Holden Center examines social issues in Eugene

Arya Wolf, a program assistant for the Holden Center, became unhoused for one year at the age of 21 after being kicked out of college. Struggling with PTSD, disability and depression, every day became about survival, and without adequate housing, Wolf said they “lost (their) strongest tether to normal life and started fading away.”

Wolf’s story was one of many discussions held during the housing crisis lecture as part of a series of weekly presentations held by the Holden Center for Leadership and Community Engagement.

Examining Social Issues in Eugene was a set of lectures for six weeks that focused on real issues in the UO and Eugene community. In the format of interactive workshops, each week focused on a new topic, such as activism or food insecurity. Week five’s topic was the housing crisis.

“Affordable housing matters (because) it helps people escape poverty, so the idea of affordable housing and cities and governments setting up and making affordable housing, something that is accessible, helps so many different people,” Rut Ramirez Pineda said.

The workshop, led by Ramirez Pineda, Wolf and Basic Needs Coordinator Nick Dikas, covered a myriad of topics regarding houselessness, from statistics and personal stories to resources for students in the community.

“There’s so much going on (to support students), but again, not everyone knows what’s going on, so being able to just talk about different clubs or different opportunities you can help bring people in and build that community,” Ramirez Pineda said.

According to a survey done during the 2023-24 school year, 57% of students attending UO have experienced basic needs insecurity. Another 13% don’t have a fixed, adequate place to live.

“Students that are maybe working a minimum wage job, two minimum wage jobs, et cetera, housing is just not affordable and the wages that people are making is not equaling how much rent costs,” Ramirez Pineda said. “And so it does definitely affect students. It affects people of different affinities in different ways.”

Dikas shared many resources that students who are struggling with basic needs can utilize. One example provided was the housing subsidy, which provides funds of around $600-900 for students to prevent or alleviate a housing crisis.

“One thing we hear often is like, I feel like there’s somebody out there who could use this more. And maybe that’s true in some situations, but there’s a lot of people who are enduring lots of hardship,” Dikas said. “Struggle is normal. Hardship is not. Hardship should not be part of the student experience.”

After crashing on couches and living in the woods and public buildings for roughly a year, Wolf eventually found enough money for a room for rent. Today, they share their story in order to ground people in the details of houselessness.

“My understanding is that universities have substantially changed since I was 21. I believe that there are people in positions like Nick’s which are designed to prevent things like what happened to me,” Wolf said.

However, there is still much more that can be done to resolve the housing and basic needs crisis, according to Wolf.

“There (is) still this absence of sufficient resources compared to the amount of me that exists. And I’ve still encountered other students who have experienced houselessness and other students who are experiencing food insecurity and like I think sometimes I can feel unclear about exactly who to turn to,” Wolf said.

For students wanting to learn more about issues in their community, three more sessions regarding various issues in the community are being held every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at the Holden Center in the EMU.