For decades, local shelters and warming centers have helped Eugene residents who are down on their luck. With the recent economic downturn, local organizations have seen an increasing number of people and families in need.
These days, occupants could be store managers or college graduates. They have skills, salaries and higher education degrees, but they need help — and shelters such as Eugene Mission give it to them.
“Some of the finest people in the world are at the Mission,” Assistant Director Ron Metcalf said. “They have good attitudes, are respectful and appreciative.”
With temperatures beginning to drop for winter, homeless shelters around Lane County, such as the Mission, have been working hard to keep everyone safe, and most importantly during the winter months, warm.
Metcalf said that although most centers were prepared for moderate cold in the wintertime, extreme weather brought more people to the shelter.
Metcalf said an average night at the Mission hosts about 175 to 185 occupants. On very cold nights, the Mission doesn’t worry about over-occupancy: The building has an almost unlimited capacity and has never had to turn people away.
“We always have a few more beds than we need, and ample space for any overflow,”
Metcalf said.
On Christmas Eve, ShelterCare celebrated its 40th year of service to the Eugene community — and for its birthday, it got more applications.
“We have seen more applications” recently, said Lucy Vinis, senior development associate for ShelterCare. She said because ShelterCare’s residents seek out help “because they have lost their houses,” recent increases in foreclosures have led to an increase in demand for services.
Vinis said that in 2009, ShelterCare served 250 more individuals than in 2008, reflecting the increase in need due to the economic downturn.
ShelterCare serves three different populations: emergency care for families with children, acute crisis programs, and longer term shelter programs for adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses who need to live in a supportive housing situation.
“We are not the same as the Egan Warming Center,” Vinis said. “Unlike shelters that simply serve the needs of those who are cold and hungry, and need immediate services, we have more long-term goals.”
The four Egan Memorial Warming Centers throughout the city— administered by St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County— are open to all Eugene citizens between Nov. 15 and March 31 each winter, when temperatures can drop below 28 degrees.
The centers are meant to warm up residents whose houses aren’t warm enough to sleep in overnight — but Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy said in mid-December that an estimated 200 of the 371 people who had stayed one or more nights at the centers were homeless. So far this season, the centers were at their most populated in the first week of December, when temperatures dropped down to the single digits.
Though the nation and Eugene itself is in the middle of an economic trough, Metcalf said Eugene’s shelters have the ability to make it through. Over the years, Eugene Mission and other shelters like it have changed and adapted to the nation’s current crises. Metcalf pointed to the years of the Vietnam War, when a surge of young men sought shelter, and to the 1970s, a decade when drugs played a great role in the community. But through it all, Metcalf has seen a lot of growth and development.
“The Mission has provided an excellent center for the homeless people in the community, so they can find the services they need, and we can provide answers and hope,” Metcalf said.
[email protected]