New coalition outlines plan to tackle Lane County homelessness

A.C.T. (Advancing Community Together) Now Lane brought leaders from nonprofits, business, government and neighborhood groups into a City Club of Eugene forum to outline a coordinated push on Lane County’s housing and homelessness crisis. The forum, recorded Jan. 9 and discussed at a City Club event today, presented the coalition’s goals for reducing unsheltered homelessness and aligning short-term relief with long-term system change.

Lane County continues to register one of the highest homelessness rates per capita in the nation, with thousands of residents living unhoused. Organizers framed A.C.T. Now Lane as a cross-sector coalition meant to link immediate services with policy and institutional reforms. The steering committee emphasized three priorities: broadening participation to include nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, educators, neighborhood groups and people with lived experience of homelessness; reducing the number of individuals living unhoused and unsheltered; and rallying around shared strategies that address both urgent needs and systemic causes so homelessness becomes rare, brief and nonrecurring.

Speakers at the forum included Larissa Ennis, who serves as Homes for Good Board Chair and is senior manager of development and communications at Food for Lane County; Brittany Quick-Warner, president and CEO of the Eugene Chamber; and Karen Saxe, policy and advocacy lead for DevNW. The program will be livestreamed and broadcast on KLCC 89.7 FM, giving residents a chance to hear specifics and follow the coalition’s next steps.

The coalition’s approach carries immediate institutional implications. By convening housing providers, business leaders and local government actors, A.C.T. Now Lane aims to reduce fragmentation that can hinder shelter capacity, coordinated outreach, and the placement and retention of people in housing. If the coalition succeeds in producing shared strategies, those recommendations could inform county budget priorities, city-level land use decisions, and competitive grant applications for state and federal housing funds.

For voters and civic groups, the coalition presents both an organizing opportunity and a point of scrutiny. Cross-sector initiatives can drive practical coordination, but their impact on affordable housing production, eviction prevention and shelter siting will depend on measurable commitments from public agencies and funding decisions from elected bodies. Tracking the coalition’s proposals ahead of local budget cycles and ballot measures will give residents clearer evidence to evaluate policy tradeoffs.

The takeaway? Pay attention to the broadcast and upcoming meetings, note which agencies and elected officials back specific commitments, and hold those actors to measurable timelines. Our two cents? Show up, listen to the KLCC airing, and press for clear milestones so coalition talk turns into accountable action.