Oregon mayors are asking for state funding to help the homeless crisis

Twenty-five Oregon mayors have come together in a shared goal of creating a strategy to address the statewide homelessness crisis using funding and construction investment to present a plan to state officials Friday.

A subcommittee on the Oregon Mayors Association, which included the mayors of Eugene and Cottage Grove, put together a request for a city-state partnership to fund homelessness response and local prevention programs totaling nearly $123 million annually. .

In addition to annual funding for these programs, the plan also includes construction investments for shelters and transitional housing projects.

The letter to lawmakers highlighted the crisis, saying municipal leaders “cannot solve this statewide crisis on their own.”

“Homelessness is the #1 problem across Oregon — in both rural and urban communities, large and small. We know this humanitarian crisis affects both those directly experiencing homelessness and the wider community,” says the OMA letter.