Multnomah County families experiencing homelessness soon may have access to a permanent emergency shelter.
The Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved a resolution that makes nearly $700,000 available for the acquisition and renovation of a former strip club on SE Stark Street. The move is part of the county’s ongoing commitment to ensure that no family must sleep on the street.
“We know that when this happens, children and families will be safer. They will be better served. And they will be better able to get on the path to finding a permanent home,” said Mary Li, director of the Community Services Division of the Department of County Human Services.
The growing lack of available affordable housing means it can take three to six months for families to find a safe and stable place to live after becoming homeless.
Multnomah County, through a community partner, currently operates a warming shelter for homeless families during cold weather months. The shelter occupies leased space and has had to be relocated several times in recent years. Last year, the shelter served more than 100 people a night.
The current warming shelter, which will reopen next month, does not include a kitchen or showers. Families are allowed to stay there only from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day, meaning parents and children must find other accommodations during the day.
“There is nothing more critical, I think, than the thought of a child being out on the street, particularly in the winter, but on any evening,” Li said. “Many of us have seen children sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the shelter to open, doing their homework under the lamppost. None of us want that.”
Li said the county and its partners have been hindered in their effort to provide a stable, permanent family shelter with amenities like kitchens and showers by the restrictions built into lease agreements.
The acquisition and renovation of the 16015 SE Stark St. building would allow for a more appropriate and accommodating facility.
“What I’m most excited about with this new space is that we’re going to be able to provide not only the long-term permanent services, but we’ll have bathroom facilities, we’ll have kitchen facilities, we’ll have all those facilities that families need to thrive,” Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said.
As envisioned, the new shelter would operate 24-7. It would include showers, laundry facilities, and a kitchen. The site, formerly the Black Cauldron strip club at 16015 SE Stark St., also would be able to serve more families than the most recent shelter locations.
The building will be turned “from vice to nice,” said Andy Miller, executive director of Human Solutions Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, case management and housing assistance to homeless families, and also operates the existing family warming shelter.
“This investment will deliver, I think, for the first time the kind of shelter -- in terms of its physical amenities -- that you and we have always wanted to provide to the families and children of Multnomah County who find themselves experiencing homelessness,” Miller said.
The resolution approved unanimously by the board authorizes the county, through the Department of County Human Services, to provide a $300,000 loan to Human Solutions to purchase the SE Stark Street building. Human Solutions also will receive $397,697 from the county to pay for the building’s renovation. The funding is coming from two sources: a $25,965 Metro Community Planning and Development Grant and $672,002 re-allocated from within the DCHS budget.
Human Solutions came across the property while looking for a place to house a year-round family shelter. The county will retain first right of refusal should Human Solutions decide to sell the building or cease operating it as a shelter.
The new shelter is expected to open in February 2016.
