Anxiety grips a man with no place to go on a bitterly cold winter morning. The severe weather shelter in Northwest Portland where he slept — shielded from wind chill-effect overnight temperatures in the teens — is closing at noon.
But in downtown Portland, Multnomah County’s Behavioral Health Resource Center is open.
Do Good Multnomah, which operates the center’s shelter and bridge housing programs, has a crisis bed available for the man, known on the streets as Popeye. And the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon, which conducts outreach and operates the center’s day center, makes the connection.
Since the Behavioral Health Resource Center’s opening at 333 S.W. Park Ave. in December 2022, these two organizations have worked together to provide resources and support services for hundreds of people a year downtown who are experiencing symptoms of mental health and substance use disorders.
Their collaboration also involves teaming up to help people like Popeye during a crisis — often at a moment's notice. That was the case Feb. 5, at a severe weather shelter operated by Do Good Multnomah near downtown, where more than 100 people had slept overnight.
Popeye, 61, was having difficulty getting to his wheelchair and gathering his belongings alongside others preparing to leave the shelter before it closed for the day. Ricco Mejia, the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon’s outreach manager for the Behavioral Health Resource Center, saw Popeye, whose legal name is Russell, was struggling. So Mejia introduced himself.
“I learned that he had nowhere to go,” Mejia says. “I called the Behavioral Health Resource Center and talked to a manager and said Russell’s going to come down to hopefully get connected to some resources.”
By day’s end, Popeye was in one of Do Good Multnomah’s emergency crisis beds.
Dane Achalas, program team manager for Do Good Multnomah, says the responsive collaboration between the two programs likely saved Popeye’s life.
“He was in a situation where he would not have survived out there in the elements,” Achalas says.
The Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon anchors the first two floors of the Behavioral Health Resource Center, offering a day center with showers, laundry facilities, phone charging outlets, computers, mailbox access, and day-use lockers. Mejia manages 10 outreach peers, another word for people with lived experience now providing services: six Behavioral Health Resource Center outreach peers, and four Police Provider Joint Connection peers.
Do Good Multnomah, meanwhile, provides 30 beds and three crisis beds on the center’s third floor along with 19 beds for its Bridge Housing Program on the fourth floor. Do Good has a 27-member program team and a five-member clinical team.
Both organizations provide services seven days a week all year long.
And Popeye’s experience exemplifies the varied scope of their day-to-day interactions.
Maranda Grimaldi, the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon’s senior program and operations director at the center, notes there have been “many successful connections getting participants connected with Do Good shelters.”
“The common goal is to help the community bridge the gap in access to the resources that they need,” she says.
Mejia says Popeye’s mental and physical state required immediate attention to help him stabilize once his crisis bed stay was over.
“In our work, when somebody wants help, it’s vital that it happens within a day or two,” Mejia says. “When you give them more hands-on attention and more check-ins for a person to be heard and seen more, they’re more likely to stay with the process and succeed.”
Within an hour of engaging Popeye, Mejia connected him with Victoria Nevarez, an outreach team peer support specialist. In addition to securing Popeye’s crisis bed, Nevarez referred him to a housing program. He also received care from Portland Fire & Rescue’s Community Health Assess & Treat program, County contractor Portland Street Medicine, and Portland Street Response.
“Really, with anybody [the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon] sends here for a crisis bed, they’re very hands on as far as communication with us and figuring out next steps,” Achalas says. “They’re very connected.”
Mejia says outreach work that identifies and engages people including Popeye happens throughout the central city. The week of March 10 alone, Mejia says, outreach teams interacted with 141 people in an area roughly bounded by the Willamette River, Couch Park in Northwest Portland, Union Station and Providence Park.
“We go out there two people at a time and we do outreach,” Nevarez said. “We find these broken hearts, we bring them back, and we provide these services for them.”
And with lives in the balance during a crisis or emergency, Do Good Multnomah stands ready to team with Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon.
“We have our crisis beds here,” Achalas says. “So, we will often get a call to see if we have a bed. We do a lot of coordinating with them.… Our staff have a lot of overlap.”
Two months after introducing himself to a distressed Popeye at a severe weather shelter in Northwest Portland, Mejia says is more stable and in a nearby housing program.
“Our outreach teams are on the ground everyday doing the kind of work anyone would hope for if it were their own family member, friend or neighbor in need,” he says.
“We’re honored to walk alongside our community partners in this effort, leading with compassion, building trust, and connecting people to the resources they need to thrive and reach their goals.”
