Top: New Egan Warming Center site at SVdP’s “The Zone,” 530 Hwy. 99 N in Eugene. Bottom: Guests and volunteers during previous Egan activations.
St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County (SVdP) staff who oversee the agency’s Egan Warming Centers program are preparing for the upcoming winter season with new challenges to overcome following a 50-percent reduction in the program’s funding. Egan is one program among many affected by a state directive to reduce spending for shelter sites. SVdP, which also manages Eugene’s largest low-barrier shelter programs, already has reduced case-management staff within these shelters to comply with the new budget reductions.
As a result of losing half of its previously designated budget for Egan Warming Centers, SVdP must pivot to continue providing emergency shelter when overnight temperatures begin to drop. Current plans call for the agency to operate just two shelters this season. The newly opened “The Zone” shelter, on former retail property purchased and renovated by SVdP, is located at 530 Hwy. 99 N just north of the Eugene Service Station. And in Springfield, Egan will operate from a modular tent shelter located in the parking lot of the former WareMart at the corner of Mohawk and Centennial boulevards. Each shelter has the capacity to shelter 100 guests.
Lane Transit District has committed to providing free transportation to and from both shelters as it has in years past. SVdP Director of Operations Bill Barnard says the agency is committed to protecting the community’s most vulnerable neighbors despite the budget strain.
“Egan Warming Center is the last stop for so many with nowhere else to go,” Barnard says. “This is life or death, and we refuse to lose sight of what that means for those folks in the community without shelter on the coldest nights. SVdP takes this responsibility seriously and continues to do all that we can with very limited resources.”
Right now, the agency is requesting community support to help Egan Warming Centers run effectively despite the funding cuts. It is calling for donations of material goods like winter clothes, socks and boots, as well as monetary donations to help with the purchase of food and other necessary items. Egan is also hosting a series of new volunteer orientations through November and December for those interested in serving at one of the two shelters this season. Anyone interested is encouraged to learn more about how to support Egan — whether through donations or as a volunteer — by visiting eganwarmingcenters.org.
More Egan Warming Centers background
The operational season for Egan Warming Centers formally begins Nov. 15 and ends March 31. Managers of the emergency shelter program monitor multiple weather-forecasting systems and activate warming sites in Eugene and Springfield whenever average overnight temperatures are projected to dip below 30 degrees F. During an activation, teams of trained volunteers open each warming site in the evening and operate it through morning. They provide guests with sleeping pads and blankets, warm drinks and meals, heartwarming hospitality, basic first aid and more — inside heated sites offering protection from the dangerous conditions outside.
The program is named for Major Thomas Egan, an unhoused U.S. Army veteran who froze to death in Eugene while sleeping on the ground outside during a 2008 cold spell. Organized in 2009 to ensure that the tragic end of Egan’s life story is never repeated for other unhoused individuals, the warming centers receive funding from Lane County and support from a coalition of community members, faith and activist communities, local government, nonprofit agencies and service providers.