Every week, people gather in a parking lot in Southeast Portland for the Lents Community Wellness Fair, hosted by nonprofit PDX Saints Love. The event brings clothing, supplies, hot meals, and connections with services directly to people experiencing homelessness.
On a recent Monday, Jessica was among the PDX Saints Love employees chatting and laughing with the crowd, serving up scoops of bread pudding for people in attendance. For Jessica, the work of giving back to her community is incredibly fulfilling.
“Maybe it’s selfish, but I get my enjoyment out of making other people happy,” she said.
Jessica was homeless herself until very recently. After more than a decade on the streets, she moved into her own apartment in December 2023, thanks to the statewide rapid rehousing initiative called Oregon All In and provider Do Good Multnomah. She’s one of the 261 people in Multnomah County who’ve now been housed through the program — exceeding the state’s goals.
“Because of Oregon All In, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to have my own place — let alone a place at all — since I was 14,” she said.
Jessica first became homeless as a teenager. At first, she said, the independence was exciting. “It was a short-lived lesson,” she said. “I felt free for like two days, but then I realized how hard it was to exist.”
She lived on the streets for more than a decade, moving up and down the West Coast from central Oregon, to Portland, to southern California and Las Vegas. Eventually she ended up back in Portland to be closer to her young daughter, who lives with Jessica’s father.
Jessica never stayed in a shelter or temporary housing, she said, but she still found community wherever she went. “Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve always flocked with someone else,” she said, adding that people experiencing homelessness are “some of the nicest people that I've ever met.”
In summer 2023, she was camping in Lents when she connected with Urban Alchemy’s outreach team. Jessica was interested in moving into the nearby Reedway Safe Rest Village, operated by Urban Alchemy, which had recently opened.
She said things moved quickly from there. Within a day, she had her own personal pod at the village.
Being at a Safe Rest Village was a huge change from being unsheltered. Thanks to having her own locked door, she no longer had to carry all of her belongings in a 50-pound backpack everywhere she went, and she was able to finally feel some safety and security.
Urban Alchemy told her that staff from Do Good Multnomah were helping people living in the village move into housing, through a program called Oregon All In.
Oregon All In serves as lesson for Housing Multnomah Now
That connection between Urban Alchemy and Do Good Multnomah — providing shelter participants with a path to housing — was facilitated by the Joint Office of Homeless Services as part of Oregon All In. The program sent state funds to communities across Oregon to urgently move thousands of people from homelessness to housing, as well as increase shelter beds and eviction prevention services.
In late 2023 and early 2024, providers like Do Good Multnomah, contracted with the Joint Office, worked urgently to use those resources to house people who had recently experienced unsheltered homelessness — including many people who had recently moved into the City’s Safe Rest Villages and the Clinton Street Temporary Alternative Shelter Site (TASS).
By Jan. 10, Multnomah County and the City of Portland had met or exceeded all their goals for Oregon All In, including housing 234 people through the program over the course of a few months.
Lessons from Oregon All In are now helping improve a related County initiative called Housing Multnomah Now that also works to house unsheltered and recently unsheltered people.
This week, Housing Multnomah Now is adding a new work area serving people unsheltered in downtown/Old Town Portland. But the housing providers working with the program are also taking a page from Oregon All In and working with shelter providers as an additional pathway, serving people who have recently been moved from camps to sites including Safe Rest Villages and the Clinton Street TASS.
‘I didn’t believe it’
Jessica was one of those people housed through the state program, but she was skeptical at first, expecting the promise of housing to turn into a game of “cat and mouse.”
“When I first heard housing was an option, I didn’t believe it, just because I’ve been on the streets for so long,” she said.
She decided to give it a try anyway, and had her first meeting with Christian, a Do Good Multnomah case manager, at a picnic bench in the village in October 2023. He walked her through what steps would be involved in getting her own apartment.
“My biggest barrier for housing was income. And my credit score is pretty messed up,” she said.
Christian helped her navigate those barriers, including writing a promissory note for her when she applied for apartments. Jessica thinks the promissory note was key to her getting approved for an apartment.
On Dec. 28, she moved into her own place. The flexible client assistance provided through Oregon All In helped cover moving costs, and she was able to buy her own furniture for the first time in her life.
“Everything still feels surreal,” she said. “Oregon All In has helped me feel a sense of security. I’m finally able to progress and do the stuff I haven’t been able to do.”
And through her work at PDX Saints Love, she’s able to do what she loves, helping people in her community. She says connecting with people experiencing homelessness on a human level is crucial. It’s what helped her succeed with Oregon All In.
“This whole program saw me as a person,” she said. “Doing that more often with people, that’s going to be the biggest start to changing the problem.”
