I think it's pretty clear that adding a homeless shelter will increase our homeless population by attracting more homeless, just as our abundant free meals, laundry, clothes and park camping have already done. The real question is how we manage to house people who need shelter and have no means of obtaining it without bringing ever more bums to town to drink, shoot up and defecate in our parks. 

Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but I think it can be done. Of course we will need to make a serious financial commitment (perhaps foregoing a city hall for a decade and charging city staff for parking), but if we fund several hundred shelter beds and simultaneously provide substance abuse treatment, job training and enforce our laws (yes, jail beds), we might just make Eugene inhospitable for bums while housing those in need who aren't predators or parasites.

Unfortunately, our clown car city council seems determined to add a tiny shelter in an already dense homeless area. Failure guaranteed.