EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- With the winter months just around the corner, the St. Vincent de Paul Lindholm Service Center is making more room to help more people.
The center is located on Highway 99 North and offers day services like free food, laundry and shower facilities to the homeless. The number of daily visitors to the center has almost doubled in the last year, rising from 130 to about 200 people a day.
The center hopes to complete the expansion in the spring but for now, they're focused on creating more space in time for the coldest months of the year.
"When you see populations increase and see more demand for services and no slowing down, it's important for use to build capacity," says Terry McDonald, Director of St. Vincent de Paul. "The most important thing for us is to increase the capacity we have to serve people during these winter months and then expand the food services and other activities in the spring."
The current expansion will increase the day service space by about 60 percent. So far it's being funded by St. Vincent de Paul, but in the spring, the city will fund the remainder of the project. When complete, the expansion will include a full commercial kitchen and capacity will increase further. It should all be finished next spring.
