As Eugene faces a record-breaking heatwave, a volunteer group is trying to help unhoused people stay cool.
Black Thistle Street Aid provides mobile medical services in the Eugene-Springfield area. It's now delivering water, frozen drinks, sunscreen and other supplies to homeless people facing excessive heat.
Co-director Bridgette Butler said some in the unhoused community were unaware that the heatwave was coming. She said volunteers have been working non-stop since last Wednesday, searching for people who need help.
"As we see people struggling in the sun, we'll pull over and give them what we have," she said.
According to Butler, recent sweeps of Eugene’s encampments have made this work more difficult, by scattering the city’s homeless population. She said many unhoused people have moved to obscure locations.
“Sometimes people reach out to us, and we’ll meet them at a parking lot to give them water, to bring up to their buddies at some other spot that they don’t want us to know, and that’s fine," she said. "We just try to meet people wherever they are.”
Butler said she’s grateful for the support of Lane County, the Burrito Brigade and PeaceHealth's social workers. She said her group has also received a large number of individual donations at drop-off sites across the city.
Butler said to help out further, the public can stock their local food pantries and community refrigerators, or volunteer their hoses and spigots to homeless people looking to cool off.
"There's just so many ways to have compassion and community," said Butler. "It doesn't take much money, and it really doesn't take much out of our day to care for each other."
On Tuesday, Eugene experienced a high of 106 F, according to the National Weather Service. It was the fifth day in a row of temperatures in the triple-digits. Temperatures are expected to cool slightly Wednesday, but will still be in the 90s.
Lane County Public Health spokesperson Del Borden told KLCC Tuesday that he wasn't aware of any heat-related deaths in the county so far during these record-breaking temperatures.
