Homeless Problems, Compared: Coos Bay Vs. North Bend
Coos Bay is much better positioned to tackle the problem. The main reason for this is that Coos Bay simply has more territory in which they can allow homeless people to camp, since the town has more commercial and industrial areas than North Bend. This means homeless can be allowed to camp in more places without being located close to residential areas. For example, the industrial area near the Coos Bay DMV isn’t within eyeshot of very many homes.
The city of North Bend is a different story. North Bend has very few areas that are both publically-owned, and located away from residential areas. Thus, absent some other solutions entering discussion, there will have to be some kind of trade-off to be made. North Bend will likely have to incur a rather large expense to purchase a location, or the city will have to allocate an area for the homeless that is close to peoples’ homes.
