For more information about the Eugene Mission, go here.
Form more information about Egan Warming Centers, go here.
The following transcript was generated using automated transcription software for the accessibility and convenience of our audience. While we strive for accuracy, the automated process may introduce errors, omissions, or misinterpretations. This transcript is intended as a helpful companion to the original audio and should not be considered a verbatim record. For the most accurate representation, please refer to the audio recording.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. There are many words we can use to describe the situation in our community where so many people live unhoused, crisis, catastrophe, depressing, etc. Yet there are other words we could use that illustrate the frustration of having so many people living with homelessness in the richest nation on earth and in a community like ours that's so giving avoidable, preventable and unconscionable, just to name a few, today in the show, we're going to talk about homelessness from the perspective of two well-known community institutions that are key to the ultimate solution, the Egan Warming Centers, which provide lifesaving shelter from weather, and the Eugene Mission, which seeks to not just offer stabilization, but provide education and skills to help people place homelessness behind them, you'll hear what they're doing and how they see homelessness impacting our neighbors and family. December can be an extra cruel month for people in our community living without stable shelter. The cold and the wet aren't just uncomfortable, they can kill today on the show, we look in upon two institutions that are doing everything in their power to help those living unhoused during winter and the rest of the year. First, we talk with the Eugene mission, whose mission is to help people forever escape the clutches of homelessness. Sheryl Balthrop, who is the Executive Director of the Eugene mission, thanks so much for coming in and talking to us.
SHERYL BALTHROP: Thank you for having me. This is wonderful.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Why don't you tell our audience about your model, the rescue plus revitalize plus restore?
SHERYL BALTHROP: So, the R3 program for short, and thank you for describing the whole path off the street Okay, which is how you know what the name, where the name comes from. And it actually originated from planning pre covid, and then during covid, we were able to implement it in full and tinker with it. And the idea is to provide a cafeteria of options to guests, because we recognize that homelessness is a complex matter, and for some folks, there are social issues. For some folks, vocational for some folks, health issues, trauma, grief, etc. So, the R3 program allows folks to let us know what types of classes and activities might address some of those barriers. And then the name just describes the progress through which folks enter the mission in rescue to stabilize for 14 days, and then they choose one of our programs. And then the very last revitalizes the classwork skill building time period, and then the last piece crucial the restore period is making sure that folks are plugged back into a healthy community before they even leave the mission, so that they have mentors, etc.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, talk about some of those classes that you just described, because I think that's something that maybe a lot of folks don't understand about the Eugene mission. It's more than just a place to come when you're in crisis. Talk about the educational component.
SHERYL BALTHROP: Yeah, we have really moved beyond the three hots and the cot. I know traditionally, many people associate missions with kind of like the end of the road. And we would like people to see it as a place of beginning. And so the classes I, I would characterize it a lot like a community college or vocational training, etc., but expanding and they, they range from, you know, budgeting to, you know, just social type activities like walking, and we even have AX throwing and archery, et cetera, because we recognize that healthy recreation is also critical to folks being able to move back into an engaged lifestyle with others and not have some of the barriers that they had previously. You know, some of our folks that are struggling with substances, have not been able to engage in recreation without being impaired. So, this opens up a whole new world for many people.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, many people have described the condition of homelessness in our community as a crisis level. I want to get your point of view, both the bad and the good of how we're grappling with this, with this, with this challenge?
SHERYL BALTHROP: Yeah, so we are blessed. The Eugene Springfield area is extraordinarily generous financially and perhaps even more importantly, volunteer time. And so, I want to start with a very positive fact that we have people who are empathetic and absolutely committed to helping our brothers and sisters, our neighbors get off the streets and get plugged back in. And with that, you can do amazing things. This is not rocket science for most folks. It is a lot of rebuilding some of the areas in their lives, and then being able to, you know, is it, are there some financial matters? That is keeping them from returning home. Are there some grief issues or relational issues that so tremendous progress can be made, and I want to assure people that folks can be fully restored. We have many, many stories of that now. The Bad, the bad is sometimes some of that empathy is misplaced and we are actually making it harder for folks to take the steps they need, to leave the streets and to go into substance abuse treatment, to go and get to get away from predatory individuals, et cetera, because they put that off because to step into communal living, or into a highly structured environment when you've been living rough, so to speak, is, is requires tremendous courageousness. And sadly, many of them, many of some of the well-intentioned type approaches where people are handing out socks or food, etc. That might have been the day the person was thinking about going in for treatment, and they're going to put that off another day and just be that much worse off.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Obviously, there's a religious component to the Eugene mission, but obviously not all people walking through your doors that message may not resonate. How do you work so that anyone coming to the mission who needs help feels both welcome but also understood?
