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Hope & Randal:Where they are now

May 1, 2019

In early fall of 2015, Hope and Randal Freeman moved from the CSS Safe Spot at Chambers and Northwest Expressway into an apartment in South Eugene, where they continue to thrive and grow. They are deeply involved with their church, Harvest Church International, where Randal is a network and media consultant, as well as being the primary driver of the church van, and Hope has been a teaching assistant and done janitorial work. After finally recovering some of Hope’s legal documents, which had been stolen during their period of homelessness, they were officially married in January. Hope has now taken Randal’s last name. They are both studying at Xplore Nations Bible College and are almost finished with the second year out of the four it will take them to get degrees. They have a 2008 Town & Country minivan that a church member sold them for $1 and the church helped them to fix up. They are enjoying cooking with an electric stove, a crockpot, a microwave, and Hope’s long hoped-for KitchenAid mixer, a wedding gift from the church. Hope’s health has greatly improved. Thanks to new medication prescribed by a neurologist they say is one of the best in the Northwest, seizures that have plagued her most of her life—including when she was in the camp—have been controlled.


And they are expecting a daughter, Elisheba Zelda Freeman, June 16.


Hope and Randal still see counselors and get support from ShelterCare, the agency that helped them get their apartment. They look back on their time at the Safe Spot camp as stressful and uncomfortable in many ways. “We were still homeless,” Hope says. But if they hadn’t moved into the camp when they did, Randal says, they might still be homeless: “CSS gave us the time we needed to create the platform to start building our lives.” He says that the opportunity to participate as a Safe Spot camp volunteer staff member showed him that he had leadership skills that he is still developing through his education and work with the church. And they both say that they learned important interpersonal skills through the connections to other people in the camp, some of whom they are still close to.


“I wouldn’t have one-tenth of the blessings I have if it weren’t for Community Supported Shelters,” Randal says.


And Hope is very clear about what she puts at the top of any list of goals she’s made in the time since she left the camp: “Never be homeless again.”

Community Court Program

04 May, 2024
Community Supported Shelters’ Roosevelt Safe Spot Community has been transformed into a shelter community aligned with the City of Eugene Community Court program. Beginning in January, people charged with minor misdemeanor offenses who have opted into the Community Court system (rather than Municipal Court) can opt into the CSS shelter program and move into one of 16 available Huts at Roosevelt.

Volunteers Boost Energy Systems at CSS Communities

03 May, 2024
During the ice storm that brought Eugene to a standstill in January, all the batteries that stored the energy from the solar panels at CSS’s Lot 9 Community went dead, meaning no lights and no way to charge cell phones. Dave Reuter knew that because of a monitoring system he had set up to keep track of the status of the solar energy systems at eight CSS communities. Dave, a volunteer who has led an effort to upgrade and standardize the CSS power systems, and his wife Janel Erickson, who has worked with him on this project, are intrepid outdoors people. While most of us struggled to get out of our front doors, Dave and Janel loaded a couple of fresh batteries on their Flexible Flyer sled and attached Yaktrak spikes to their shoes and a rope to the sled. With Dave in front and Janel in the rear, they guided the sled the five miles from their Friendly neighborhood home to Lot 9, near Autzen Stadium.

UO Interior Design Creative Storage Collaboration

02 May, 2024
A sixty square foot area. Six feet by 10 feet of space covered by an unconventional Conestoga shaped canvas. This is the simple description of the Hut basic to all CSS communities. How can a safe, comfortable, and efficient habitat be created within this framework using common and inexpensive materials? This was the question posed by Assistant Professor Solmaz Mohammadzadeh Kive to her Architecture 484 class this winter term at the University of Oregon.

Volunteer Spotlight: Sandy and Percy

30 Apr, 2024
For the past several months, a couple of long-time donors to Community Supported Shelters have joined us for two hours a week at our main office to do whatever needs doing. While this may sound like a modest amount of time, Sandy and Percy’s consistent, constructive, and upbeat engagement demonstrates a truth that is often overlooked: big issues can be meaningfully addressed in small increments of time.

Eugene Parking Ban Opposition Testimony

12 Mar, 2024
It's not too late to share your thoughts on this proposed update. Send your written testimony to mayorcouncilandcitymanager@eugene-or.gov .

Incarceration and Homelessness: Breaking the Cycle

15 Jan, 2024
Formerly incarcerated people are almost ten times more likely to be homeless than the general population, according to a study from the Prison Policy Initiative. Jack spent 27 years in prison, from the age of 33 to 60. “It is a long time. It's an entire lifetime,” he says. At first, he thought he might never get out and continued what he calls “bad behavior.” But he saw others who participated in educational programs and were successful in getting their sentences reduced. He realized if he started “acting right,” he might get out. He especially credits a program called “Nonviolent Communication” with helping him. He started using what he learned and realized that “the person we communicate worst with is ourselves.”

From Waste to Wonder - UO's Grey Water Conservation Project

14 Jan, 2024
Lima, Peru, and Eugene, Oregon, are worlds apart in many ways. But spend some time with Kory Russel, an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, and you will learn there are communities in both places with challenges of access to sustainable and efficient water use. Kory has a photo in his office depicting a highly condensed neighborhood in Lima, a city where he and some of his students work on sustainable water projects.

New CSS Director of Community Impact: Black Burrell

13 Jan, 2024
Did you know CSS has a shared leadership model, with three directors? This November, Blake Burrell joined CSS as our new Director of Community Impact. His role supports all of our direct service staff, managing internal relationship-building, culture creation, program operation, mentoring, and conflict resolution. Read on for his introduction:

Volunteer Spotlight: Veronica Paredes

12 Jan, 2024
Veronica Paredes has been helping sew the weatherproof porch coverings ("scrims") for the Huts, recently working 26 hours to complete 34 scrims for us before the holidays.

Bike and Build Volunteers Assist in Refurbishing Huts

13 Oct, 2023
Bike and Build organization was established as a nonprofit in 2003. Its website summarizes its mission: “Bike and Build engages young adults in service-oriented cycling trips to raise awareness for the affordable housing cause. We advocate for the need for affordable housing in thousands of communities across the country.” As teams bike from town to town, they volunteer for service projects and give presentations about issues surrounding the lack of affordable housing. Since 2003 Bike and Build estimates that over 3,800 participants have biked over 11 million miles and donated over 255,000 volunteer community service hours to local organizations throughout the country.
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