In the warmth of a late-spring day, in front of the Community Supported Shelters office on Grant Street, Blake Burrell strikes up a conversation with a familiar face. He gives a warm hug and kind words before unlocking the front door to the social service office. 

The office is full of resources like clothing, survival items, food and water. The backyard houses a handful of micro-shelter Conestoga Huts and a yurt for community gatherings. Burrell greets residents as he sees them, asking for updates about pets, hobbies, jobs and how their days have been going. 

Burrell is a co-executive director at CSS, operating as the director of community impact. Originally from Ohio, he moved to Eugene during the pandemic and started working at St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, focusing on the agency’s social services, shelter and tenant education programs. Driven by what he called an obvious need for more housing access in Lane County, he found his way to CSS in the fall of 2023. 

He said his “bread and butter is people and programming,” and much of his job is centered on human services work and shelter management, in addition to creating a welcoming and supportive culture across CSS and its shelter sites. There are 12 Safe Spot communities managed by CSS serving between 135 and 145 people at any time.

“I had a really strong desire to support folks who are unhoused and when I moved to Eugene, it was kind of shocking how inaccessible housing was, especially for folks who are on fixed or low-income,” Burrell said, noting that when he made the move to Oregon, he didn’t have a plan for work in mind. “I just knew that I wanted to do work that supported folks who were unhoused. I was looking into supporting the affordable housing sector and then I saw how much need there was to support folks who are experiencing unsheltered and sheltered homelessness, so I was really drawn to a couple of the organizations here.”

Lane County’s 2025 Point in Time (PIT) Count found 3,509 people experiencing homelessness on the night of Jan. 29, representing a 14% increase in count numbers from 2024. More than 45%, 1,630 people, identified as chronically unhoused — a problem rooted in lack of affordability and access to housing.

As Lane County's unhoused population increases, people like Burrell are helping to ease the struggles of inequity and provide much-needed stabilization resources and support. 

Burrell also has been acting as chair of Eugene’s Human Rights Commission, leading difficult discussions and pressing the city to address concerns and meet challenges with tenacity and a desire to improve. There is significant overlap between his day job and the work of a human rights commissioner, and much of it revolves around building and changing systems to help people from all walks of life.

“When I think about our program model, I really want to build out things that improve people’s quality of life and create some reprieve from what can be sometimes a really tumultuous system,” Burrell said. “There’s a lot of suffering in our community when it comes to being unhoused and to trying to access housing resources and stabilize and just dream. When you’re focused on survival, dreaming about your future can be really hard.”

In 2024, Burrell estimated that over 700 people visited the CSS Social Service Office and Access Center, while about 250 people lived in the agency’s shelter program. Many of the employees at CSS are program participants themselves and, this past year, CSS saw a handful of employees move on to stable housing. 

He said staying hopeful in the face of discriminatory systems and meritocratic societal norms requires him to remain optimistic. He said his mother repeated a mantra when she was battling cancer — “Every day, I wake up and see the sunshine” — and that phrase has inspired him to decide what kind of day he will have. 

“You can live in a world that is sometimes dark and sometimes hard but you can say, ‘I want to be happy, I want to be optimistic,’ and every day, you can find something that brings you happiness or joy,” Burrell said. “I have some really strong figures (in my life) and I think that they’ve taught me to live through really hard circumstances. Seeing people overcome things and realizing that even though your life looks really dismal right now, you can wake up and see the sunshine helps.”