SHERYL BALTHROP: Yeah, wonderful question. We are committed to everyone walking through our doors feeling cared for, seen, welcome, et cetera, that is critical. And obviously we welcome everyone with and without faith traditions, and even folks that do not want to be prayed for, etc., etc. We are not going to force that on anyone who is not interested. We have programs that are faith based, we have Bible studies, we have chapel, we are unabashedly Christian, but we also recognize that there are folks that need services, that are wanting to do that courageous work, that are not interested. We just hope that they see us as folks that are highly compassionate and principled and wish to welcome them, whatever their belief systems.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Talk about some of your successes and however you want to quantify it and qualify it, you know, in terms of individuals, or just the ways in which the mission has been able to make a dent in this crisis of homelessness.
SHERYL BALTHROP: I don't know that most people realize that we're one of the largest missions on the west coast. So, we could use, I call them McDonald's numbers of meals served, people served, etc., and they're in the hundreds of 1000s at this point. But the really important thing is actually each individual person, and I get the calls from the family members, from the loved ones, who say, Thank you for returning. Jimmy to us. Hey Seuss to us. And so, I'd like to just share a couple of success stories. And they are, they are married, and they are such an encouragement to everyone that is down there at the mission. You know, one is a lady by the name of Sam, who was an unceremoniously senior individual, unceremoniously dropped off at our front door by family members, and very felt like she was garbage, being rejected. Had she been struggling with all sorts of issues, and was very, very cut off and not comfortable engaging with individuals, and as she spent time at the mission, she felt more comfortable, and she realized she needed to get a little bit out of her comfort zones and talk with people. And she asked to actually be at our front office and to volunteer time. And I personally watched her go from someone who would not be able to answer the phone to someone who was the absolute best person for someone to walk in off the streets and encounter and to have a warm introduction. And now, after being estranged from her family, Sam is living independently. She now has come back to the mission to volunteer her time, and she is just a beautiful, glowing example of what full human flourishing can look like after being in a very difficult place and even being a more. An advanced age individual can make tremendous recovery. And she had, she would have pictures of her grandkids spread before her, and we would, I've seen her with her grandchild, and it's beautiful to see that, and to know that this person had none of that, and now they have a future like that, yeah, and another, I mean, again, the accounts are myriad. We have seen a bike as an individual who was struggling with substances. Came to the mission, really had a number of health struggles as well, and he started running with a mentor and taking classes, etc. And now he is managing. He's in grocery management, doing beautifully, fully restored to all sorts of relationships, doing very well health wise. And he's been coming back to volunteer and to give back. And isn't that also something that we see, that our community does, is that as we heal, we turn back around and provide that healing to others.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Sheryl, my last question for you is this kind of the classic talk interview question, the magic wand question, which is, if you had a magic wand, you know, and wave it in front of the entire community, what can we all do as a community better to address homelessness?
SHERYL BALTHROP: Yeah, I think we need to view it as a relational issue and not a transactional or economic issue. And that's hard. Obviously, there are those elements there, sure, but when we ask our guests what hurts them most? It's the loss of connections with people they cared about, and they recognize that they've broken down. But we as a community should not be just dehumanizing people by transactionally handing things off. We do this at the mission. We've recognized that we've made mistakes and can grow. But we used to do the service, you know, through the sneeze shield of food. And now we go and we share the meal with our guests, and that's what builds trust. That's what builds relationships. And that's where we can really talk about, hey, what's hurting you? How can I help? How can I be you today? What, what, and far too often, when? Again, we're handing off just a resource. We're almost like saying, you stay over there and I'll stay over here, and I'll feel better because I provided some provision. But what that person really needs is other people who are healthy and engaging and saying, Welcome, come back into the community. You are incredibly valuable, and we want you with us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Sheryl Balthrop, who is the Executive Director of the Eugene Mission, really appreciates you coming in and talking with us.
SHERYL BALTHROP: Thank you so much.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now let's talk with an organization which flings open its doors to those living unhoused when the temperature drops. Tim Black, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator with St Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, really appreciate you coming on and talking to us.
TIM BLACK: Thanks, Michael, happy to be here.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Remind listeners you know, what the Egan warming centers give us the 30,000-foot view if you could.
TIM BLACK: It is our community, Eugene Springfield's emergency winter shelter program that's there for just those cold nights that are so dangerously cold that you could die being out there. Yeah, it only opens when you know, based on the forecasted low temperatures, when it's supposed to be below 30 degrees, and it's just for those nights when it could just be too dangerous to be out there. That's it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, when you're like, we're here at the tail end of November, it's starting to get cold. Maybe talk about how the Egan warming centers, you know how you staff up? Who provides the services at Egan? Kind of, you know what your game plan is, once we start heading into the darkness of winter?
