The Salvation Army has relocated its Lane County base of operations from Eugene to North Springfield.
The new location is housed in the old Northwood Christian Church building, located across the street from Elizabeth Page Elementary School.
The location will primarily serve as a church and center for youth programming. It will also provide mobile outreach, delivering groceries and essential food items around the area.
Carlos Souza is the South Willamette Valley Corps Ministry Director and will be the pastor at the new center.
He said he received emails and heard rumours from Springfield residents concerned about the new center and its potential to attract homeless people to the area.
“Basically, in a nice and not in a nice way, they were circulating that it's not appropriate to have a Salvation Army across from a school,” he said.
After receiving guidance from his supervisors, Souza decided to send a letter and put out flyers about the center and its purpose around the neighborhood.
“I am writing to kindly address and clarify some inaccurate information that was recently circulated anonymously about the services we will be offering at our new facility,” Souza wrote in the letter. “For the safety and well-being of the children and families we serve, we cannot and will not mix homeless services with youth programming at this building.”
Souza said the center was never intended to offer shelter, rehabilitation or any other services for homeless people, especially given its location near a school and residential area.
Souza said he even turned down a local organization’s request to use the Salvation Army’s location as a temporary homeless center in the winter.
“I said, ‘Unfortunately, this wouldn't work here. That's not something that we would allow.’”
Souza emphasized that the mobile outreach will support the homeless population, as well as homebound seniors or handicapped individuals, but will not bring homeless people to the location itself.
If a homeless person were to look for help at the center, he said, they would be told to seek assistance elsewhere.
“We probably would say we could meet that person in other areas where they are hanging around, not in that location. Kindly, in love, will have to redirect them to the proper place,” Souza said. “People learn pretty quick, if one or two showed up. They normally spread the news among themselves.”
Souza and The Salvation Army still want to ease the concerns of local residents, and encourage anyone with concerns to join them at a public meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at 2425 Harvest Lane, the site of the new facility.
“The meeting is to give an opportunity for people to come if they didn't get our flyers,” he said. “We can talk more and give them the opportunity to question. We're not afraid; we're not worried about it. We just want to make sure that we can contribute to the community there to (put them) at ease.”
