Warming centers open as temperatures fall below freezing
EUGENE, Ore. - With the temperature forecast to bottom out in the upper 20s overnight, the Egan Warming Centers will open to house people living on the streets.
The centers were set to open at 4 p.m. Monday.
Now in its fifth season, the Egan Warming Center is a community-led, almost entirely volunteer-run program. The Center's mission is to ensure that homeless people have a safe place to sleep indoors when temperatures drop below 30 degrees between November 15 and March 31.
The program was inspired by the December 18, 2008, death of Major Thomas Egan, who froze to death on the streets of Eugene during a snowstorm. Last season volunteer spent over 12,000 hours sheltering 926 people on 15 nights.
Need help?
Homeless people traveling to the Egan Warming Center can ride LTD buses for free if they let the driver know they are going to a warming center.
The centers are available at the following locations:
- First Christian Church, 1166 Oak Street in Eugene (Shuttles will run from this site to other sites, so people are encouraged to go to First Christian Church first)
- Valley Covenant Church 3636 West 18th Avenue in Eugene
- Valley River Assembly of God, 900 Robin Hood Avenue in Eugene
- Trinity United Methodist 440 Maxwell Eugene
- Ebbert Memorial United Methodist Church, 532 C Street in Springfield
- Youth site (21 and under): Eugene Evangelical Church, 834 Monroe Street in Eugene
How you can help
Bring donations of sleeping bags, blankets, coats, socks and other items to keep people warm to any St. Vincent de Paul location. Make sure they are clearly marked "Egan Warming Center." Please do not take donations to warming center sites; we don't always have enough volunteers to accept items and it takes attention away from our guests.
Bring donations of non-perishable food items to Food for Lane County, 770 Bailey Hill Road in Eugene. Please do not bring prepared items to warming center sites. Health Department regulations prohibit us from serving any food not prepared in a certified commercial kitchen.
Monetary donations can be made online at http://www.svdp.us/get-involved/donate/ or by mail at P.O. Box 24608, Eugene, OR 97402
Freezing temperatures? What about that magical so called greenhouse gas? Does it only work in the summer and not winter? Well that may explain the deaths and stuck snow plows in 15 feet plus of snow in Russia, the one million dead cattle and 70% snow cover in Mongolia and other cold events in the eastern northern hemisphere. Bitter cold over there.
 @gannon bill gannon 12/31/12 1st frost day for us. Drove cross country this summer.  The fried corn and soybeans in eastern MN. and all of non-irrigated land in Wis. was pretty formidable.  The melting ice cap in Greenland is not a minor event. Russia is 60% permafrost so it should be cold over there.