For three nights in a row, Egan Warming Centers in the Eugene/Springfield area have called on volunteers to help homeless people who need shelter on cold nights.
“We get a cold front and all of a sudden we are activated multiple days in a row, and it can be tiring and exhausting,” said volunteer Trevecca Winters.
The short list of available people is putting a strain on the consistent volunteers the Centers already have.
“I did it multiple days in a row, and I’m tired and I have to work the next morning,” said Winters. "Just remembering the core reason why we do it, it always brings me back.”
It all started in 2009 when a homeless man named Thomas Egan was found frozen to death. Since then, the mission has been to provide a warm place for people in need on a freezing night. But to make that happen, Tim Black, the Winter Strategies and Emergency Response Coordinator for Saint Vincent De Paul, says the Centers rely on the community to step up.
“[It's] the cheapest thing for taxpayers,” said Black. “Asking people to do the least amount of giving is also the most compassionate thing.”
Currently, the Centers activate when the temperature goes below 30 degrees.
“Even if we tweak that protocol to be 31, 32 degrees, it would double the number of nights we're open most years,” said Black. “It’s not sustainable because we already have these problems that we mention... do we have enough volunteers to do that?”
Black says, since the pandemic, the centers have gone from nine smaller locations to fewer, larger ones. As a result, Black says the centers have seen more behavioral issues.
As a social worker, Winters says she brings her work experience with her every night she volunteers.
“There’s always a dynamic when you’re combining people that tend to have higher rates of mental health diagnosis or substance use,” said Winters. “Sometimes I think, when you’re getting a large amount of people into a small space, those dynamics can come out in different ways for people.”
Experience is not necessary to volunteer. Training is provided, and there are multiple shifts, some of which don’t involve interacting with clients.
"For me, I feel that it absolutely saves lives being able to provide that and so I think it’s just really important to be able to do it and not have people die in the streets because it’s cold,” said Winters.
Egan Warming Centers will be open Wednesday night.
If you’d like to learn more about volunteering click here.