Property Owners: Open Your Doors

Considering the amount of empty real estate in this city, it is unexplainable that anyone sleeps on the street. Take the CenturyLink building on 10th and Oak that has been unused for years. Dozens of the unhoused could have a room of their own there. The apartment building I live in has several free units with no takers.  Who knows how many beds are open at 13th and Olive? Each empty storefront capable of sheltering a family ought to cause housed persons feelings of deep shame.

No one is making any money off of this empty real estate. With COVID-19 on the rise again, very few people are moving to new rentals or opening brick and mortar businesses. If property owners would muster an ounce of compassion or even just some old fashioned guilt — go meet a person living in a tent, open a door and offer a key — everyone who wants a roof and walls would have them. Kick the indigent out again in the spring if you can find a paying tenant.

Joanna Brook

Eugene