B Y K E L LY K E N O Y E R
The warming center is struggling after
consecutive cold nights
T
For more information about upcoming volunteer trainings and activations, or to donate, go to eganwarmingcenter.com.
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P H O T O BY K E L LY K E N O Y E R
en consecutive freez-
ing nights in Eugene
earlier this month have
stretched homelessness
resources to a breaking
point, with exhausted volunteers
staying at Egan Warming Center
locations night after night.
Shelley Corteville, director of
Egan Warming Center, says this
has been a challenging Decem-
ber. “I believe that’s more con-
secutive nights than we’ve ever
opened before,” Corteville says.
“It’s really hard to sustain that
many nights with volunteers.”
Each night is made up of four
C O U N T Y C O M M I S S I O N E R PAT FA R R S P E A K S AT
different shifts at various loca-
A MEMORIAL FOR MAJOR THOMAS EGAN
tions, meaning each night under
30 degrees requires more than
300 volunteers to help keep the homeless out of the cold. Corteville says Egan only has
about 500 consistent volunteers, so those consecutive nights are a serious strain on the
center and those who help the unhoused.
“If people are trained volunteers we really need them to sign up for overnight and
morning shifts,” she says, adding that she expects more activation in the coming weeks.
Thousands of people have gone through volunteer training, “but most of those people don’t
volunteer,” Corteville adds.
Egan Warming Center started after Major Thomas Lawrence Egan froze to death on a
cold winter night in 2008. On Dec. 18 of this year, citizens and stakeholders gathered to
honor him with a memorial at the site where he died at 1st and Blair.
It’s a windy, unsheltered, dead-end road next to the railroad tracks. Garbage litters the
fence marked “No Trespassing.” At the memorial, 30 gathered to pay respects, and pastor
Dan Bryant of First Christian Church held a prayer.
“We pray not for Major Egan, for he has found his peace in your warm loving embrace,”
he said. “But we pray for every person without shelter who shivers in the cold. We pray
here just one week before Christmas for the hundreds in our community for whom there is
no place at the inn. We pray for the economic refugees in our midst who do not have and
cannot get the kind of economic security needed to maintain a home and a decent quality
of life.”
Corteville also attended the memorial, where she asked that business leaders in the com-
munity follow the lead of Lane Community College and offer their buildings as Egan sites.
“Often our folks are overlooked on the streets, people don’t even want to look them in the
eye. We look our guests in the eye and we treat them as guests,” she said. “We’re looking
at a really long run coming up. We could easily surpass last year’s 25 nights, and we need
lots and lots and lots of volunteers.”
Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr also spoke at the memorial. “We need to act today
and from now on to keep people from Tom’s fate, from the death that he suffered on this
street that night,” he said. Farr said he served in the army with Thomas Egan, and his voice
broke when he asked the audience, “Why did we turn away from him?”
Mayor Lucy Vinis also spoke. “When Major Egan died, he stood for our failures as a
society,” she said. “His name represented our failure, our failure to meet the needs of our
friends and neighbors and family members. And he still stands for many nameless victims
of homelessness.”
But, she added, “He also stands for hope. He also stands for our commitment to be a
better society.”
Egan Warming Center is in desperate need of volunteers, Corteville says, and she asks
that anyone with the training volunteer during the next activation, especially for overnight
or morning shifts.
But, she says, “Egan Warming Center is not what will fix the homeless situation. Egan
Warming Center is just emergency shelter, just on nights when it’s extraordinarily cold.
That doesn’t solve the homeless issue. It’s very clear that we need public shelter.”
The next Egan training is Saturday, Dec. 22 from 10am to noon at the First Christian
Church in Eugene at 1166 Oak Street. ■
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