A.C.T. Now Lane is determined to dive deep into the complex issues surrounding homelessness to bust myths, break down complexities, and illuminate a path forward. By bringing together collective insights, community data, and national research, we can understand our shared landscape and build actionable strategies towards the future we’d like to see. 

Homelessness is a housing problem

Years of national research show that homelessness is a housing problem. People become and stay homeless primarily because they do not have access to housing they can afford. In 2021, the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce interviewed over 150 local stakeholders to better understand the complexity of our homelessness crisis. In the years since, we have connected with national experts and other community leaders and commissioned a local study conducted by EcoNW.  This research confirms that the central cause of this crisis is our housing market, with years of underproduction culminating in extremely low vacancy rates and high rental and housing costs. Our long-term solution to homelessness is to dramatically increase housing production and availability.  

• More than 4,500 people are unhoused in Lane County on average monthly, according to county statistics. Lane County’s HMIS database
• More than 80 percent of people seeking homelessness services became homeless in Lane County. Lane County’s HMIS database
• In Lane County, rental prices grew by 40% from 2017 to 2024, home sale prices grew by $215K or 88% from 2017 to 2024, and our vacancy rate toggles between 2-4% (note: a healthy vacancy rate for cities is 5–7%). 

The Cost of Homelessness

While we build more housing, providing shelter and services is a critical step, as well as addressing public safety concerns that impact both housed and unhoused community members. When people lack a safe, legal place to stay, they attempt to survive anywhere they can. These impossible choices have a cost to the people navigating them and to the community at large. At A.C.T. Now Lane, we know that the human cost and the community expense can be mitigated with thoughtful, proactive solutions. 

• The costs needed to restore a person from chronic homelessness to personal stability and secure a sustainable place to live are exponentially greater than what it takes to maintain an existing dwelling and basic well-being.
• The trauma, health effects, and legal difficulties that a person can amass after becoming homeless make it more difficult to recapture and sustain a healthy, prosperous, and productive life.
• When people attempt to live in spaces not intended for human habitation, there are ongoing costs to a community. Interventions of the correctional system for violations of rules and laws, cleaning up or mitigating damage from the aftermath and natural by-products that would normally be captured in the sanitation and waste management systems that are part of the housing system, implementing and servicing debris and waste collection and hygiene facilities in public spaces, treating the elevated health issues of people living in a stressful and unhealthy manner without protection from elements and threats, and the elusive cost to the broader community from reduced safety, livability, access, and civic and business function are all costs that add up.

Our Community. Our Solutions. 

We can do better. By advancing strategies that support housing stability, building resources to keep people from being unhoused, and increasing efficiencies in navigating supports if they do, we can deploy strategies that mitigate the costs to our community and those who are unhoused. 

A.C.T. Now Lane is a broad coalition of organizations and people who believe that being informed and united is the most critical step to a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. Our coalition is leveraging shared insights, diverse skill sets, and the power of a united voice to build better solutions to tackle this crisis and improve livability in Lane County.  

Dig into the Data

Ready to dive deeper? We will continue to add resources to allow you to dig into the data yourself and learn more about the impacts a constricted housing system and increased instances of homelessness have on Lane County. 

• View the 2021 EACC report
• Homelessness Is A Housing Problem by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern, details their national study of why homelessness has become a U.S. crisis.

Take Action

Looking for ways to get involved and learn about ways you can help? Visit our take action page to learn more, share your story, or connect with us to ask any questions you may have about resources that are available or resources you know of that should be added this page.