White Bird Clinic is bringing portable mobile charging stations to homeless encampments in 2025.
Representatives from White Bird Clinic and Wrico Generators met in October to discuss the engineering, funding and possible locations for charging stations.
White Bird Clinic, whose website states their mission to be helping people “gain control of their social, emotional, and physical wellbeing,” was convened with Wrico Generators through Sarah Koski, homelessness and community resource liaison for Lane Transit District.
“Our ability to go out and engage folks in camps, getting them connected to mainstream service is really critical in terms of access,” Mike Yoshioka, director of programs at White Bird, said. “Having this device will allow us to further that vision and values of bringing services to folks so we can have a better impact on them.”
The program is currently in the works as no prototypes have been built, but there are concepts of what the charging stations would look like.
Hogon Mulgrave, president of Wrico Generators, envisions charging stations equipped with a portable generator capable of storing 10 hours of battery life. Mulgrave said generators must be light enough for bike transport and recurring replacement when power runs out.
Mulgrave said he is waiting for leadership from White Bird to dictate what direction to drive the program in. Funding sources have yet to be established.
“We have a concept now and the concept is simple,” Mulgrave said. “But there needs to be a call for action to all the stakeholders in the city and the county.”
White Bird is contracted with the city of Eugene and the fire department for their nationally acclaimed Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets program, or CAHOOTS. For White Bird to get funding from the city, City Councilor Lyndsie Leech said they may consider negotiating their contract to include the charging stations to get funding.
“Right now we are just exploring it and trying to figure out the cost point for that asset. Then once we have it we’ll probably go and look at our community donors to sponsor that,” Yoshioka said.
An issue in the homeless community has been and continues to be finding viable ways to charge phones. Phones for unhoused people represent autonomy and connection to the world. Without phones, those individuals may risk missing health appointments and other vital, potentially life-saving resources.
“It can be stressful,” Jim, a man experiencing homelessness who also goes by the name Cowboy, said. “The people I talk to worry about me and I am not able to connect with some people to make money. I miss appointments because I don’t have something to keep time with.”
Jim reflected on encampment sweeps and phones’ essential role in communication between other unhoused campers. When a sweep is underway, phones leverage communication with others affected to keep their belongings that would otherwise be stored or thrown away by city workers.
Yoshioka said outreach workers at White Bird communicate with the city, county and property owners to locate and assess the needs of each encampment.
Leadership at White Bird announced the closure of its Front Rooms department on Nov. 21. However, Yoshioka said the charging stations program will not be affected by the closure.
“We’re really trying to insulate other services as much as we can,” Yoshioka said. “We want to keep striving to be the best we can and striving for excellence in terms of service delivery.”
