Berkley's Viewpoint in the Eugene Weekly

By Berkley Carnine 

Published in the Eugene Weekly, July 23, 2026 - This week I learned of a community member lost to suicide after seeking help. He n

eeded timely, attuned support that he or a loved one once could’ve called in. I felt a similar grief as when over the winter a veteran died by suicide in front of St. Vincent de Paul in Eugene after three years on a housing waitlist. 

As a CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) worker laid off in April 2025, I texted with my three other former CAHOOTS workers and co-founders of Willamette Valley Crisis Care (WVCC). The four of us reaffirmed our commitment. Michelle Perin, a co-founder who is also a veteran, wrote that this tragedy renewed her urgency to return a community responder program to Eugene. While community responders couldn’t have intervened if someone was armed, Perin questioned, how many earlier opportunities for connection and intervention had been missed before this final act of desperation? 

To one another we sent photos of our pets, the ocean where Perin was walking, and songs, one by another founder’s former partner, an Iraq veteran lost to suicide. We shared why we do this work: for beloveds lost to addiction, suicide or violence, for family members with mental health struggles, for ourselves as survivors and for our recovery; to help create a world where everyone’s basic needs and agency are respected. 

Perin wrote about her husband, a law enforcement officer who struggles finding himself responding to calls better suited for community responders. After tending to our grief, we turned it — once again — into action. Along with my WVCC co-founders, I’ve worked so hard to make these services available again — knowing how needed they are. Now we’re having to find a way forward without city support. 

This spring, Willamette Valley Crisis Care was put in a difficult position when the city of Eugene put out a request for proposals for a peer navigation contract that seemed to be an alternative response in name only. The contract expanded on a downtown peer navigation outreach program (Restored Connections drafted a program and constructed the proposal but was not selected for the pilot)) contracted to a national for-profit company that primarily provides medical assisted treatment. 

A spokesperson for the company reported not being set up to provide services such as welfare checks and public assists. Yet the city awarded this company the “alternative response” contract.

The city could’ve invested in a comprehensive, community responder program led by former CAHOOTS staff with a combined 50 years of direct service experience and clinical and operations leadership. 

For a similar cost, as the alt response contract that will essentially provide an additional homeless outreach program without funding more resources to connect people to, the city could be funding CROWS (Community Responders Offering Wellness and Safety), which would’ve provided 10 hours a day, seven days a week of community responder services, plus eight hours of aftercare in the form of peer support and case management. 

The city let us down, but can the community make a different choice? 

When our board of directors proposed hosting listening sessions to explore innovative funding for a CROWS pilot, we assessed what it would mean to divert appropriate calls from the overburdened 911 emergency response system. We ask what it means to ask our community, already stressed by the failing healthcare system, the rising cost of living, by ICE and climate disasters, to show up for their values of non-punitive care. We decided to let the community answer. This is a time requiring more imagination, more resource-sharing, and more ways of meeting peoples’ basic needs.

Our research partners at the University of Oregon have analyzed some of the impacts of the loss of community responder services. Additionally, the Eugene Police Department shared a 28 percent increase in calls for welfare checks, even though the UO analysis shows an overall decrease in people calling and some reports of this being due to not wanting a law enforcement response. In 2025, there was a 36 percent increase in arrests including a 58 percent increase in criminal trespass arrests. The majority of these calls could be handled by CROWS. 

The increase in arrests isn’t unique to Eugene. The impacts of recriminalization post the partial Measure 110 rollback has led to a jailing crisis in Oregon and to prioritizing law enforcement and or criminal justice system adjacent services instead of community based solutions. Yet, Eugene has a legacy of investing in a care-based response. For decades, people living here have expected to be able to call in a welfare check on a friend who posted a concerning comment and now isn’t answering his phone, or checking on someone who is struggling out in the cold or heat. 

Before we lose this ethos of care, we can bring community response back — before calling 911 — to rebuild trust with community and partner agencies, and see our city, once again, being a leader in the field of community-based public safety.

WVCC has received a “scaling safety” contract, funded by the Audacious Project, to accelerate a community-based public safety workforce in five cities. We’re preparing a summer Community Safety and Care Townhall and Skill-up series to share practices and shape community safety together. Meanwhile, we’re inviting everyone to join us in creating a path to return a relationship-based service to meet the urgent needs now and build a safer and healthier community for all. The first listening session is 5:30 pm, Monday, July 27.

Register at WillametteValleyCrisisCare.org for details.