. We are no different here,” McClelland said.

According to McClelland, the US has been experiencing a mental health crisis and a low number of mental health professionals have been available
in the workforce. Some reasons include challenges with appropriate training, inadequate pay and a poor insurance reimbursement model.

As with any new service, we are working to ensure sustainable funding to support the longevity of programming, which includes identifying multiple, appropriate funding sources comprised of statewide funding specific to mobile crisis services for communities,” LCHHS Communications Director Jason Davis said.

MCS-LC largely operates out of vehicles that come to those in crisis and currently serve areas as far as Mapleton in West Lane County. Past that
point, the Western Lane Fire and Emergency Services undertakes the crisis support duty.

According to Davis, Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets and MCS-LC share the patients served in the Eugene-Springfield area. Around 30% is attended to by MCS while CAHOOTS manages 70% in the metropolitan area.

“We have been able to make good connections with a lot of the emergency medical services and law enforcement agencies, especially in areas that
haven’t typically been served in our community,” McClelland said.

Davis said mobile crisis services would ideally be funded at similar levels to critical first responders like Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

“In the field of mental health, it’s really hard work,” McClelland said. “This is passion work for a lot of people and they still have to pay their bills.
There is supposed to be a parity between physical health and mental health provision and that’s not always recognized in the wages people are paid.”

When prospective new hires are found and onboarded, they must train to integrate into emergency systems around the city, including police and emergency health services.

“Not having 24/7 coverage has been a challenge,” McClelland said. “We know that the need is out there, and we are going to continue expanding as we continue to hire folks.”

The six month pilot informs MCS-LC what the demand in Lane County looks like and how to best match it with the right amount of personnel.

A new PeaceHealth Stabilization Center is expected to open in 2027. Lane County is currently in a 90-day due diligence period before purchasing the land where it will soon be constructed.

The stabilization center would work in tandem with the MCS-LC and other crisis services to provide a place for those patients to receive appropriate
care typically unavailable in an emergency room.

“I think that is an important part of a larger response to mental health crises in our community,” McClelland said. “That is the three-prong model, the crisis line, the mobile crisis and the stabilization center. If they know it exists, they can walk in and it wouldn’t have to rise to a certain level.”

October marked two months of Mobile Crisis Services’s Lane County six-month pilot. Professionals from Lane County Health and Human Services and the Behavioral Health Division have served the community for two months through the Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County.

The program assists those experiencing a mental health crisis and was started as a way to address the mental health needs of people in Eugene and more rural areas of Lane County. MCS works primarily as a way to de-escalate crises and mitigate police involvement.

Olivia McClelland, behavioral health clinical services manager at BHD, said MCS-LC has received a “significant” increase of calls from areas in Oakridge, Cottage Grove and Junction City.

MCS-LC averages around eight to 10 calls per night, and is seeing a “steady” increase in weekly calls from metropolitan and rural Lane County, according to McClelland. Additionally, MCS-LC professionals have expressed challenges with hiring.

“Our biggest challenge has been staffing in terms of mental health services across the state. We are no different here,” McClelland said.

According to McClelland, the US has been experiencing a mental health crisis and a low number of mental health professionals have been available in the workforce. Some reasons include challenges with appropriate training, inadequate pay and a poor insurance reimbursement model. 

“As with any new service, we are working to ensure sustainable funding to support the longevity of programming, which includes identifying multiple, appropriate funding sources comprised of statewide funding specific to mobile crisis services for communities,” LCHHS Communications Director Jason Davis said.

MCS-LC largely operates out of vehicles that come to those in crisis and currently serve areas as far as Mapleton in West Lane County. Past that point, the Western Lane Fire and Emergency Services undertakes the crisis support duty. 

According to Davis, Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets and MCS-LC share the patients served in the Eugene-Springfield area. Around 30% is attended to by MCS while CAHOOTS manages 70% in the metropolitan area. 

“We have been able to make good connections with a lot of the emergency medical services and law enforcement agencies, especially in areas that haven’t typically been served in our community,” McClelland said. 

Davis said mobile crisis services would ideally be funded at similar levels to critical first responders like Fire and Emergency Medical Services. 

“In the field of mental health, it’s really hard work,” McClelland said. “This is passion work for a lot of people and they still have to pay their bills. There is supposed to be a parity between physical health and mental health provision and that’s not always recognized in the wages people are paid.” 

When prospective new hires are found and onboarded, they must train to integrate into emergency systems around the city, including police and emergency health services. 

“Not having 24/7 coverage has been a challenge,” McClelland said. “We know that the need is out there, and we are going to continue expanding as we continue to hire folks.” 

The six-month pilot informs MCS-LC what the demand in Lane County looks like and how to best match it with the right amount of personnel.

A new PeaceHealth Stabilization Center is expected to open in 2027. Lane County is currently in a 90-day due diligence period before purchasing the land where it will soon be constructed. 

The stabilization center would work in tandem with the MCS-LC and other crisis services to provide a place for those patients to receive appropriate care typically unavailable in an emergency room.

