Homeless advocates mourning after death of woman known as ‘Mama Carrie’
Carrie Lucinda Miller was found on the steps of Eugene’s White Bird Clinic
By Chelsea Gorrow
The Register-Guard
Jan. 13, 2017
Members of the homeless community and advocacy groups are mourning the death of a woman who was found dead on the steps of the White Bird Clinic in Eugene early Tuesday.
Carrie Lucinda Miller, 58, known as “Mama Carrie” to many, will be memorialized at noon Wednesday at Central Presbyterian Church on East 15th Avenue, just a few blocks from where she was found dead. The service is open to the public.
“She was an amazingly talented and intelligent woman,” said David Strahan, an advocate for the homeless and a volunteer at the Egan Warming Centers. “This was a horrific tragedy and big blow to the success of what we’ve accomplished.”
Strahan had known Miller for the past six years and said he had learned some of her life story in that time. She was an alcoholic, he said, who started drinking at age 9 during a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family. She moved to Eugene about 20 years ago from her home state of Oklahoma and had lived on the streets ever since.
“In my mind, we failed her by not getting her — and the more vulnerable members of our community — off of the streets and into a shelter,” Strahan said.
The Lane County District Attorney’s Office released Miller’s name Thursday, after relatives were notified of her death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday, but the Lane County medical examiner found no obvious anatomical cause for Miller’s death, Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said. Toxicology results are pending and could take six weeks.
According to Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, no foul play is suspected.
The cold weather might have been a factor; temperatures dipped into the low 30s that night. McLaughlin said Miller was staying Monday night with a group of people on the porch of the clinic, at 341 E. 12th Ave.
Around midnight, one of the people in the group noticed that Miller “did not look right,” so he checked on her and notified White Bird employees, McLaughlin said, and they called police.
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), the mobile medics of the White Bird Clinic, also responded, arriving first on scene. CAHOOTS staff started CPR until Eugene police and medics arrived and pronounced Miller dead.
Strahan said medics tried for more than an hour to revive Miller.
“You can’t live on the streets of Eugene for 20 years and not have the weather play a role in your death,” Strahan said. “But being a lifelong alcoholic can’t help, either.”
The Egan Warming Centers were started in memory of Major Thomas Egan, a homeless veteran of the U.S. Army who froze to death in Eugene in 2008.
Between Nov. 15 and March 31, the centers open if the temperature drops below 30 degrees in Eugene. The shelters were not open earlier this week when Miller died. On Thursday, centers were opened at a number of churches throughout Eugene and Springfield, as well as at Lane Community College.
Strahan said there was a time just a few years ago when things were looking up for Miller. She was a resident of the controversial Whoville homeless camp in Eugene, which was cleared out in 2014 by Eugene police with the help of the SWAT team. Before the police intervention, Strahan said, Miller was functioning well in the Whoville community. She even was considered a mother figure by several of those in the camp.
“When she lived in Whoville, she was amazing. She drank much less, she wrote poetry and she advocated for the people there. … She was a wonderful part of society,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that sense of community anymore, she drank. Old English was her specialty.”
Strahan said he and other homeless advocates at one time had studied Miller, and estimated that she cost the city almost $1 million by living on the streets, factoring in police interactions, ambulance rides, court cases, doctor visits and trips to the emergency room. Providing her a shelter, he said, would have cost much less.
“In the seven months she lived in Whoville, she had one interaction with the police. She got no citation, and they brought her back to the camp instead of taking her to jail. They brought her home,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that anymore, she slept on the sidewalk. … At the end, where she was staying outside the White Bird, those people were her family.
“She needed shelter; she needed basic shelter, and we failed her.”
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35171854-75/homeless-advocates-mourning-after-death-of-woman-known-as-mama-carrie.html.csp
Carrie Lucinda Miller was found on the steps of Eugene’s White Bird Clinic
By Chelsea Gorrow
The Register-Guard
Jan. 13, 2017
Members of the homeless community and advocacy groups are mourning the death of a woman who was found dead on the steps of the White Bird Clinic in Eugene early Tuesday.
Carrie Lucinda Miller, 58, known as “Mama Carrie” to many, will be memorialized at noon Wednesday at Central Presbyterian Church on East 15th Avenue, just a few blocks from where she was found dead. The service is open to the public.
“She was an amazingly talented and intelligent woman,” said David Strahan, an advocate for the homeless and a volunteer at the Egan Warming Centers. “This was a horrific tragedy and big blow to the success of what we’ve accomplished.”
Strahan had known Miller for the past six years and said he had learned some of her life story in that time. She was an alcoholic, he said, who started drinking at age 9 during a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family. She moved to Eugene about 20 years ago from her home state of Oklahoma and had lived on the streets ever since.
“In my mind, we failed her by not getting her — and the more vulnerable members of our community — off of the streets and into a shelter,” Strahan said.
The Lane County District Attorney’s Office released Miller’s name Thursday, after relatives were notified of her death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday, but the Lane County medical examiner found no obvious anatomical cause for Miller’s death, Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said. Toxicology results are pending and could take six weeks.
