It was also in the winter of 2012-13 that Craig Satein first saw a Conestoga Hut outside Eugene’s Holiday Market. He was intrigued by the structure and its potential to be “the most appropriate response to homelessness in the last twenty years within Lane County.” He participated in a few Hut builds and saw, among the eager crowd of volunteers, a fair amount of confusion, which went against the grain of the efficiency he had learned during a long career at the Housing and Community Services Agency of Lane County. He volunteered to build the floor components with one other volunteer at his home in Jasper. He could work at his own pace and, by providing a prefabbed component, increase the efficiency when volunteers gathered to assemble a Hut.

Craig brought that practical mindset when he was asked to join the CSS Board of Directors in the early days after CSS had incorporated as a nonprofit in March 2013. At that point, Erik and Fay were just following the threads of the support that came in, guided by the philosophy that Erik had gleaned from a chapter of a book called, The Seven Laws of Money: “Do it! Money will come when you do the right thing.” And that’s what was happening in those early days. Money came in and more Huts were built.

But Craig lobbied for a budget. “It seemed like a wacky idea to me because I was like ‘money comes and we budget that money.’ He was for budgeting money we didn’t have,” Erik says. Though he had always kept careful records of all expenses, Erik referred to the budget Craig was steering them towards as a “fantasy” budget.

But just as Craig’s contribution as a volunteer had helped refine the Hut building process, the work of the board in those days helped move the fledgling CSS toward more a sophisticated accounting system, so the organization could apply for grants and do more informed organizational planning. “We were so new and green and people didn’t really get us,” Fay says. More traditional budgeting and planning “seemed like big risk. Everything seemed like a big risk for that first year and a half,” she says. But she was grateful that Craig and the board nudged them in that direction.

Craig, with his background in the local governmental bureaucracy, also arranged a meeting between Erik and Fay and then Eugene mayor Kitty Piercy.

David Hazen had met Erik and Fay before their CSS days, but got involved when a group from the First Congregational Church volunteered to help build tent platforms for the Rest Stops, which have been renamed as Safe Spots, and was invited to interview some of the clients to get background information for a board game Erik was working on called “Get A Job, You Bum!”

“I went and interviewed a guy who had a great story, and I identified with many parts of his story, and realized there but for the grace of God go I. It was really a good experience for me and the other people in our congregation. After that, I started to become a monthly supporter.”

David says his monthly donation is not a lot, but he thinks it’s important to contribute a regular amount. He donates to several organizations that match his values. Nonprofits especially appreciate people who pledge monthly amounts because they provide a base of financial support from which to make plans.

“I totally feel aligned with the values that CSS employs, where they want to empower the clients,” he says. “They trust the clients to make their own decisions that are in their own best interests and they don’t try to force them into a particular way of doing things.”

David has recently become more involved with CSS clients as a volunteer with the Connection Cadre, a group of folks who build one-on-one relationships with Safe Spot residents. He’s already felt rewarded by this experience: “I get to develop my personal capacity for trust, and listening to learn. I have learned from this fellow. I get more out of it than I give—really. I spend about an hour or two a week with this guy, which is more intense than most of the other clients demand, but I don’t mind at all. I really enjoy the time I spend with him, and I get the feeling that I am contributing.”

The risk of taking on management of the Rest Stops—a commitment that required going beyond basing the services CSS could provide on money as it came in—made for some stressful periods in the first couple of years. In 2013 and 2014, a solid donor base had not yet been established and Erik and Fay and volunteers had to devote a great deal of energy to events and garage sales to raise money. In July of 2014, CSS held a day-long block party and sale to keep two Safe Spots open and to be able to continue to build Huts. It had taken months of preparation. “The organizational finances were very low at this point and we were gambling on that event to sustain us,” Erik says. They raised $7500 and the work went on.

“For the first three years of operation,” he says, “we have been in an act of proving to the community that a program like CSS is worthy of a place within the social services spectrum. In a broader sense, we are still proving ourselves to other communities.”

On the donor front, the news has been good. Donations have gone from $41,554 in 2014 to $78,245 in 2015 to $195,336 last year. Similarly, income from events such as the annual fundraising dinner have gone from $13,130 in 2014 to $46,198 last year, always exceeding projections in the “fantasy” budget. On the opposite side, money from grants has never reached budget projections—another reminder that the core of support for CSS comes from the community that experiences the effects of its programs.

“We’re unique in that we are pretty much funded by the community,” Fay says. “It’s not like a big foundation or we’re applying for HUD money. The value in that is that the community is invested in what we’re doing, the community has invested in this vision. How special is that?”

“I love working directly with our clients and I love working with the CSS team. Everyone there is really fantastic and really dedicated and really approachable, and it’s just a real team effort.”

Her partner, Joshua, also volunteers with CSS, helping to update their client/applicant database so it can handle more information and have greater reporting capabilities. Sati and Joshua are going to be married next spring. Their wedding is going to be a fundraiser for CSS. Talk about community support!

Why is CSS able to attract such generous donors and dedicated volunteers?

“The effects of helping create security and stability for people in our community ripple out,” Sati says. “It increases feelings of safety for people. And it’s something that affects everyone. If you go downtown you see people literally sleeping on the streets. So it’s visible, and it ultimately touches a chord of humanity in us. I think we all know that a lot of people are close to becoming homeless and live really close to the bone and are just one medical emergency away from being homeless. It’s an issue that touches the compassion and the human family element in all of us.”

“And [CSS] is set up for people’s success, for more community and people stepping into their own empowerment and leadership and connection. I think that’s really important.”

“The piece that Erik and Fay have worked on so hard is how to help people become part of the world again, part of the community again,” Kitty says. “To be cared about and to care for others is a really big thing. It’s sort of a unique step in the continuum of care for people who are unhoused.”

Support for CSS as well as Opportunity Village and Emerald Village illustrates the generosity and caring in our community, she says.

CSS exemplifies “the desire to do something, no matter how small, to get people in a better place with a better chance for a better future,” Kitty says. “I think the community has recognized that and they think very highly of Erik and Fay and everybody who works for Community Supported Shelters because it’s such a humble but very, very important piece of recognizing humanity in everybody.”