The Dusk to Dawn program, which provides overnight shelter for homeless people in Eugene, had only a 192-person capacity at the beginning of the year. In a joint effort, Eugene, Lane County and St. Vincent de Paul recently expanded the site to accommodate its 50-person wait list.
St. Vincent de Paul, who operates the site, added four new military-style tents and opened them to guests on February 17, according to Roxann O’Brien, St. Vincent de Paul’s director of homeless emergency services. She said the city and county shared the $199,223 cost for 64 new beds, propane heaters for the tents and one to two more staff members per night for seven days a week, as well as 256 carts on wheels that guests can use as secure storage units for their belongings.
The Dusk to Dawn site is walking distance from St. Vincent de Paul’s Eugene Service Station, which offers day shelter, food, clothing, laundry, showers, telephones, computer access and other services, its website states.
Since it was established in 2015, the Dusk to Dawn program has gone through several different iterations. Dale Newton, who has stayed at the shelter for years, said one of its best improvements is how closely the staff works with guests to offer other services now.
“There are more resources opening up their doors to help more people that are homeless,” Newton said. “If you just put yourself out forward and ask them about them, they usually can hook you up pretty quick with different programs.”
Michelle Jones, who started staying at the shelter last year, said, “They get you into housing, they’re really good about that. Even if you only got one income, they’ll double up on people so they can afford housing. It’s a pretty good deal.”
Brittany Clark, an intake worker for the Service Station and Dusk to Dawn, said that if guests earn a stable income, case managers from the Service Station work with them to find out what criteria they might meet for housing that they can afford. “We have a program called barrier busters as well,” she said, “which is a program that we pay all of their move-in costs.” O’Brien said Barrier Busters is a Lane County program that St. Vincent de Paul uses to help its homeless clients.
O’Brien said within the past twelve months, the Dusk to Dawn program housed 100 guests, which she credited to trusted relationships with landlords and “creative housing situations,” such as pairing up guests that get along well and could be fitting roommates.
The Service Station also offers a renter’s education program, she said, which has eight different classes that help prepare guests for future housing. The program teaches how to be a good renter, follow landlord-tenant laws, manage money and cook nutritious meals, she said.
One instance that O’Brien said stuck with her was a Dusk to Dawn guest that entered the program when they first received funding for case management and rental assistance. He told staff that he was dying of cancer and his hope was that he wouldn’t die on the streets, she said, and when they told him they had the money to get him into housing, he had just spent a week in the hospital.
O’Brien said the guest was thrilled and asked St. Vincent de Paul staff to play “Happy” by Pharrell Williams on the TV. “He said, ‘Cue it up, because I’m going to come down and dance to that song,’” O’Brien said.
She also recalled a family of five adults who joined Dusk to Dawn after losing their housing, and within a week each of them had full-time jobs and staff helped get them into housing. “Really, we haven’t had much contact since because they’ve stably housed ever since,” she said.
O’Brien said that Dusk to Dawn staff are upfront with landlords about guests who have drug and alcohol issues. Lane Community College donated two 2,500-foot modular units that are being added to the site, where she says Willamette Family Treatment will provide services that include alcohol treatment, crisis management, peer support and transfer to appointments.
“They actually make it comfortable,” Newton said. “They’re strong, but they’re also lenient a little bit.”
Lane County Commissioner for North Eugene, Pat Farr, described Dusk to Dawn as “a relatively low-barrier shelter” in its tolerance of substance use, which he said may have been a factor in why there was a long wait list.
“While Dusk to Dawn does not allow people to be using, they don’t turn away people who have used, whereas some programs require people to be clean and dry and sober,” he said. “There are people on the street who, quite frankly, are not clean and sober, who need to place sleep.”
Farr, who has been working on housing and homeless issues since 1995, said he thinks there has always been a demand for housing but escalating rental costs and diminishing supply are “exacerbating the issue.”
“There are more people who need housing, there’s less housing, and consequently we have people who have historically not been without a house who need a place to sleep,” he said. “And and if you visit our centers, whether it be Dusk to Dawn or Community Supported Shelters, you’ll find people get up in the morning, go to school or work. They don’t get up in the morning and hang out. Now some people do, but it’s a broad mix of people we’ve never seen before.”
The Dusk to Dawn shelter is open from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and anybody interested in signing up to stay there may do so at the Eugene Service station, which is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and located at 450 Highway 99. Both are open seven days a week.
