Gov. Tina Kotek released her recommended budget for the 2025 to 2027 fiscal year on Dec. 18, 2024, which considers eliminating state funding for the Benefits Navigator Program across the state of Oregon.

In Kotek’s recommended budget, there was no explicit amount allocated for the Benefits Navigator program compared to the previous fiscal year. 

In 2021, the Oregon legislature passed the Benefits Navigator Program which provides $4.99 million in state funding for the salaries of benefits navigators at all of Oregon’s public community colleges and universities. 

These navigators lessen the burden of locating and utilizing the resources available for students who are already marginalized by issues such as food and housing insecurity or the cost of childcare and textbooks, according to Jimmy Howard, University of Oregon dean of students. 

According to Howard and UO student and Campaign Strategist for Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, Alex Aghdaei, these navigators make basic needs programs more accessible and “work with students to help access federal and state benefits,” Howard said. 

UO currently has three benefits navigators. One of them, Julia Morrill, the director of basic needs in the Office of the Dean of Students, is funded by the state. The other two, Madeline Hagar and Nick Dikas, “are paid for by ASUO funds,” according to Fiona Sherwood, ASUO’s director of basic needs.

ASUO has allocated $1.2 million in student fee funding to support the Basic Needs Program, according to Sherwood.

According to Howard, this money is used for programs that support childcare and textbook subsidies, emergency housing resources, the off-campus food pantry, and tabling events for state programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

Even with all of these resources, at UO there are still “thousands of students that are denied their applications (for these programs) every year,” Aghdaei said. 

Howard emphasized the “overwhelming” need for basic needs resources at an event hosted by the Basic Needs program in January.

“We had an overflow, like so many students that they (the SNAP representatives) couldn’t get to everyone … it’s just an overwhelming need there,” Howard said.  

According to the Basic Needs Data Dashboard, “6,470 students were served by basic needs programs from 2022-2024.”

Following Kotek’s proposal, organizations such as PHFO responded to the governor’s proposed funding for basic needs programs by introducing the Student Basic Needs and Workforce Stabilization Act.

This act will have four major components split into two separate bills. The first bill, House Bill 3182, will focus directly on providing programmatic budgets for benefits navigators, including a $6.2 million grant for rent assistance programs for students. 

The second bill, House Bill 3183, is dedicated to textbook subsidies and more specifically updating the Open Educational Resources Program’s budget that “has not had a significant increase in its budget since 2021,” according to previous years’ recommended governor budget. HB 3183 would allocate $4.5 million from the Oregon General Fund to the Open Educational Resources Program.

HB 3182 and HB 3183 address funding for benefits navigators, affordable housing, and textbook affordability and underwent a hearing on Feb. 27 that had people testify to the legislature and show support for these bills. 

42 people testified in support of HB 3183 during its public hearing. One of the people who testified was UO freshman Spencer Pool, who said he lives at home in Eugene and “would have considered other options (schools) but due to housing costs, my choices were limited.”

The bills underwent a work session in the House Committee on Higher Education on March 13. Should the committee approve of the bills, they will then be referred to the Joint Committee On Ways and Means, only after that may they be voted on by the legislature before possible implementation.