Overview:

Twelve people were stabbed in the lobby of the Union Gospel Mission of Salem on Sunday night. Leaders of Eugene shelters are now talking about safety of the local facilities.

A stabbing that left 12 injured at a Salem homeless shelter Sunday night has led local shelter leaders to discuss how to best keep their shelters safe.

“You step back and you think, let’s look at all of our systems and do an ‘internal audit’ to make sure everything is in order and working as best as it can be,” said Bethany Cartledge, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, which operates five emergency shelters in Eugene.

Cartledge said that rather than a formal review, the next step is to “take a step back” and discuss with staff members if any adjustments need to be made to safety practices.

The shelters operated by St. Vincent have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to threats made to clients, Cartledge said, and staff have received training about active shooter situations.

But “there’s no way to entirely safeguard any place, unfortunately, in the universe that we live in,” Cartledge said.

The Associated Press reported Salem police arrested a 42-year-old Bend man in connection with the attack, which began in the lobby of Union Gospel Mission of Salem. After speaking with people in the lobby, the man allegedly pulled out a knife and began stabbing others around him, according to police.

Eleven of the injured – including two shelter staff members – were taken to a hospital. The suspect was arrested across the street from the shelter. Five victims remained in the hospital as of Monday with serious injuries, the AP reported.

The AP also reported that the suspect, identified by police as Tony Williams, arrived Saturday in Salem by bus from Portland and was at the shelter a short time before police were called.

Sheryl Balthrop, executive director of Eugene Mission, said she received word of the stabbing “first thing this morning” from the director of the mission shelter in Salem. Both are faith-based shelters.

“They’re obviously shaken up a bit and asking for prayer,” Balthrop said.

The shelters in Eugene and Salem both tend to clients traveling along the Interstate 5 corridor, Balthrop noted.

“Many of us have some of the same interactions,” Balthrop said, though she said no similar attacks have happened at Eugene Mission’s roughly 350-person capacity shelter.

“Thankfully, we have not had anything of this level of seriousness or scope, but we have had situations that could have escalated,” Balthrop said.

But the recent stabbing has brought the question of safety to the minds of many, she said.

“That’s been a discussion that I’ve been hearing throughout the day in our hallways: Are people safe? Can they be safe? And those are hard questions I think everybody needs to be asking themselves,” Balthrop said.

The safety of the shelter is a strong selling point for the unhoused, according to Balthrop.

“We do everything possible so that guests feel safe. They are leaving the dangerous, chaotic environment of the street, and we are doing our best to have a peaceful place where they can rest and not worry about those types of things,” she said.

But Cartledge expressed concern about how acts of violence can affect decisions made by the unhoused about seeking shelter services.

“You never want folks to feel afraid to go and receive services,” she said.