According to Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, no foul play is suspected.
The cold weather might have been a factor; temperatures dipped into the low 30s that night. McLaughlin said Miller was staying Monday night with a group of people on the porch of the clinic, at 341 E. 12th Ave.
Around midnight, one of the people in the group noticed that Miller “did not look right,” so he checked on her and notified White Bird employees, McLaughlin said, and they called police.
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), the mobile medics of the White Bird Clinic, also responded, arriving first on scene. CAHOOTS staff started CPR until Eugene police and medics arrived and pronounced Miller dead.
Strahan said medics tried for more than an hour to revive Miller.
“You can’t live on the streets of Eugene for 20 years and not have the weather play a role in your death,” Strahan said. “But being a lifelong alcoholic can’t help, either.”
The Egan Warming Centers were started in memory of Major Thomas Egan, a homeless veteran of the U.S. Army who froze to death in Eugene in 2008.
Between Nov. 15 and March 31, the centers open if the temperature drops below 30 degrees in Eugene. The shelters were not open earlier this week when Miller died. On Thursday, centers were opened at a number of churches throughout Eugene and Springfield, as well as at Lane Community College.
Strahan said there was a time just a few years ago when things were looking up for Miller. She was a resident of the controversial Whoville homeless camp in Eugene, which was cleared out in 2014 by Eugene police with the help of the SWAT team. Before the police intervention, Strahan said, Miller was functioning well in the Whoville community. She even was considered a mother figure by several of those in the camp.
“When she lived in Whoville, she was amazing. She drank much less, she wrote poetry and she advocated for the people there. … She was a wonderful part of society,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that sense of community anymore, she drank. Old English was her specialty.”
Strahan said he and other homeless advocates at one time had studied Miller, and estimated that she cost the city almost $1 million by living on the streets, factoring in police interactions, ambulance rides, court cases, doctor visits and trips to the emergency room. Providing her a shelter, he said, would have cost much less.
“In the seven months she lived in Whoville, she had one interaction with the police. She got no citation, and they brought her back to the camp instead of taking her to jail. They brought her home,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that anymore, she slept on the sidewalk. … At the end, where she was staying outside the White Bird, those people were her family.
“She needed shelter; she needed basic shelter, and we failed her.”
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35171854-75/homeless-advocates-mourning-after-death-of-woman-known-as-mama-carrie.html.csp
Homeless advocates mourning after death of woman known as ‘Mama Carrie’
Carrie Lucinda Miller was found on the steps of Eugene’s White Bird Clinic
By Chelsea Gorrow
The Register-Guard
Jan. 13, 2017
Members of the homeless community and advocacy groups are mourning the death of a woman who was found dead on the steps of the White Bird Clinic in Eugene early Tuesday.
Carrie Lucinda Miller, 58, known as “Mama Carrie” to many, will be memorialized at noon Wednesday at Central Presbyterian Church on East 15th Avenue, just a few blocks from where she was found dead. The service is open to the public.
“She was an amazingly talented and intelligent woman,” said David Strahan, an advocate for the homeless and a volunteer at the Egan Warming Centers. “This was a horrific tragedy and big blow to the success of what we’ve accomplished.”
Strahan had known Miller for the past six years and said he had learned some of her life story in that time. She was an alcoholic, he said, who started drinking at age 9 during a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family. She moved to Eugene about 20 years ago from her home state of Oklahoma and had lived on the streets ever since.
“In my mind, we failed her by not getting her — and the more vulnerable members of our community — off of the streets and into a shelter,” Strahan said.
The Lane County District Attorney’s Office released Miller’s name Thursday, after relatives were notified of her death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday, but the Lane County medical examiner found no obvious anatomical cause for Miller’s death, Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said. Toxicology results are pending and could take six weeks.
According to Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, no foul play is suspected.
The cold weather might have been a factor; temperatures dipped into the low 30s that night. McLaughlin said Miller was staying Monday night with a group of people on the porch of the clinic, at 341 E. 12th Ave.
Around midnight, one of the people in the group noticed that Miller “did not look right,” so he checked on her and notified White Bird employees, McLaughlin said, and they called police.
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), the mobile medics of the White Bird Clinic, also responded, arriving first on scene. CAHOOTS staff started CPR until Eugene police and medics arrived and pronounced Miller dead.
Strahan said medics tried for more than an hour to revive Miller.
“You can’t live on the streets of Eugene for 20 years and not have the weather play a role in your death,” Strahan said. “But being a lifelong alcoholic can’t help, either.”
The Egan Warming Centers were started in memory of Major Thomas Egan, a homeless veteran of the U.S. Army who froze to death in Eugene in 2008.
Between Nov. 15 and March 31, the centers open if the temperature drops below 30 degrees in Eugene. The shelters were not open earlier this week when Miller died. On Thursday, centers were opened at a number of churches throughout Eugene and Springfield, as well as at Lane Community College.
