Is Roseburg OR a good place to raise a family, 2020?

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

OP mentioned interest in both Roseburg and Eugene in the body of the post.

Okay, thanks. I though I had read it, but I guess I missed that part.

As to getting away from the homeless, there is one solution and one solution only. Leave the United States. There are a few countries in the world that have effectively dealt with the homeless problem, but the US is not one of them. The homeless problem was deliberately created here 40 years ago. Politics has only made the situation worse, and there is no indication that will change anytime in the near future. If you think it's bad now, just wait until the dust from current situations settles. It's going to be a whole lot worse, everywhere.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Willamette City

1. Climate is probably similar to NM. It's typically pretty arid and It gets very warm in summer, temps probably average 85 to 90 degrees, with many days reaching 100 or more.

I don't think this is going to be the impression of a New Mexican going to Roseburg....but I can see how someone from Eugene might think that.

[Larry Caldwell]

In the near future, expect the homeless problem to get much worse. Nationally, a quarter of a million unsheltered homeless has been a serious social problem. By this time next year, after the eviction moratorium lapses, we'll be looking at 10x that many.

If you want to minimize the homeless problem, stay away from freeways. Roseburg and Eugene are both on I-5. Small towns off the freeway, like Riddle or Glide, have fewer homeless because they are not convenient to foot traffic. Small towns also don't provide shelters and meals like larger towns, so the homeless hang close to larger towns.

[SlideRules99]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Okay, thanks. I though I had read it, but I guess I missed that part.

As to getting away from the homeless, there is one solution and one solution only. Leave the United States. There are a few countries in the world that have effectively dealt with the homeless problem, but the US is not one of them. The homeless problem was deliberately created here 40 years ago. Politics has only made the situation worse, and there is no indication that will change anytime in the near future. If you think it's bad now, just wait until the dust from current situations settles. It's going to be a whole lot worse, everywhere.

As with any social problem, there are degrees to which homelessness presents itself as a visible issue across various cities and states. There are massive regional differences in the magnitude of the problem. That can be helpful data for anyone concerned with homelessness who is looking to relocate within the U.S., such as OP.

Setting the policy debate aside, here’s a good breakdown of homelessness by state/city, both in raw #s and per capita. The article is about a year old.

https://www.security.org/resources/homeless-statistics/

So if OP is concerned about homelessness, moving from ABQ (ranked #24 per capita) to EUG (ranked #1 worst per capita) may not be the best move. Roseburg is too small to make the list, but OR in general ranked 4th worst in the U.S. per capita.

My real world experience in traveling to many of these cities/states is consistent with what the data shows. YMMV.

Edit: For the record, I believe the #s in the report are understated due to limitations in the PIT data collection. However, the regional differences and trends likely hold merit.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

In the near future, expect the homeless problem to get much worse. Nationally, a quarter of a million unsheltered homeless has been a serious social problem. By this time next year, after the eviction moratorium lapses, we'll be looking at 10x that many.

If you want to minimize the homeless problem, stay away from freeways. Roseburg and Eugene are both on I-5. Small towns off the freeway, like Riddle or Glide, have fewer homeless because they are not convenient to foot traffic. Small towns also don't provide shelters and meals like larger towns, so the homeless hang close to larger towns.

If there are no shelters, no meals, no bridges, and few food pantries - if any - they can't survive.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Gerania

If there are no shelters, no meals, no bridges, and few food pantries - if any - they can't survive.

There is a reason, for example, why large swaths of suburban Texas have basically no public spaces. It's all HOA-managed private green spaces within subdivisions and such. Or else schools and school fields. And access to everything basically requires a car so even if you found some hidden green space in one of those subdivisions where you could pitch a tent and hide-out you probably have a 5 mile hike across 10-lane freeways in 110 degree heat to get to the nearest mini-mart or liquor store. Something you can hardly even do on a bike if you managed to steal one.

They have figured out how to zone homelessness (and poor people) out of existence.

[ocoilslick]

There have always been bums down by the river in certain places in Roseburg. Now you can spot some of their favorite places through careful use of google maps/earth. I have heard it is only certain areas, which you of course would want to avoid. Now the bums are meth/alcohol abusers, just like everywhere else. Main difference between NM and Roseburg is going to be that Roseburg is not an urban sprawl zoo, and the tweaker bums in Roseburg are afraid of the local rowdies.

[2Z4]

Eugene - college town, with some business/industry.



Roseburg - logging/farming town, not much industry.



Both towns have drugs and crime. Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Heroin, Crack, etc. were legalized in Oregon in November. Marijuana was already legal. Eugene (Lane County) has limited law enforcement resources/prosecutorial resources to control crime. Roseburg (Douglas County) is a little bit better in terms of controlling things. Eugene has a big "defund the police" movement, Roseburg does not...yet.



Schools are fine in both areas. I would not worry about either location.



Housing - about even. In Roseburg the nicer, safer stuff is outside town. Unfortunately prices skyrocketed when big California money came in about 10 years ago. And all the weed farmers who run pot to the midwest buy up all the decent sized property that comes up for sale. If you're fine with "in town", there aren't any really good deals either city...but it's not as bad as some other metro areas in Oregon.



Homelessness - break even. Roseburg might be slightly behind Eugene, but will catch up. Several years ago during the fires I was down there and hadn't been to Roseburg in a while. I was shocked at the homeless element that had emerged. It looked about like any NorCal town on I-5.



Racism - you can find it anywhere I guess. But neither of these towns is "racist." The stuff you're seeing is heavily promoted by people who want to find jobs working for Oregon governments as racial grievance specialists. There's big money in that up here. I've spent time in both towns with friends of other races - never had a problem or a sideways look. Roseburg is "whiter" than Eugene, but that's at least partially because Eugene is a larger (and college) town.



If you want somewhere kind of "small town" but not out in the middle of nowhere with decent schools and OK housing prices I'd also look at Junction City, Springfield and Sutherlin.



If you are ok with thunderdome in order to find a broader range of housing prices - anywhere in Josephine County (Grants Pass, Cave Junction). But hope you're comfortable with firearms.

[PODCOA]

Roseburg is a great town ~ I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Eugene

[Kid Ashbury]

Roseburg picked up the nickname Roseburglary years ago for their excessive amounts of low level property crime, much of it drug and homeless related. If crime and homelessness is what you're fleeing, you're heading to the wrong place. It's like someone in Las Vegas saying "the heat is too much here, so we're moving to Phoenix"