Moments into his first Alumni Meeting as a former Do Good Multnomah client, Anthony was already chatting with another visitor about wanting to expand the circle of attendees for the monthly gatherings at Multnomah County’s Behavioral Health Resource Center.
“I know, from living with some of the participants, that a lot of people come into the program looking at it more as a bed and a meal,” Anthony says. “They don’t realize the potential benefits of the program. I feel, if we can share what this program has done for us, it would enlighten people to see the impact.”
Anthony is referring to the center’s Bridge Housing Program, which provides 19 beds with an average stay of 90 days that helps serve as a transition to permanent housing..
He later suggested to Sherrilynn Blanton, the Do Good Multnomah qualified mental health professional who conceived and now facilitates the meetings, that they should also be open to current participants staying in the provider’s shelter and bridge housing programs.
Dane Achalas, Do Good Multnomah’s program team manager, says the Alumni Meeting can serve as a step forward for former clients adjusting to life in a place of their own after completing the program.
He frames it this way: For people who are houseless, the ambient sounds of the city are accompanied by a constant and high level of alertness many people surviving outside need to maintain their personal safety.
Leaving the streets for Do Good Multnomah’s shelter and housing programs — both inside the Behavioral Health Resource Center — represents a big shift in someone’s environment. But even then, he notes, clients still experience life in dorm-like settings with shared rooms and areas monitored by staff 24 hours daily.
“It’s never quiet,” Achalas says. “And even if it is quiet, you’re never alone.” Thus, he says, after life on the streets, and then in shelter housing settings, the transition to independent living can often be unsettling. Initially, at least.
“When we move somebody into their new apartment, hand them the keys, and the door closes,” he says, “for the first time in who-could-say however many years, they are by themselves.”
Even this monumental step toward stability can be “traumatic, to an extent.”
That’s why, Achalas explains, the standing monthly date to drop in casually to the Alumni Meeting has been well-received by the dozen or so former clients who regularly attend.
“We initially had that set up every other month, but a lot of the feedback we were getting.… expressed that this is something that they really look forward to,” he said. “It’s a reflection on the progress they’ve made — being able to come back to this place where they had a positive experience.”
The March meeting, the group’s third, attracted half a dozen housing program alums. They include Dwight, who completed the program last August; Anthony, who left in November; and John, who left early last month.
Most alums were referred to Do Good Multnomah shelter and housing programs after first coming to the Behavioral Health Resource Center’s day center, operated by the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon. The day center now provides meeting space for the alumni group.
Anthony, 47, chats amid an animated background conversation about this session’s eats: Popeye’s fried chicken. Behavioral Health Resource Center staff and alums eventually reach a verdict about the best fast-food fried chicken: Popeye’s is better than Kentucky Fried Chicken, but it’s not as good as Church’s Texas Chicken.
John changes the conversation to barbecue. Blanton politely passes. “I don’t go to a lot of barbecue places because I don’t like everybody’s barbecue.”
John retreats. “I can agree with that.”
With the matter settled, attention turns to Anthony and Blanton’s discussion of his idea to invite current Do Good Multnomah participants to the monthly meeting.
“To be honest, when I first came into the program,” he says to Blanton, “I heard you guys saying you did this and this and this. But I’d been let down so many times, it was something that was hard for me [to believe], until I actually saw firsthand what you guys did.
“I’m sure a lot of other people that come into this program think the same way. If they see former participants and hear about the successes and what you guys did for us, I feel that would help build a lot of people’s confidence.”
Blanton is receptive to Anthony’s idea, but she also explains that confidentiality requirements for current Do Good Multnomah clients can complicate having clients and alums gather together in meetings.
Joining the discussion, Dwight shares that part of why he’s at the meeting is because Do Good Multnomah programs showed him that “somebody does care about me.”
“I tell people that I was only homeless because of a series of unfortunate events,” he says. “When I was at my lowest, they helped me.… These people know me. These people really care. They see you’re having a bad day and pull you aside to talk with you, reassure you everything’s going to be OK.”
For Dwight, 34, the meeting is about “interacting with the people that went through the program and sharing our stories.”
“It’s like, I can relate because I know what you’re going through. It’s like a relatable shared experience.”
Anthony says he’ll be back. “The reason I’ve come to the Alumni Meeting: It’s nice to reunite with the staff that helped me, and with some of the participants that were in this program.”
