05/05/2026
As someone who cares deeply about the future of Roseburg, I cannot stay silent about one of the biggest failures facing our community:
HOMELESSNESS.
This is not just a downtown inconvenience.
This is not just a political talking point.
This is a humanitarian crisis happening in our own backyard.
Roseburg is a city of only about 23,000 people, yet Douglas County’s latest homeless tallies still show more than 260 of our neighbors without stable housing, and local agencies openly admit these counts miss many people living in vehicles, hidden camps, temporary couches, and unsafe situations.
That means the suffering is larger than what we officially count.
Across Oregon, homelessness has now climbed to 27,119 people, with nearly 61% living unsheltered — outside, in tents, under tarps, or in vehicles.
This crisis did not happen overnight.
It happened because leadership across this state — and too often locally — has accepted band-aids instead of solutions.
People are working and still cannot afford rent.
Seniors are being priced out after decades in their homes.
Families are one medical bill or one lost paycheck away from sleeping in their cars.
People needing mental health treatment are being left to survive on sidewalks instead of getting care.
And every year we hear the same speeches.
More committees.
More studies.
More promises.
But not enough action.
As mayor, I believe Roseburg must stop treating homelessness as something to hide and start treating it as something to solve.
That means:
• Expanding real affordable housing opportunities, not waiting for developers to build only what profits them.
• Creating accountability for vacant livable properties while local families have nowhere to go.
• Building stronger partnerships with county and nonprofit agencies for emergency shelter, transitional housing, and job placement.
• Investing in addiction recovery and mental health outreach before people spiral beyond help.
• Creating prevention programs that keep struggling residents housed before they become homeless.
• Demanding transparency on where homelessness funds go and what measurable results taxpayers are actually getting.
Because moving people from one sidewalk to another is not a solution.
Ignoring tents until election season is not leadership.
And pretending this problem belongs to someone else is exactly how communities decline.
Roseburg is a hardworking town.
We are compassionate people.
We take care of our own.
But compassion without action changes nothing.
I am not interested in speeches that make us feel better.
I am interested in policies that get people off the streets, back into stability, and restore safety and dignity for everyone in this city.
Roseburg deserves leadership that confronts problems — not leadership that keeps walking past them.
Yes the "homeless commission" has had a couple meetings one of which was today, but we still dont have solutions that we should have had years ago before it became what it is now. Another example of instead of proactive we have been reactive and it has become a burden for the rest of the community to clean up and lets call it as it is multiple eye sores across the city.
If you agree that enough is enough, share this post.
