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QuickTake:
Sarah Koski looks for ways to reach Lane County’s houseless population through the lens of transportation. At Lane Transit District, her work touches lives of people in the throes of pain and crisis.
Sarah Koski’s job transports her to the forefront of different worlds — sometimes even in the same day or week.
One moment, Koski may be in a board meeting, visiting with government officials and nonprofit homeless services providers about potential solutions to reach Lane County’s underserved communities. The next, Koski may be handing out cards to people living on the street with information about local providers that will shelter them.
Koski is Lane Transit District’s community resource liaison, a role she’s had since 2023. Koski is the transit agency’s first person in the role. Less than three years in, Koski has established herself as an advocate and someone who will seek solutions for people living in homelessness – both inside and outside the transit agency.
Editor’s note: People are the heart of Lane County — which is why, each week, Lookout Eugene-Springfield will profile someone who is working behind the scenes to make our community better. If you have suggestions on others we should profile, send us an email.
Name: Sarah Koski
Age: 42
Occupation: Lane Transit District’s community resource liaison
Years in role: Two and a half
Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, University of Oregon, 2006
Residence: Eugene
“My role is to find where that solution can be, who is the spearhead of that solution, and build bridges and partnerships,” Koski said. “My role is the living, breathing embodiment of our mission of connecting our community.”
Of course, the Lane Transit District is best known for its buses, not necessarily for serving people who are homeless with food, shelter and clothing. At the same time, the district’s reach is wide, with buses and stops stretched from Eugene into rural Lane County communities. Each one offers a possible connection point with the unhoused – and the opportunity to connect them to help through other providers, such as shelters and food banks.
What’s more, Lane County’s most vulnerable populations face barriers when trying to get from Point A to Point B – things that could even prevent them from boarding a bus to get to a doctor’s appointment, shelter or appointment.
Three components
Koski divides her work into three components. The first is to connect with the transit agency’s different departments to collaborate, whether through working alongside public safety staffers or hosting listening sessions with driver operators.
The second part is to collaborate and work with community partners and outside organizations, such as local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, hospitals and food banks.
And finally, Koski talks directly to vulnerable populations on the streets in different situations: runaway youth, the unhoused, refugees and veterans.
With her frontline experience, Koski is more likely to hear about challenges.
For example, she said, regulations require riders to be wearing rubber-soled footwear before boarding a bus. She said that can pose a barrier to a barefoot person in need or crisis. Koski heard an account from a passenger turned away from a bus who had to spend money set aside for food to take a taxi from a Springfield hospital to Eugene.
Now, disposable spa slippers are available at customer service areas for people who need them. And the authority is making them more available.
“We are about to have the option that any driver-operator who wants to have slippers on their bus can carry the slippers now,” Kosk said. “So if they see someone in the community who doesn’t have shoes, who can’t make it on the bus, we will have these available.”
‘Koski corners’
Those supplies are just one example. Other needs are met through what the agency has dubbed “Koski corners.”
At customer service and public safety areas of the LTD’s Eugene and Springfield facilities, supplies to help people are on hand: hoodies, shower wipes, scarves, gloves and small snacks.
“It’s all through the lens of mobility,” Koski said. “Because we are the transit agency, but mobility is our focus. If it is pouring down rain and you’re in a tank top and shorts because that’s the only clothes you have, how do you safely get to where you need to be? And so we’re not saying that we’re a social service agency, but we’ve been able to find small little fixes to help make the community thrive.”
The goal is to help those who come into contact with the transit agency – and to have a seat at the table when regional agencies and organizations look for ways to help the homelessness.
Koski said that working in multiple settings gives her a perspective that motivates her work.
“I can go to a board meeting, I can walk into a chamber meeting,” Koski said. “I can go back to the country club and have these conversations, and then the next day I can be in an alleyway with the runaway.”
Along the way, she hears stories of heartache.
“What I have to do is compartmentalize everything that I see in here and bring it in a palatable way where we can affect change,” she said. “Sometimes the stories that I hear, or the terrors of what’s going on, I have to be the holder of those stories, and I have to find a way for myself to be able to keep those, so that we can really benefit and thrive as a community.”
Anni Katz, LTD’s public information officer, said Koski’s job points to her ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
“She is like this 24-armed octopus,” Katz said. “She’s just in everything.”
Aquatic animal comparisons aside, Koski downplays the attention.
“I don’t live for accolades,” Koski said. “I want my respect to be in the communities that I care about. I don’t need the honors or the awards or the accolades to prove my validity. My validity is through the heartbeats of the community that I serve.”
