All Human Rights Cities have issues that they are addressing.
One that all are struggling with is the increasing numbers of homeless people who have nowhere to call home.
Eugene and Lane County Oregon are slowly working on the needs of their homeless. This page includes some links to information describing their work and the work of others to apply human rights standards to housing needs.
Here is a widget that shows a Project Homeless Connect for Lane County Yearbook.
To quote from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“Article 25....
1.Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control....”
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National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty:
http://www.nlchp.org/program.cfm?prog=1
Link to Lane County’s One Night Homeless Count: http://www.co.lane.or.us/Media/News/Pages/HumanServicesCommissionReleases2010OneNightHomelessCountNumbers.aspx
Link to latest Lane County’s Project Homeless Connect data: http://www.homelessconnect.org/Documents/2010/PHC%202010%20Final%20Report.v2.pdf
Videos of Lane County’s Project Homeless Connect efforts:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-FnmzdUyVuc
http://www.homelessconnect.org/video/ProjectHomeless-Group.wmv
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NlivRNR9H2M
Homelessness and Human Rights (Australian Human Rights Commission):
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/housing/homelessness_2008.html
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A Local Eugene Organization has been fighting for decades to secure the human rights of those within the mental health system.
MindFreedom International is located in Eugene, and is devoted to protecting the human rights of those struggling within the mental health system. Below, David Oaks director of MindFreedom International, first speaks about the need for human rights action to defend mental health consumers, and then speaks about his organization's "Shield" program, where mental health survivors/consumers activate to help empower people who feel their human rights are being violated.