LANE COUNTY — The St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County (SVdP) faced significant challenges this winter with the Egan Warming Centers program, which offers emergency overnight shelter for unhoused individuals when temperatures drop below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Recently, the program completed an intensive 12-night activation, providing shelter for over 1,100 clients. Staff and volunteers completed over 400 loads of laundry so that guests had clean clothes and linens.
Though this activation wasn’t the longest on record, the team encountered unique challenges due to high demand and fewer available sites compared to previous years.
This winter, SVdP introduced a new modular tent shelter from Deployed Logix and opened The Zone along Highway 99. This new site, next to the Eugene Service Station, gives easier access to day services for unhoused clients.
“This season presented unique challenges,” says SVdP Director of Operations Bill Barnard.
“We knew we had to operate with a 50-percent reduction in funding while also taking on two completely new sites that we had never operated on before — The Zone on Highway 99, and the new Mohawk site in Springfield.”
Additionally, for the first time, SVdP used a mobile food kitchen to provide meals at the Mohawk tent site, which lacks onsite food preparation facilities. The kitchen, recently upgraded, was acquired from another regional SVdP organization. Egan Warming Centers will continue to operate during freezing temperatures through at least the end of March.
