Two years after an initial test of the Sleep Trailer, Crossroads Communities is once again hosting the temporary shelter for a second trial run.
Crossroads Communities ran the program for one week in 2023, but this year they are testing it for three months in Lebanon before taking it to other counties for three-month trials.
Just as temperatures were about to drop to below freezing, Crossroads Communities invited houseless individuals on Jan. 6 to find rest (and warmth) in the Sleep Trailer, which sits in the River Center parking lot off Market Street.
Having already pioneered their first run with a Sleep Trailer, staff at Crossroads had an idea of what to expect and already had a system in place. Although managed on a first-come, first-serve basis, Executive Director Michael Couch explained that those who stay a previous night have first rights to stay the next night.
The structure is made up of eight separate sleeping units big enough for one adult and one pet or child, which lock from the inside. Each unit is coated with truck bed liner paint and a drain for easy cleaning, includes heating and cooling, and is equipped with a pallet base and a sleeping pad, as well as blankets or sleeping bags if needed.
“Tenants” check in each night at 4 p.m. and check out each morning at 8 a.m. Each person must agree to more than 20 rules of order, including no use or possession of illegal drugs, no use of fires or gas and electric units, cleanliness, no violence, maintaining quiet hours at night and assuming responsibility for their pods.
“It is possible to set up an arrangement for people to be safely sheltered for a period of time, as long as it’s managed,” Couch said. “If we check people in and we check people out, we keep an eye on the site, (then) we don’t have huge piles of trash here. We want to be able to make sure that wherever we get something set up, that we’re respectful of the people that are letting us use the site.”
Jason Christensen, of Salem, built the Sleep Trailer with a vision of organizations and government agencies purchasing his portable shelter for their needs – which, he noted, could also include shelter for wildland fire crews or families during natural disasters.
The concept originated about 10 years ago when Christensen asked himself why his community didn’t have anything better for the people sleeping under business overhangs. He looked at tiny homes, pallet shelters and capsule hotels before taking out a loan to build his modified version of what he learned.
“This is really designed to help the individuals that don’t wanna be in that situation anymore,” he said.
With his first prototype completed in August 2021, the next step was to find a customer to buy into the idea – be it a person, nonprofit organization, city or county. Crossroads was the first to host the initial pilot “proof of concept” program for Christensen’s trailer.
During February 2023, Crossroads ran a week-long test with the trailer in the parking lot at First Christian Church, reporting as many as 30 people lined up to stay a night on the first day.
Crossroads founder KJ Ullfers said their intention was to provide a temporary sheltering space “so they don’t die on the streets” while in the process of moving toward a better situation. If they found the initial trial run to prove itself useful, Crossroads would consider purchasing a trailer to continue the program in Lebanon.
But now they find themselves managing a year-long trial run in multiple counties, thanks to a grant from InterCommunity Health Network CCO.
“It’s all about health, right?,” Christensen said. “So the idea was, when people get a good night’s sleep and have a stable place to stay, mental health increases, your physical health increases; like all these health benefits can come from just having a safe, warm place to stay at night consistently.”
George Girard, who started staying at the Sleep Trailer in January, can attest to that. He lost housing when he was “down on his luck” about a year ago, and has been sleeping in his cramped truck since then. In so doing, poor circulation and other health problems have begun to manifest themselves, which he blames as the reason why he lost his most recent job.
But the Sleep Trailer gives Girard an opportunity to sleep in a warm, secure location and stretch his legs out, he said, noting that the pod is “pretty comfortable.”
“He’s moving so much better now,” Ullfers said. “His legs get so swollen up because of circulatory issues, and now he’s able to move around a lot better and do things.”
Girard is on his way to securing his own apartment through Crossroads’ housing program, but he wants the community to know that many homeless people are discriminated against.
“Sure, there’s a small handful that do things that are wrong, but not all homeless people are like that,” he said.
Christensen smiles at the beauty of his design.
“It’s enough to get people safe and stable, but not enough where they want to live the rest of their life there,” he said. “Once you start feeling safe and secure and you’re getting a full night’s sleep, then you start thinking, ‘What’s next?’”
Working with Crossroads has been “incredible,” Christensen said.
“When I started this thing, I literally had nothing. I was just, like, ‘this has to freaking happen.’ I don’t know how, I don’t know where. I just built it with no guarantees of anything,” he said.
Through a series of connections, Christensen met with Crossroads, which not only focuses on permanent housing, but also had many connections and resources to help him get to the next steps in his vision for the Sleep Trailer.
Within the first two weeks of operating the Sleep Trailer at River Center, Crossroads was able to find housing for two of its tenants. The couple, who are unnamed, had been unhoused for one year when they took to the Sleep Trailer and completed all the necessary work with Crossroads to get into an apartment.
Couch shared about another family staying at the Sleep Trailer. A father and his two sons had been living out of an SUV for about a year before securing nightly rest in their own Sleep Trailer units. After a few weeks, one of the sons secured a job interview, and the family is working through Crossroads’ housing program.
Each evening, staff assist with check-in. A volunteer from the Lebanon Soup Kitchen delivers food three days a week, and breakfast is available every Monday at the River Center. In the morning, Crossroads staff make sure tenants check out and perform unit cleaning when necessary.
“We have some minor critiques about things and ways that can be improved, but that’s the whole point for this pilot; it’s to try to see what’s needed,” Couch said.
Some of their ideas include ADA-accessible units and units with adjoining doors so couples and parents with children can access each other.
In April, Crossroads will move the trailer to Lincoln County where another organization has expressed interest in trying the program out.
Ullfers has said that – for Crossroads at least – the Sleep Trailer wouldn’t be intended as a permanent solution to a problem; just a stepping stone.
“Our focus is helping people move forward,” Couch said. “We’re not gonna push people, we’re not gonna pull people, but we’ll walk beside them.”