Helping Navigate Toward a Better Place:

Service Navigator Kai Batalona

March 30, 2021


When people move into one of the eight CSS Safe Spot camps, they are also moving into a CSS culture with a community of support staff whose goal is to help them create a better future.

 

Setting life-improvement goals and identifying steps to meet them is an important part of the social support program.

 

Kai Batalona is one of three “service navigators,” who work with residents to help them identify options for moving forward in their lives. He took the position in January and is becoming well acquainted with the variety of opportunities for assistance in Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County. The other service navigators are Marie Laura Roehrich and Suzi Wilkins.

 

“When I first meet with someone, the first thing I tell them is I want them to move on to a better situation,” Kai says. “This program is basically a short-term opportunity to help them get back on their feet, and I want them to make the best of it.”

A service navigator is similar to a case manager. The job involves meeting with residents, helping them to identify personal strengths to overcome challenges in their lives and to seek out opportunities for housing and whatever else would help them move forward and become successful.

 

Kai shares information with residents about local resources from a spreadsheet of agency names and contacts. The list is growing and includes local housing referrals, addiction treatment programs, mental health counselling, and more.

 

Hawaii is Kai’s native home. He moved to Portland in 2013 and to Eugene last year. He started with CSS as a resident at the Vet’s Safe Spot camp. We recognized his strong skill set and friendly ‘laid back’ attitude towards everyone and offered him a paid position with the CSS Service Team. He then moved to the Reboot Station on W. 11th, where several other CSS service staff members live & now he has just moved into his own apartment.

 

“I’m very thankful to CSS for everything they’ve done for me,” he said. “I’m so blessed to be here.”

 

Kai comes to CSS with a wealth of experiences and background in working with people experiencing homelessness. Having served 16 years in the Hawaii Army National Guard, he has particular expertise in working with veterans. He understands the ins and outs of working with the Veterans Administration and looks for ways to help veterans receive any and all benefits to which they’re entitled, including GI benefits.

 

While living in Portland, Kai worked at Do Good Multnomah, a great organization that helps veterans and veteran households with low-barrier, year-round emergency shelter, transitional housing, and outreach. He also worked in student financial aid for over 25 years, including stints at the University of Hawaii and Portland State.

 

“I really love this organization and working at CSS,” he says. “And I’m very happy to be a part of this great team.”

 

“Kai really brings a lot of life and work experiences to our organization,” says CSS Operations Director Erik de Buhr. “We’re really happy to have him as a member of our growing social service support staff.”

News & Events

To stay connected and learn about upcoming events, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.


If you are a member of the media who is seeking information or would like to request an interview, contact community@cssoregon.org.


Subscribe to Newsletter

August 2025

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun

28

29

30

31

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

The Future: A New Building For CSS!

July 26, 2025
Because of your support, we’re growing into something bigger—two new spaces designed to better serve our unhoused neighbors. Community Supported Shelters is in the middle of an exciting transformation. After over a decade at our Grant Street location, we’ve purchased a new building that will allow us to bring our in

The Present: CSS to Make a Big Move

July 25, 2025
“Everyone will have desks,” declares Blake Burrell, CSS Director of Community Impact, anticipating the move of most of the CSS staff and programs from 1160 Grant Street to 2870 West 10th Place, a former Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles facility. The move will take place between now and the end of 2025.

The Past: A History of Heart at 1160 Grant

July 24, 2025
Erik de Buhr fell in love with the building at 1160 Grant long before there was a Community Supported Shelters. He was involved with a group that built things out of salvaged materials (Resurrected Refuse Action Team), including huts that would turn out to be precursors to the CSS Conestoga Huts. “I’d been eyeballing t

CSS is Now Operating the Nightingale Safe Spot

July 23, 2025
In partnership with the Nightingale Board of Directors and the City of Eugene, CSS is ensuring the Nightingale Safe Spot continues to operate in South Eugene. In the month of July, CSS officially began to operate the Nightingale Safe Spot Community in South Eugene. As the organization moves its home to our new building

Donor Spotlight: Eugene REALTORS® YPN

July 22, 2025
The Eugene REALTORS® Young Professionals Network had their yearly ‘Sip of Summer’ event to raise money for Community Supported Shelters. A good time was had by all with games, a raffle, BBQ, and great networking at Alton Baker Park. This was their 5th fundraiser for CSS, and they raised $3,300 this year to Adopt-a-Hut.

Volunteer Spotlight: UO Duck Corps

July 21, 2025
This summer, we've been collaborating with UO Duck Corps, who have been giving Hut exteriors some good scrubbing. Dustin (the staff member taking the selfie), says, "It's so encouraging to see a younger generation work against stereotypes about the unhoused and have such an interest in helping their community."

Lowe’s Hometowns grant will fund vital upgrades to CSS’s Access Center

June 24, 2025
Community Supported Shelters (CSS) has been proudly selected as a 2025 Lowe’s Hometowns project, one of only 100 community-nominated, large-scale renovations nationwide. This recognition is part of Lowe’s five-year, $100 million commitment to revitalizing the spaces that serve as the heartbeat of hometowns across Ameri

As Eugene's unhoused numbers rise, Blake Burrell helps struggling people dream

June 15, 2025
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, surviv
I didn't want to participate in the 5K. Too early on a Saturday morning, and besides, I don't love c

The first-ever Team CSS runs at the Eugene Marathon

April 30, 2025
I didn't want to participate in the 5K. Too early on a Saturday morning, and besides, I don't love crowds. Then I learned that CSS wasn't only buying tickets for staff to participate, but we were also buying up to 10 tickets for our clients to join the first-ever Team CSS for the 5K run at the Eugene Marathon.

Workforce Development: Creating Paths to Employment

April 15, 2025
In a September 2023 interview, Sabrina, who had been in a CSS Hut for about two years, said, “It's been well over 10 years since I've had a job, because my drug habit has caused me to be homeless.”
Show More