Since opening in 2020, the Jamii Center has been providing extra support to people experiencing homelessness. Operated by the Urban League of Portland, the program prioritizes older adults living with a chronic illness or disability who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).
Like the dozens of other shelters funded or supported by Multnomah County and the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the motel shelter provides not just a safe place to sleep, but it also offers wraparound services that lead people on the path to long-term stability.
Joseph, who has been at the shelter since January 2024, said those services have made a huge difference for him.
“When I entered into the program, I didn’t know much about it. I just knew I needed some help,” he said. Since moving into the shelter, he said he’s been able to find stable work and make progress in other areas of his life.
“Due to the stability of the program and the foundation that Jamii and the Urban League have created for a lot of the individuals in the program, it tends to have you move forward,” he said.
He’s especially proud of being able to support his 17-year-old son. “He’s graduating from high school this month, and me and his mom have been able to afford for him to continue his dual enrollment in college,” he said.
Joseph shared his story with the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 12, 2024. The Board voted unanimously to support a plan to relocate the Jamii Center to a new and larger location: a Motel 6 on North Schmeer Avenue in Portland. The 10-year lease for the new location will ensure the program’s long-term stability.
The Jamii Center, which originally opened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, is currently located in the Palms Motel on North Interstate Avenue. But the lease for that location is expiring in January 2025, which prompted the Joint Office and the Urban League of Portland to find a new site for the shelter.
The relocation will allow the program to continue serving people like Joseph. And it will expand the shelter by 18 rooms, bringing the total to 65.
The Joint Office said the relocation is in line with its two-year Community Sheltering Strategy that was completed in 2024 in partnership with the City of Portland, the City of Gresham and shelter providers.
Anna Plumb, deputy director of the Joint Office, said one of the central goals of that strategy, after expanding shelter capacity, is maintaining existing shelters and ensuring they have the necessary resources to help people find stability and a pathway back to housing.
“This is an existing program, and we are maintaining and expanding that program,” Plumb said.
The Joint Office said that the new lease is about what they would pay if they renewed and renegotiated their lease at the Palms: $75 per room per day. But the Motel 6 is also newer, meaning it has more accessibility features and will require less maintenance.
Jamii Center shows strong outcomes for participants
The Joint Office and the Urban League highlighted the program’s successes. The program served 79 people in fiscal year 2024, with an average occupancy rate of 101%.
About 97% of the guests identified as BIPOC, with 95% older than 55. And over the course of the year, 55% of the guests who left the shelter exited to permanent housing.
“Our programs focus not only on supporting our neighbors who have hit rock bottom, but doing so in a holistic and empowering manner that emphasizes dignity, self-determination and centering our shared humanity,” said Katrina Holland, the Urban League of Portland’s strategic engagement officer and interim director of housing.
Holland said Jamii Center participants receive housing navigation and placement services, along with health navigation services and employment support.
“This program has been critical in supporting our neighbors experiencing the trauma of homelessness with having a soft place to land, regaining a modicum of stability and then finding a launching pad for long-term success in housing,” she said.
“We appreciate our partnership together and look forward to our continued work serving our community.”
People of color, and people who are Black in particular, appear on the Joint Office’s by-name list of people experiencing homelessness at a rate disproportionate to their share of the County’s overall population. The Joint Office has committed to helping reduce disparities by supporting and growing culturally specific programs and services — a goal also required by the Metro Supportive Housing Services Measure.
Tyrone Miller, a resident advocate at Jamii Center, described the work that goes into ensuring that the facility minimizes its impact to surrounding neighbors.
“Our participants are senior citizens, and they are very respectful, and very grateful,” Miller said. “There’s no tents, there’s no camping around the Jamii Center.”
Miller said his work is meaningful to him because of his lived experience.
“I’m a success story. I was homeless for many years,” he said. After receiving services from the Urban League, he was able to find stable employment at the Jamii Center. “The Jamii Center changed my life. I really appreciate the Urban League for supporting people like me.”
Board asks questions and shares thoughts
Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards shared her support of the project, but raised concerns about community engagement. The Joint Office had shared that since the new location is in a commercial/industrial district and has no residential neighbors within a quarter-mile radius, they are pursuing conversations with direct neighbors but aren’t conducting a good neighbor agreement process.
“As we continue to site operations throughout the County, [we need] to really proactively engage with our neighbors, whether they be businesses or local residents, and provide information. I find most of the time, when the County provides information and listens to questions or concerns, many of the issues that are raised can be addressed in a positive way,” she said. “The County always needs to be a good neighbor, because that’s how we gain acceptance as we move into different neighborhoods.”
Commissioner Lori Stegmann highlighted the importance of engaging with the business community, and recommended that in the future, the Joint Office engage more directly with neighboring businesses. She also said something like a systems development charge for new services could help mitigate any impacts to a neighborhood, saying that changes being proposed by Metro to the Supportive Housing Services Measure could be an opportunity to discuss that type of change.
“I think most people would agree that there is an impact to communities that could result in increased costs for businesses and residents, whether that's public safety or economic preservation or economic development,” she said. “I encourage us, as we look at SHS [Supportive Housing Services] money in the future, that we consider some type of neighborhood impact fund or a business community fund.”
Commissioner Sharon Meieran said that while she supports the program, she had questions about continued investments in motel shelters.
“They are necessary in very limited situations for a small number of people. So, if we are using our funds, in light of constraints and deficits, investing in motels is generally the opposite of what we should be doing in terms of our shelter strategy. We need to be clear about what criteria we use to determine what motels should be used for and do that in advance,” she said. “What are those criteria that you consider, what will induce you to select a motel shelter for someone rather than another type of shelter?”
“We are committed to providing a variety of types of shelter for people’s needs. And there are some alternative shelters that are more expensive than motel shelters, so motel shelters are not the most expensive model,” Plumb said, noting motel shelters “have excellent exits to permanent housing. It is one of our most successful programs in terms of moving people on to housing, which is the ultimate goal.”
Commissioner Shannon Singleton praised the work of the Urban League. She added that in order for shelters to work, they need to have access to housing resources.
“Having run a shelter that had no housing services and was really just a place for people to sleep every night — you had to fight to get to the front of the line and get a bed — we know that model didn't work for the housing placement work that needs to happen,” she said. “That conversation is something we’ll have to wrestle with in the coming year as a Commission and a community on what's the right balance to make sure that we’re actually ending people's homelessness. Because we know when they are in shelter, they are still homeless.”
“I believe strongly that additional shelter units, especially those that are culturally specific like the ones we are discussing today, are so important for people in this community and our ongoing work providing shelter and the continuum of care that people need,” said Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. “These rooms serve a very necessary and important part of that continuum.”
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