Strahan said there was a time just a few years ago when things were looking up for Miller. She was a resident of the controversial Whoville homeless camp in Eugene, which was cleared out in 2014 by Eugene police with the help of the SWAT team. Before the police intervention, Strahan said, Miller was functioning well in the Whoville community. She even was considered a mother figure by several of those in the camp.
“When she lived in Whoville, she was amazing. She drank much less, she wrote poetry and she advocated for the people there. … She was a wonderful part of society,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that sense of community anymore, she drank. Old English was her specialty.”
Strahan said he and other homeless advocates at one time had studied Miller, and estimated that she cost the city almost $1 million by living on the streets, factoring in police interactions, ambulance rides, court cases, doctor visits and trips to the emergency room. Providing her a shelter, he said, would have cost much less.
“In the seven months she lived in Whoville, she had one interaction with the police. She got no citation, and they brought her back to the camp instead of taking her to jail. They brought her home,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that anymore, she slept on the sidewalk. … At the end, where she was staying outside the White Bird, those people were her family.
“She needed shelter; she needed basic shelter, and we failed her.”
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35171854-75/homeless-advocates-mourning-after-death-of-woman-known-as-mama-carrie.html.csp
Carrie Lucinda Miller was found on the steps of Eugene’s White Bird Clinic
By Chelsea Gorrow
The Register-Guard
Jan. 13, 2017
Members of the homeless community and advocacy groups are mourning the death of a woman who was found dead on the steps of the White Bird Clinic in Eugene early Tuesday.
Carrie Lucinda Miller, 58, known as “Mama Carrie” to many, will be memorialized at noon Wednesday at Central Presbyterian Church on East 15th Avenue, just a few blocks from where she was found dead. The service is open to the public.
“She was an amazingly talented and intelligent woman,” said David Strahan, an advocate for the homeless and a volunteer at the Egan Warming Centers. “This was a horrific tragedy and big blow to the success of what we’ve accomplished.”
Strahan had known Miller for the past six years and said he had learned some of her life story in that time. She was an alcoholic, he said, who started drinking at age 9 during a difficult childhood in a dysfunctional family. She moved to Eugene about 20 years ago from her home state of Oklahoma and had lived on the streets ever since.
“In my mind, we failed her by not getting her — and the more vulnerable members of our community — off of the streets and into a shelter,” Strahan said.
The Lane County District Attorney’s Office released Miller’s name Thursday, after relatives were notified of her death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday, but the Lane County medical examiner found no obvious anatomical cause for Miller’s death, Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said. Toxicology results are pending and could take six weeks.
According to Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin, no foul play is suspected.
The cold weather might have been a factor; temperatures dipped into the low 30s that night. McLaughlin said Miller was staying Monday night with a group of people on the porch of the clinic, at 341 E. 12th Ave.
Around midnight, one of the people in the group noticed that Miller “did not look right,” so he checked on her and notified White Bird employees, McLaughlin said, and they called police.
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets), the mobile medics of the White Bird Clinic, also responded, arriving first on scene. CAHOOTS staff started CPR until Eugene police and medics arrived and pronounced Miller dead.
Strahan said medics tried for more than an hour to revive Miller.
“You can’t live on the streets of Eugene for 20 years and not have the weather play a role in your death,” Strahan said. “But being a lifelong alcoholic can’t help, either.”
The Egan Warming Centers were started in memory of Major Thomas Egan, a homeless veteran of the U.S. Army who froze to death in Eugene in 2008.
Between Nov. 15 and March 31, the centers open if the temperature drops below 30 degrees in Eugene. The shelters were not open earlier this week when Miller died. On Thursday, centers were opened at a number of churches throughout Eugene and Springfield, as well as at Lane Community College.
Strahan said there was a time just a few years ago when things were looking up for Miller. She was a resident of the controversial Whoville homeless camp in Eugene, which was cleared out in 2014 by Eugene police with the help of the SWAT team. Before the police intervention, Strahan said, Miller was functioning well in the Whoville community. She even was considered a mother figure by several of those in the camp.
“When she lived in Whoville, she was amazing. She drank much less, she wrote poetry and she advocated for the people there. … She was a wonderful part of society,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that sense of community anymore, she drank. Old English was her specialty.”
Strahan said he and other homeless advocates at one time had studied Miller, and estimated that she cost the city almost $1 million by living on the streets, factoring in police interactions, ambulance rides, court cases, doctor visits and trips to the emergency room. Providing her a shelter, he said, would have cost much less.
“In the seven months she lived in Whoville, she had one interaction with the police. She got no citation, and they brought her back to the camp instead of taking her to jail. They brought her home,” Strahan said. “When she didn’t have that anymore, she slept on the sidewalk. … At the end, where she was staying outside the White Bird, those people were her family.
“She needed shelter; she needed basic shelter, and we failed her.”
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/35171854-75/homeless-advocates-mourning-after-death-of-woman-known-as-mama-carrie.html.csp
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