Eugene’s new extreme weather shelter was underway. Then funding vanished.

An emergency shelter in West Eugene would have offered year-round access to people seeking relief from an array of extreme weather, ranging from scorching heat and wildfire smoke to freezing temperatures and ice storms. 

To make it happen, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $20 million grant to Lane County, which would distribute portions of the funding to local organizations, including Bethel School District, to retrofit facilities for community use.

While the nearly 50-year-old Clear Lake Elementary school is closing due to declining enrollment, the building was set to take on a new purpose this summer, in part as a “community resilience hub.” With a signed contract in hand this March, Superintendent Kraig Sproles was preparing to greenlight a list of purchases under the district’s nearly $4 million share — starting with cots, generators, and critical building repairs. 

But Sproles, who oversees school and social services in his district, never saw the money. For nearly a month, the funds were frozen until the EPA officially notified Lane County last week the grant was terminated.

“It takes you a little while to get your head around that,” said Sproles, who has spent his 28-year career navigating contracts and had never seen anything like the termination. “To think that the federal government could just decide to not fulfill their terms of the contract was unsettling.”

Named the Lane Transformation for Resiliency through Equity and Engagement (TREE) Network, the project used language that has reportedly been flagged and targeted under the Trump administration. Leadership across Lane County emphasized the project was a matter of emergency preparedness, not progressive environmental policy. 

“I think what we’re seeing with the federal government right now is disinvestments in the foundations of what builds a community,” Sproles said. “This [money] is just for folks to be able to exist in the environment that we’ve created.” 

‘Trickle-down effects’ of cuts  

Lane County’s Climate Action Plan outlines a range of growing climate threats — flooding, winter storms, and extreme heat among them. But on the horizon this summer is wildfires and their smoke. 

With Oregon bracing for an aggressive fire season, the Willamette Valley could soon face days shrouded in haze. Smoke has already pushed Lane County’s air quality to among the worst in the nation, recently ranking fourth in an American Lung Association list. For vulnerable groups — children, seniors, and people with asthma — staying indoors is the safest option. But many homes aren’t equipped to keep the smoke out.

That’s why Jocelyn Warren, Lane County’s Public Health division manager, saw these weather shelters, which earned the name “community resilience hubs,” as a way to reduce exposure, prevent emergency room visits, and limit long-term health effects.

Warren spoke at a City Club panel Friday alongside top doctors in the region, emphasizing disaster preparedness as a pathway to improving public health at the local level. She’s concerned about what other funding may be at risk in her department, but like many, she’s working with little information and high stakes.

“Those trickle-down effects of some of the changes at the federal level are really not clear yet at the local level,” Warren said. ” It’s very difficult to say what the impact will be. We are certainly nervous.” 

The resilience hubs would have offered opportunities on many levels across the county, Warren said. All were planned in existing schools or community centers, with local contracts for upgrades, supporting businesses from Florence to Oakridge.

What’s next for Clear Lake Elementary?

Lane County administrators requested two rounds of review from the EPA after the funds were first suspended in April. Now, the county’s legal team is preparing a formal dispute to the termination, which it plans to file by the end of next week.

In the meantime, Sproles is moving forward with what’s possible at the former elementary school, beginning with a community center. 

In the coming months, the site will host child care programs through the Boys and Girls Club and Preschool Promise. Eventually, Sproles hopes it can become a place for the community to gather, even if just over a cup of coffee. 

But without additional funding, the district doesn’t have the resources to turn it into an official shelter — something that would require bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which the mid-century building lacks, Sproles said. 

“Without the funding, it looks a lot more like an older elementary school than like a community center,” Sproles said. 

Sproles, along with the neighborhood association Active Bethel Community, has been planning the community center since February 2025 — about a year after the announcement that Clear Lake Elementary would close. While they have lost a significant investment, they haven’t lost sight of the purpose: creating space where neighbors can support each other in a changing climate.

“That didn’t strip away the vision for the way we’re going to support each other,” he said. “It may not be everything that we thought it could have been with the grant, but the need for us, especially right now, is to create neighbor-to-neighbor connections that we are going to take care of each other when we have environmental emergencies.”