“I think that is an important part of a larger response to mental health crises in our community,” McClelland said. “That is the three-prong model, the crisis line, the mobile crisis and the stabilization center. If they know it exists, they can walk in and it wouldn’t have to rise to a certain level.” 

A new construction project is underway on East Broadway. Lane County’s housing agency, Homes for Good, is developing a 57-unit apartment complex called Bridges on Broadway for people experiencing chronic homelessness. 

Chronic homelessness is defined as “an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition” who has been homeless for more than one year, according to the Community Supported Shelters’ website. 

The Bridges on Broadway project will replace the Red Lion Hotel, which was purchased by Lane County using funds from Project Turnkey in 2021. The Red Lion Hotel was initially used as temporary housing to those displaced by wildfires. Today, one of Project Turnkey’s main initiatives is to purchase and convert “underused or vacant” properties into shelters for homeless individuals in Oregon. 

“At the beginning of August, we held an event — a groundbreaking. We were breaking walls and doing demolition with partners to celebrate and mark the beginning of official construction,” Ela Kubok, deputy director of Homes for Good, said. 

Red Lion was initially used as temporary housing for those affected by the Holiday Farms Fire of 2020. Shortly thereafter, it transitioned to temporary housing for residents who lost their housing during COVID-19. 

Preparations for BOB began in April after funds from the state and the city of Eugene were approved in 2023. 

According to Laura Hammond, Housing Tools Analyst for the City of Eugene, the city council approved and provided Homes for Good in 2023 with an estimated $618,000 to help complete the project. Of that, $383,434 comes from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which gets its funds from a construction excise tax. 

Construction excise tax funds are collected from building permits for new construction in the city. That money is then deposited into a trust fund to help fund affordable housing projects in Eugene, such as BOB.

In addition to money coming from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the city provided HFG a city fee assistance and a systems development charge exemption. Both of these funds help pay for building permits and other fees that help with construction developments. 

There are currently six other developments underway in Eugene, including Ollie Court, an affordable housing community that will include an Early Learning Center to help with those in need of childcare. 

The project is adjacent to an American Campus Community apartment building, the 515 on East Broadway. 

Madison Moore, a UO sophomore who lives at the 515, said she “thinks it’s a great idea since the homeless population in Eugene is quite large,” but “more needs to be done to help people.” 

“I think it’s fine living next to it. We all see homeless people and they are pushing carts. It’s really hard for them to get by,” Neerad Bondhi, a junior computer sciences major at UO who also lives at the 515, said. “I think it would be better for everybody to have a place to live and help get them back on their feet.” 

General Manager Ben Musselwhite at the neighboring Pizza Hut spoke on how the Red Lion Hotel was before construction began.

“I am much happier with how they are doing it now than how they did it before,” Musselwhite said. “Before there was a lot of drug use, a lot of drug paraphernalia, people doing sketchy stuff.” 

Musselwhite said theft was an issue in the area as well.

BOB’s completion is expected for the summer of 2025. In order to qualify to live at BOB, applicants have to be experiencing chronic homelessness and meet coordinated entry requirements.

On Oct. 3, protesters packed the Lane County Circuit Court to support one man charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree.

The defendant, Samuel Joseph Yergler, was one of 52 arrested after his involvement in the April 15 I-5 pro-Palestine protest and blockade. All except 19 of the 52 protesters arrested were given a diversion option, which offers community service and a $100 citation.

The remaining 19 defendants, all charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree, are set to go to trial from October to Jan. 2025.

“I hope the judge recognizes the legitimacy of the defenses that these actions of civil disobedience, that are happening worldwide, but specifically in the United States are absolutely necessary and are the last line of defense,” one protester who goes by the alias, Gloria, said.

The Daily Emerald granted Gloria the use of an alias for protection against “violent and reactionary people” in the community.

By “necessary,” as a defense, Gloria refers to ORS 161.200 or the “choice of evils” law. It states that “physical force” or “conduct which would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable and not criminal” when a person or the public faces imminent injury.

Protesters blocked the I-5 in solidarity with the A15 – April 15 — movement across the world, where supporters were encouraged to “blockade major choke points in the economy.”

According to one protestor and former Insurgent writer also facing charges, Eric Howanietz, their actions on April 15 were a “necessity.”

“We’ve cataloged about 15 other direct actions we did,” Howanietz said. “We really feel like we had exhausted all other options and were left with this case where we could key into this global action that was occurring.”

Court documents state that Yergler argued his actions on April 15 constitute “advocacy, campaigning, educational outreach, petitioning of government officials and other lobbying efforts, boycotts and personal actions to avert the harms of U.S. complicity in Israel’s war and genocide.”

In order to advance a choice-of-evils defense, Yergler will have to present evidence proving three things. First, that actions in April were necessary to avoid threatened injury, the injury was imminent, and that it was “reasonable for him to believe the need to avoid the injury was greater than the statute they were found to have violated, seeks to prevent.”

On Oct. 3, the court heard opening statements from both the defense and prosecution, witnesses testimony and some evidence was presented.

The jury was dismissed and were instructed to return on Oct. 4.