TIM BLACK: Yeah, you know, like, like so many of these programs, it's evolved over the years. It started, you know, by volunteers, by people who were just not going to stand for somebody to freeze to death. And this was back in in our community, in 2008 in December is actually when major Thomas Egan was found frozen to death at the end of Blair Boulevard in the Whitaker neighborhood, and there had already been a group of folks in Springfield actually trying to put together a shelter system and that put the effort over the top, and Lane County said they would support it, and chose St Vincent Paul to be the structure underneath it all. But it was born because of volunteers, and still operates really because of so many volunteers. And over time, that's gotten harder, right? So many volunteers are older, covid affected Egan, like it affected everything, where we weren't able to be in many of the older, traditional Egan sites, we lost a lot of our volunteers who just couldn't safely be inside that setting, and so it's required more and more, I think, staff support, and more behind the scenes support over the years, and that's continued to be the case. So it's still predominantly run by volunteers, but it's required a lot more help behind the scenes by St Vincent ball staff and St Vincent de Paul staff helping inside those shelters, especially for those overnight shifts. It's really difficult, so that's primarily how it works, lots of volunteers, but also a lot of staff support and a lot of community support.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, any barriers to entry for when, when it hits below 32 degrees, any barriers to entry with regard to people who can avail themselves to the Egan warming centers?
TIM BLACK: No Egan is the you know, it's a low barrier shelter. And low barrier meaning that there aren't a lot of things that are going to keep you out of there. We welcome anyone and everyone, as long as they follow those rules that keep everybody inside safe. So, you know, we get guests that are drunk or high or whatever, and of course, everybody has so much trauma, but as long as when you're inside, you can follow those rules that just make sure that everyone is safe and that you're safe, you're welcome. And you know, it used to be darn near impossible to ever really get, you know, kicked out of a warming center site if somebody came in and they're having some troubles, which is not surprising, when you survive all the rest of the year on your own, and suddenly you're freezing and in this big room filled with all these strangers, it can be hard, and if somebody was having some issues with that, we would just maybe take them to one of our different sites. And sometimes it was just that 15 minutes, maybe transition which was enough, or we quickly try to get some warm food inside. Guests. Often, that's all it takes to get somebody to be able to to be okay being inside that scene, because we understand that that can be really traumatic for our folks. So no, there's no drug testing, there's no alcohol testing. You are welcome if you want to be inside that shelter that night.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, so many organizations this year at the local level have had funding cuts because of the federal government and a very different approach to human services, as we've seen. And I'm wondering, you know, has that percolated down to both St Vincent de Paul and the Egan warming centers. You know, there's been whole scale illumination of departments at the federal government, a lot of funding cuts. I just wanted to know, sort of where the rubber meets the road right there with what you're providing service wise, has that been an impact?
TIM BLACK: Of course, it has. And it's so hard to know when and how bad it might get, because it is trickling down. And, you know, St Vincent de Paul doesn't get a lot of direct federal support, but of course, we get a lot of support through local government, and the state gets money through the feds, and then the county gets money through the state, right? So, it's going to really take some time before we see what all that means. And it is, it's frustrating, it's heartbreaking, and it's particularly frustrating. You know, for me, it didn't take me long in in this job to really see that, you know, the absolute cheapest thing we can do for the grumpiest taxpayer out there is actually the most compassionate thing, and that's to provide the basic services that folks need when they need it before suddenly it gets really expensive, because we all end up paying for that through our public safety dollars, through the emergency room, let alone the emotional toll that it takes when, you know, even I do this right, but I still feel awful when I'm at that red light and there's somebody right there with that sign. How can you not feel like crap when that happens? And we all feel that. And what scares me more than any of the money is just this feeling that, that people suddenly think that we don't have any control over this and it's out of our hands, and that we can't do anything about homelessness. Well, we can. We didn't get her overnight, and we all helped cause this, and we all are part of the solution. To get out of this, it's going to take a long-term plan, right? We can't fix this tomorrow. It's going to take some basic services to help. People where they are when they need it, so that they can get back out there and start contributing again, because that's what they want to do.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Talk a little bit about the volunteers, especially those that show up, you know, again and again and again. It must be heartwarming to see people. You know, I would imagine that's a difficult job to staff a warming center, you know, in the cold of winter with a lot of people who have nowhere else to go, talk about what drives them.
TIM BLACK: They inspire me every day. It truly is remarkable what they do. And, you know, and people ask all the time, but I don't know if I could do it. You don't really know until you try, right? And the great thing about, you know, back to covid, one of the things that we started to do is have our orientations online, and it was really successful that that's how we primarily do it. Anyone who's ever been thinking about it can sit through one of our online orientations and the comfort of their own home on the couch. Don't have to turn the camera on and learn all about it. The hardest thing is to sign up for that first shift. And, you know, it's and I, you know, I, I shouldn't sometimes be, you know, try to talk to people out of it, but I want people to understand that this isn't one of those things where you're going to do that, you're going to show up, you're going to go home, you're going to feel great about it, and you want to get on Facebook, right? No, you may go home feeling terrible because you're going to see what can, what it does to live on the street for folks, but you're going to come back, because there is something so tangible about that volunteer experience and how you can, how you can make a real difference. So yes, they are amazing and wonderful. And I just, I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend time with so many amazing volunteers.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well said, well said Tim black, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for St Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, really appreciate you coming on and talking with us.
TIM BLACK: Thank you. I appreciate it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, a new study by an OSU professor about how wild cats in the rain forest reduce competition by living at different levels in the trees. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On The Record, thanks for listening.
