FILE - Cottage Grove's city hall, as seen on April 5, 2023.
Chris Lehman / KLCC
The city of Cottage Grove, Oregon, is closing down two of its homeless campsites, and asking residents to relocate to a temporary shelter at a dog park.
The Douglas Camp and the 12th Street Camp are open 24-hours-a-day. Earlier this year, staff of the city — home to more than 10,000 people situated around 18 miles south of downtown Eugene — estimated that there were a total of 80 tents at the two locations.
“Some of the individuals may have been there since the sites were opened approximately two years ago,” Cottage Grove Public Works Director Faye Stewart told KLCC.
However, on Aug. 22, residents will have to relocate to a monitored campsite at Lulu’s Dog Park. It will only be open from dusk until dawn, meaning people will have to pack up their belongings and leave each morning.
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At a city council meeting Monday, a homeless Cottage Grove resident spoke against the decision, saying they were ashamed of the city, and the community had forgotten how to treat others the way they’d want to be treated.
Stewart said the residents are being moved so city staff can clean the old sites. He said the camps were unmanaged, and conditions there may border on being unsafe.
He said the goal is to reopen the 12th Street Camp as a monitored site. It would also be dusk-till-dawn only, at the direction of Cottage Grove’s city council.
Stewart said the it’s not yet clear how much cleanup the old camps will require, but city staff hope to get people out of the temporary location by the end of September.
“Once the winter rain’s set in, it’s not going to be an acceptable site for folks to be staying at,” said Stewart. “So we need to do everything we can to transition back to a more permanent location, and then be able to reopen the dog park to its original use.”
Stewart said this transition is a backup plan for the city, after St. Vincent de Paul pulled its proposal for new homeless shelter funding in Cottage Grove last month.
The nonprofit’s plan was opposed by some community members. It was also withdrawn during a recall campaign against three Cottage Grove city councilors, with opponents criticizing the councilors’ handling of local homeless issues.
