Eugene Elected Officials The mayor serves as the City’s political head and chairperson of the council. She is elected by the City at large on a nonpartisan ballot for a four-year term. The mayor is the formal representative of the City. She presides over City Council meetings but has no vote except in the case of a tie. The City Council, Eugene’s legislative body, has eight members and is responsible for passing laws, setting community goals, adopting policy and deciding which services the City will provide. Councilors are elected on a nonpartisan ballot for four-year terms. One councilor is elected from each of eight wards with one-half of the council elected every two years. Don’t know who represents you? Find your ward.
Eugene’s Office of Human Rights & Neighborhood Involvement The Office of Human Rights & Neighborhood Involvement contributes to the building of healthy, equitable and prosperous neighborhoods by working with the formally recognized neighborhood associations, the City organization and the broader community. We encourage all members of our community to be actively engaged in civic affairs with a primary focus on providing resources and support to organize and maintain a system of City recognized neighborhood associations.
Eugene Police Department — The mission of the Eugene Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in our city by providing quality police services. We work in partnership with the community to promote safety and security, enforce laws, prevent crime, and safeguard the constitutional rights of all people. Tel. 541-682-5111.
Human Rights Commission The City of Eugene is proud to be a member of the Equity and Community Consortium (ECC) involving 11 organizations within the Eugene / Springfield Metro Area. You can learn about the ECC’s goals and mission in the Memorandum of Understanding: Equity and Community Consortium. The City of Eugene Human Rights Commission believes each individual has inherent worth and is valuable to our community. Housing is a human right and the commission and others are working hard to address this complex issue.
Lane County Board of Commissioners The Board of County Commissioners legislates and administers County government within the limits of its authority granted in the Lane County Home Rule Charter. The charter grants legislative and administrative power to the full-time, paid five-person board. Individually, board members may seek to address the needs of constituents and carry out special assignments as the full Board may direct.
Lane County Poverty and Homelessness Board (PHB) The Poverty and Homeless Board (PHB) is an action oriented group of elected officials, community stakeholders, and individuals who represent low-income and homeless people’s concerns. The purpose of the PHB is to create innovative partnerships and programs that use best practices to reduce poverty and homelessness in Lane County. The PHB will work to generate resources, community and legislative support for housing and services to achieve its goals.
A clear focus will be placed on serving the most vulnerable, including the chronically poor and homeless, people with disabilities, children and youth, and veterans. The PHB pulls together a diverse group of advocates on the issue of homeless to find solutions.
Lane County Health and Human Services Lane County HHS helps the most vulnerable in our community by providing programming in areas of children and youth development, basic needs and housing services, as well as cultural and linguistic accessibility. During calendar year 2013, we assisted 44,541 people of all ages through our poverty and homeless programs and an additional 26,430 individuals through energy assistance services. Anti-poverty services include:
- Community Service Centers with four locations in Eugene, Springfield, South and West Lane County
- Emergency basic needs assistance
- Homelessness prevention services
- Energy assistance
- Linkage to mainstream benefits and resources for low income households.
- Homeless Access Centers for homeless families, homeless single adults, homeless youth, and domestic violence survivors
- Emergency basic needs assistance
- Rapid rehousing
- Linkage to mainstream benefits and resources for homeless households.
- Emergency shelter
- Transitional housing
- Permanent supportive housing programs with support services for people with disabilities.
- Emergency Shelter during extreme weather shelter from November to March to accommodate the need for additional emergency shelter when temperatures drop below 30 degrees.
- Emergency shelter and family reconciliation services for runaway and homeless youth ages 17 & under.
- Domestic violence emergency shelter and advocacy services.
- Rapid re-housing rental assistance at Homeless Access Centers.
- Homeless prevention rental assistance at Community Services Centers.