Cottage Grove nonprofit delivers first beds for unhoused neighbors

A Cottage Grove nonprofit has put its first 10 beds into the hands of people living outside, offering a small but immediate answer to a basic need in Lane County: something better than concrete, puddles or bare ground.

Beds of Faith, founded by Delilah Fisher, builds convertible wagon-style beds for unhoused people who are sleeping on the street. Fisher said the work grew out of family losses and the death of a close friend, all of them tied to homelessness and exposure to extreme weather. The project is meant to preserve dignity as much as comfort, and one recipient said the gift meant more than simply having a place to lie down.

Each bed costs about $81 to build, and donations have covered the cost so far. That makes Beds of Faith a grassroots effort rather than a large shelter program, powered by private giving and hands-on labor in Cottage Grove. Fisher’s goal is straightforward: reach people who are still sleeping on the ground, in puddles or in other unsafe conditions.

The scale of that need is much larger than the first batch of beds. Lane County’s 2024 Homeless Point In Time Count, released June 6, 2024, counted 3,085 people experiencing homelessness on the night of Jan. 31, 2024. County officials say the count uses a revised Homeless By-Name List system that has been in place since 2021 and is considered more accurate and complete by local stakeholders. At the national level, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported more than 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, an 18% increase from 2023.

The local effort also comes amid a broader emergency response in Oregon. Gov. Tina Kotek declared homelessness a state of emergency on Jan. 10, 2023, and Oregon Housing and Community Services said the 2024 order extended that response to maintain shelter capacity, rehouse more people and prevent homelessness. The state’s framework says the 2023 to 2025 legislative session included $500 million in homelessness investments, and OHCS says first-year goals were exceeded with 1,047 low-barrier shelter beds created, 1,426 households rehoused and 9,023 households prevented from homelessness.

Lane County’s shelter and coordinated entry system is run countywide through the Eugene, Springfield and Lane County Continuum of Care, not through a single provider. Against that backdrop, Beds of Faith is filling a narrow but visible gap, one bed at a time, in a community where the need for practical shelter remains far larger than any single nonprofit can solve.