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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Martha Strawn Morris poses inside the former Children's Receiving Center, reopening in March as The Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services. Morris will be its executive director. MEMO PHOTO: TIM CURRAN |
The facility will be "very soft around the edges," she told the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association last month and emphasized that it would be unlike a police station, so as not to intimidate people who potentially need the services. The 22 full-time-equivalent staff positions will include representatives from Children's Services Division, Volunteers of America, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, the Portland Police Bureau, and Legal Aid.
Staff people will help victims navigate to the services they need and want without compelling them to take actions they are not comfortable with. There will be child care. A video hookup with the downtown district court will allow those who want it to obtain restraining orders without venturing downtown, into an atmosphere where they feel neither comfortable nor safe. The center has limited funds available for paying some victims' first month's rent and security deposit on an apartment, which is for some victims an insurmountable barrier to moving out of an abusive relationship. In addition, Morris said, there will be lots of opportunities for volunteers to help.
The building was purchased by Multnomah County in 2000, and was initially set up as temporary shelter and an evaluation center for children who had been made wards of the court. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, a former county commissioner, led the effort to establish the receiving center at this site. To the dismay of activists at the time, he channeled $1 million of the Gateway Urban Renewal District's first-year budget toward the building's purchase and renovation. The Christie School operated the facility on contract.
Saltzman told Hazelwood last month that eventually "funding for this declined to such an extent that the Christie School could no longer afford to operate it." Saltzman then led the effort to install the domestic violence program at the site to "make lemonade out of lemons," as he put it.
"I thank the people of Hazelwood for their long-standing support of the occupants of this building and hope you'll continue to support it," he said. He foresaw no further moves to divert local urban renewal funds from their core mission of economic development and revitalization.
Those present last month said they thought the building's proposed use would be more in keeping with district goals than the Receiving Center had been, since it is likely to at least draw more visitors to the area.
"This is a much more transit-oriented use than the Receiving Center was," board member Linda Robinson said.
Hazelwood Chair Arlene Kimura commented, "Many immigrant families have domestic violence but are not public about it." Morris said the center would work with the nearby Immigrant and Refugee Community Center.
Some nearby neighbors said they feared that staff and visitors might park on nearby residential streets, in front of their homes, and said they have already noticed this phenomenon occurring. Robinson said this is most likely overflow from the chronically full Gateway Park and Ride lot. Saltzman said that if needed, he would be willing to negotiate a Good Neighbor Agreement for the center to cover this and other issues.
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