East Portland will soon have new transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness who are in the early stages of their recovery from substance use.
Central City Concern, one of the area’s largest homeless services provider, received $7 million from the Oregon Community Foundation to acquire a former 70-room Comfort Inn and Suites near Portland International Airport.
The CCC Recovery Hotel is part of Oregon’s $65 million program to remake motels into homeless shelters, transitional homes and permanent housing under the Project Turnkey initiative.
The facility, located at 5019 NE 102nd Ave., is slated to open in September. The hotel will be able to serve 70 people at a time, providing residents access to behavioral health care, addiction recovery services, and help finding a job and permanent housing.
Central City Concern will work with culturally specific providers including Puentes, which serves Latino communities, and Imani, which serves Black individuals, to ensure that clients receive care that is specific to their needs.
People of color from almost every racial group are over-represented in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness when compared with Oregon’s general population, according to the 2019 Point in Time Count, a census of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. The count found that people of color experiencing homelessness increased to 38% of the total homeless population in Multnomah County, while Black, Latino, Indigenous and other people of color make up just 30% of the county’s population.
The Native American Rehabilitation Association will have 15 of the hotel recovery rooms reserved for individuals they refer to expand recovery housing for that community.
Native Americans represent 2.5% of Multnomah County’s population but 12% of the homeless population and are more likely to be unsheltered than members of any other race.
“We are very grateful to be able to offer housing and recovery supports to help Native Americans, who as a community, experience extremely high rates of homelessness,” said Jackie Mercer, the chief executive officer of the Native American Rehabilitation Association.
The hotels will provide support at the beginning of people’s recovery journeys.
“Shelter is never the end goal—it’s just a step on the path to stability and housing. The power of the Project Turnkey model is that it offers both shelter and housing in one single investment,” said Megan Loeb, the housing program officer for Oregon Community Foundation. “By acquiring motels/hotels as shelter now during the pandemic, Oregon communities can boost their housing stock by converting these properties to permanent housing in the long-term. We continue to see the benefits of this cost-effective model to support Oregon’s housing crisis.”
Nicole Hayden reports on homelessness for The Oregonian|OregonLive. She can be reached at nhayden@oregonian.com or on Twitter @NicoleAHayden.
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