Austin Folnagy’s home laid along the path of one the largest wildfires in Oregon history: the Holiday Farm Fire. Burning 173,393 acres and 768 structures, the fire swept through the McKenzie River Valley and Lance County area. Along with many others, the Holiday Farm Fire burned Folnagy’s home, leaving him –– a landlord with a passion for helping those experiencing housing insecurity –– homeless for a year. 

Folnagy’s property management business started in Klamath Falls, Oregon, working alongside Community Action Agency services. His rental property portfolio focused on assisting people get into housing through Catholic Charities and Lutheran Community Services organization, aiding homeless veterans and others who were housing insecure. 

In 2020, Folnagy moved to Lane County for Oregon’s homey charm. In the same year, the devastating Holiday Farm Fire left Folnagy displaced, earning his food and clothing from the generous hands of Lane County residents. 

Eugene is still under a housing crisis, meaning there is a major shortage of affordable housing. This shortage has led to Eugene being the second most housing constrained market in the country, according to Betsy Shultz, Better Housing Together’s board president and the regional affairs director strategies and government. “Recently, our home sales price has gone up to like $510,000, and our wages have certainly not kept pace with that,” Shultz says.

This in turn affects the amount of those experiencing homelessness in Lane County. According to Lane County’s Homeless Management Information System, “the total number of individuals experiencing homelessness has increased by 72% in the past 5 years, from 1,641 individuals in 2018 to 2,824 individuals in 2023.”

Once he was back on his feet, Folnagy decided there was only one option for his next business venture –– giving back to the community that saved him. “Quite frankly, to impact homelessness, it does take individual care, attention and resources, but the first step is housing; and that’s where I come in,” Folnagy says.

After the fire, Folnagy joined the Landlord Liaison in Klamath Falls, which is a pro-tenant organization dedicated to providing long-lasting housing solutions and good relationships between tenants and landlords. Folgany noticed many landlords wanted to get out of the Oregon rental market because of pro-tenant laws and rent strikes.

“They want to be able to have maximum profit margins, full ability to terminate a rental agreement, full ability to kick a tenant out. They’re more part of the problem than a solution,” Folnagy says. “So I bought from landlords that were trying to essentially get out of the Oregon market.”

These rental properties then went to help Looking Glass New Roads, which has been dedicated to stabilizing homeless youth since 1970. 

Of the 72% increase in the homeless population in the past 5 years, 411 cases involved homes with children. There are many adverse effects of youth homelessness, and they often are cyclical in nature. “Children who experience homelessness are also more likely to experience homelessness in adulthood,”  the National Conference of State Legislators says. 

Looking Glass New Roads is making action towards stopping this cycle. Their housing programs are able to rapidly connect families and individuals experiencing homelessness to permanent housing with time-limited financial assistance and targeted supportive services. Unlike homeless shelters that house a wide range of people, Looking Glass New Roads focuses on homeless youth and their individual needs. 

Looking Glass New Roads offers two programs: traditional emergency housing assistance and a developmental project. To enter either of these programs, youth must meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of homelessness. 

According to HUD, there are four categories of homelessness: literally homeless, imminent risk of homelessness, homeless under other federal statutes and fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence.

Only categories one and four will get youth into the Looking Glass New Roads program. “It’s a flawed system, but that’s the system we’re working in,” says Director of Homeless and Adjudicated Youth Services Maleigha Myers.

The emergency housing assistance program enables youth to move past trauma by providing  a rent-free unit for two years and case management aimed to help stabilize them. 

The developmental project extends that timeline because Looking Glass New Roads learned that 24 months was not enough time to recover.In this program, youth are provided with the first two years rent free, then they gradually begin paying their own rent for two more years. 

Myers oversees both programs. Myers has been working with teens in some capacity for the past 15 years and believes in this program because it allows youth to create their own goals towards stabilization. 

“I think what’s different about our program is we do go above and beyond, and we don’t just hit those bare minimums in the county contract. We really go based off of what we know teenagers and young adults are going to need,” Myers says. 

Once youth are placed in a home, Myers requires her staff to keep constant communication, which involves an array of activities: helping the youth find their identification documents, clean their space, earn a GED or budget their groceries. 

“The goal is we want to help these kids become productive members of society in the future, and to do that, we need to teach them problem solving,” Myers says. 

The landlord’s end of the process includes tailoring the facilities to the renters needs, signing  Looking Glass New Roads as the beginning primary lease holder, and eventually putting the properties under the renters name, all while providing them with supportive services. 

The process isn’t always glamorous. “We have a lot of kids with mental health issues and kids with addiction issues. And sometimes when those issues take over, it can be hard to watch them go down that path,” Myers says. However, Myers uses these setbacks as learning processes for the youth. According to Myers these setbacks show them the depth of life in how they may get pushed back, but it is how they recover that matters. 

Folnagy holds this same standard when renters have bad days. Having dealt with property damage or other accidents from residents, he believes things can be replaced but people cannot.