Study looks at one-stop shelter, center for Portland’s homeless

Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 17, 2016

A new feasibility study by Oregon Harbor of Hope indicates directions the nonprofit could take in building a San Antonio-style multiservice center for homeless people in Portland.

Developer Homer Williams and his nonprofit, Oregon Harbor of Hope, commissioned the study to interview Portland stakeholders on their thoughts about the area’s homeless problem and find out whether it was feasible to open a multiservice facility in the city.

“We wanted to get an independent view from people who are experts,” says Don Mazziotti, director of Harbor of Hope. “Is it feasible to do the kind of treatment or follow the kind of treatment protocol we’ve seen at Haven for Hope. … That’s what we were interested in.”

Haven for Hope is the San Antonio operation that was the inspiration for a similar program Williams hopes to replicate here.

Mazziotti says the organization plans to use results from the study to come up with a new strategy for a multiservice homeless facility because the previous proposal at Terminal 1, a warehouse in Northwest Portland, didn’t sit well with Commissioner Dan Saltzman, and others, who pulled the plug on plans last month. Terminal 1 has since been put back up for sale by the city.

Thirty-eight people participated in the study, including individuals in top positions within Portland’s business and nonprofit sectors. Ultimately, the report cites 14 recommendations for a center to succeed, based on stakeholders’ input.

Some of the respondents interviewed are Bill Russell, of Union Gospel Mission; Ibrahim Mubarak, of R2D2; Dan Bissell, CEO of NW Acute Care Specialists; Ed Blackburn, CEO of Central City Concern; Tamara Hill-Kennedy, of Travel Portland; and Tom Moisan, CEO of Ankrom Moisan Architects.

Ann Meyers and Shaun Lee, former employees of Haven for Hope in San Antonio, were hired in March to launch the study. Both now work as consultants around the country after leaving their posts at Haven for Hope.

Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler and city Commissioner Steve Novick visited the San Antonio facility in October, investigating its potential as a model for Portland.

“I think, in a nutshell, what we heard was that there was pretty significant interest in the model, but with changes that would need to be modified and made more appropriate for the culture of Portland,” says Lee, former chief operating officer at Haven for Hope.

He said that many respondents in the study were concerned about the size of the San Antonio facility, saying that Portland’s potential service center would need to be smaller, despite the fact that Portland has a larger homeless population, according to both cities’ Point in Time homeless count numbers from 2015.

Lee says this could be because of Portland’s focus on permanent affordable housing options. A $258.4 million city bond measure, which will pay for more affordable housing, passed Nov. 8 by a wide margin.

“There’s a lot more resource in something like that (affordable housing) than we have in San Antonio,” Lee says, adding that Portland respondents indicated they don’t want to create a facility “too big and all of a sudden have great success in housing, and then have a facility that’s only 75 percent full.”

But Mazziotti, who sat in on the interviews, thinks the homeless issue goes beyond affordable housing.

“There’s a big gap, and it needs to be filled by treatment. It can’t be filled by putting people in tents or homes or houses or shelters,” Mazziotti says. “We think perhaps by modifying our strategy and proposal, (Saltzman) and others will find it acceptable.”

Though Mazziotti says releasing the study wasn’t a political strategy, getting the ball rolling on the multiservice center is, according to Lee.

“Well, politics,” he said, when asked what he observed as the reason a multiservice center wasn’t working out so far in Portland. He says a public-private partnership is “secret sauce” in addressing the issue, and partnering with a “very aggressive mayor.”

Read the full study at oregonharborofhope.org.

lhewitt@pamplinmedia.com