On December 5th, the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) held a community meeting about a new alternative shelter planned for the former RV sales lot at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue. This first community outreach gathering precedes a December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners vote to fund the construction of this project. JOHS officials plan to have future community meetings and work on a Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) after the County selects a service provider to operate the shelter site—presenters at the event anticipated service provider selection to occur in early 2025.
Community feedback at the meeting included many levels of concern for the proposed shelter’s operations and placement but also included some community support for the added short-term accommodations. Several residents felt this second county site was too close to another Multnomah County-owned location 15 blocks north on SE 82nd Avenue at 333 SE 82nd Avenue. Crews working for the JOHS are currently building the Oak Street Village there, and staff anticipates that sites will begin accepting residents in late January 2025. Other meeting attendees asked if the JOHS could delay work on the second site to give the neighborhood time to work through livability issues with the first site and learn from that experience to improve future site relations.
Presenters and project designers leading this meeting intended to focus on design elements for the shelter site. Demolition crews will remove the current sales building on the property but salvage some wood roof beams for reuse in covered outdoor spaces. Staff and residents will access the site from SE Mill Street, where crews working with the Portland Bureau of Transportation will install new sidewalks and street trees and provide other road improvements as part of a separate project. Designers of the shelter site intend to erect a 7-foot-high fence around the property and provide signage and artwork at the perimeter that reflect community interests and values. Workers will remove sections of the asphalt pavement in the parking lot to create green spaces and a pet relief area. Portable units that will house showers, bathrooms, kitchenette space, and a laundry facility for residents are placed along the SE 82nd Avenue perimeter to create a sound barrier. Onsite parking is available for staff and service providers only. This site will not provide space for residents to park personal vehicles. Some neighbors questioned the placement of the trash enclosure on the property. However, designers felt its placement was necessary for trash hauler access. Despite efforts to keep the meeting focused on site design issues, audience questions often addressed programmatic functions and concerns regarding the site’s placement in the community.
Parents living in the area and other attendees at the December 5th meeting expressed concern for the proposed shelter’s proximity to two public schools and a park. Bridger Creative Science School is one block west of the Mill Street site, and Harrison Park Middle School is several blocks southeast on SE 87th Avenue. JOHS representative Rory Cuddyer explained that his engagement group has communicated with both schools and anticipates their participation in the GNA creation process. Other presenters at the meeting addressed concerns about drug consumption at the shelter, indicating that it was not allowed at county-funded sites. However, due to the shelter’s low-barrier referral-only admission process, operators do not require sobriety for placement in one of the 38 free-standing sleeping pods. That raised other attendees’ concerns regarding drug use in the surrounding neighborhood. Select audience members and presenters noted that not all houseless people are drug users and that the full-time wraparound services offered at the shelter work to connect users to recovery services, in addition to other programs intended to move people into permanent housing.
Multnomah County Commissioner representing Montavilla, Julia Brim-Edwards, attended the meeting as an audience member, listening to all comments and speaking to individuals after the meeting concluded. Montavilla News first reported on the County’s purchase of the two properties in 2022. However, many attendees did not learn about this planned shelter until days before the meeting. Cuddyer explained that the County had an issue producing a mailer ahead of the first meeting, and staff hand-delivered notices instead. They intend to have a broader mailing out to area residents later in the process but encourage people to join the Montavilla Neighborhood Association‘s email list and follow updates on the JOHS project page to stay informed about upcoming community engagement. Cuddyer also urged people to provide comments if they wished at the December 19th Multnomah County Board of Commissioners session. People intending to provide public testimony on the vote must register by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18th. To find the agenda item for this upcoming vote, check the County’s Board Meetings page the week of the meeting.
The article above originally published December 6th
Update December 18th, 2024: The JOHS posted a Frequently Asked Questions document on the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue shelter site’s project webpage addressing many questions received from the community expressed at the December 5th meeting. People intending to provide public testimony on the vote have until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18th to register for Resolution R.1, seeking approval to “Proceed with Construction at the Harrison Community Village Project.”
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