“They Just Want the Eyesore Gone”: Evictions and Belonging in Eugene’s Washington Jefferson Park Houseless Encampment
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Date
2022
Authors
Lewis, Aaron
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In December of 2020, the City of Eugene responded to the pandemic-driven surge in unsheltered houselessness by suspending its urban camping ban and establishing a sanctioned encampment for the unhoused in Washington Jefferson Park. Unhoused encampments are a feature of the urban landscape in almost every American city, yet local governments manage these encampments in several different ways—by contesting them, tolerating them, or legally recognizing them. On paper, the City of Eugene appeared to tolerate the encampment in Washington Jefferson Park. However, its residents tell a different story. Drawing on three months of ethnographic research in the park, this paper describes how paternalistic, inconsistently enforced park rules, combined with frequent evictions, undermined residents’ sense of belonging and kept them trapped in a cycle of houselessness. It further examines residents’ attitudes toward the city’s proposed “Safe Sleep” sites, illustrating how these sites simultaneously promise to increase stability while at the same time reproducing many of the politically exclusionary aspects of life in Washington Jefferson Park. With these findings, it calls on the City of Eugene to limit future encampment disruptions and invest in more Safe Sleep sites that emphasize self-governance.
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Keywords
Houselessness, Homelessness, Ethnography, Encampment, Eugene