On December 19th, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to proceed with the Harrison Community Village‘s construction at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue. This temporary alternative shelter will support up to 45 adults residing in 38 sleeping pods and utilizing several converted shipping containers offering residents showers, bathrooms, kitchenette space, and a laundry facility. In a four-to-one vote, the County Board passed the resolution with one amendment requiring the County to work with community representatives to create a Safe Routes to School plan and negotiate a Good Neighborhood Agreement (GNA) before opening the shelter.
Multnomah County purchased the former recreational vehicle dealership at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue in December 2022 for $2.015 million. This 34,000-square-foot parcel was the second Montavilla location the County bought that year for temporary shelter services while they land-banked the properties for future development. Newly seated County Commissioner Shannon Singleton explained during the lengthy board discussion on December 19th her recollection of County thinking in 2022. Commissioner Singleton served as the interim director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) around the time Multnomah County acquired the properties, and her experience as someone tangentially involved in the purchase offered unique knowledge to the board’s understanding of the site’s purpose.
Metro Supportive Housing Services Measure money allocated from the Safety off the Streets – Emergency Shelter Strategic Investment budget will cover the shelter’s $4,128,197 cost. The bulk of funds will support the demolition of the existing building and construction costs for the power, water, and sewer hookups needed for the temporary structures. Presenters noted that planners allocated $1.4 million of the budget to reusable shelter sleeping pods and shelter support containers. Those items could be relocated to a future site when the County re-purposes the property for other uses. The JOHS team presented a firm timeline for the shelter’s opening, requiring this late 2024 vote to keep on schedule. Starting in January 2025, the project team will develop plans and seek City of Portland building permits ahead of construction slated to begin in July 2025. Crews should complete work in November, and the site could open to residents in December 2025.
Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards provided significant insight into community thinking around the proposed shelter, having attended a December 5th JOHS community meeting and communicated with area residents after the event. Commissioner Brim-Edwards agreed with some of the concerns expressed during that JOHS community meeting and in public testimony the board heard before their vote. She noted the JOHS had two years to engage with the public prior to this resolution but only held an initial meeting two weeks before the end-of-the-year vote. Additionally, issues delayed a mailed notice to surrounding neighbors that would have notified them of the December 5th meeting. JOHS staff hand-delivered notices to over 600 addresses because of the delayed mailing, in some cases just days before the event. Commissioner Brim-Edwards also echoed some area residents’ concerns that this section of Portland has an out-sized density of services for people experiencing houselessness. Commissioner Brim-Edwards represents Multnomah County’s District 3, covering most of Southeast and East Portland, including these shelter locations on SE 82nd Avenue.
In response to constituent concerns and to support a successful shelter site, Commissioner Brim-Edwards proposed an amendment to the Harrison Community Village resolution. The adopted amendment requires the County, shelter service provider, neighborhood association, business association, and Portland Public School representatives to develop a GNA before the site opens to residents. It states the County will coordinate with the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Portland Public Schools to preserve SE Mill Street’s access for safe travel to schools. 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. SE Mill Street is part of the Neighborhood Greenway bike and pedestrian network, providing one of only a few fully signalized crossings of SE 82nd Avenue in the area. Although County site planners have already started conversations with the two schools, the amendment solidifies their responsibility to “work with the nearby school communities to hear and address school community concerns.”
Commissioner Sharon Meieran provided the one no vote for the resolution, citing many concerns, including the rushed proposal, which she said had insufficient community engagement and lacked transparent planning. She noted that, in her observation, the County teams only come to the community and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners when required to by policy and at the last minute. She questioned the JOHS’s choice to place this shelter along 82nd Avenue over other options or by reinvesting in current locations, saying they lacked a cohesive shelter plan. However, Commissioner Meieran did acknowledge that “No one can argue we need every space possible.” Presenters argued that the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue site had been part of the Community Sheltering Strategy that came from extensive planning guided by electeds and service providers. Additionally, they plan to work with the incoming Portland Mayor, Keith Wilson, to complement his sheltering plan.
The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners recognized the need to add shelter beds quickly, particularly as other existing shelters close. That sentiment was at the root of why most commissioners voted in favor of moving the Harrison Community Village project forward. There was a general recognition that these shelters, with privacy fencing along the sidewalk, would negatively impact the City’s Build a Better 82nd efforts along the corridor by making a less active streetscape and continuing to underutilize the sites that can support substantial buildings. Several commissioners noted community members’ request to delay this site until the first Montavilla shelter on 82nd Avenue had time to generate useful information on how these sites will impact the neighborhood. However, the need for increased shelter capacity outweighed the calls for delay, with the added understanding that this second shelter site would open almost a year after the 333 SE 82nd Avenue shelter started operations. Commissioners expect the County and JOHS staff to collect livability statistics from this site and others in the system to help inform operators and the public on shelter impacts.
Presenters anticipate Harrison Community Village’s GNA will include collecting key metrics around the shelter site, similar to the data required by the Oak Street Village GNA. By the time the 1818 SE 82nd Avenue site opens in December 2025, the 333 SE 82nd Avenue shelter will have already provided 11 months of livability data. With the Harrison Community Village approved for funding, the next milestone for the site will come when officials select a shelter service provider. At that point, the JOHS can schedule more community meetings to address site operation questions, and community groups can begin working on a GNA for this site.
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