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HEATHER HILL
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Speaking with construction activity in the background, Portland Rescue Mission Executive Director Eric Bauer thanked all who made their cooperation possible while Home Builders Foundation Executive Director Ken Cowdery waits his turn to speak. Mid-county Memo photos/Tim Curran |
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| Portland native and former gang member Douglas Holiman, seated, is the house manger at Next Step. According to organizers, the footprint of the Next Step property will only increase slightly, with most of the renovations better utilizing the interior of the residential recovery facility on Northeast Wygant Street in Parkrose. |
The study also attempted to capture the larger population of people who lack a permanent residence of their own but have utilized support services or other resources to keep them off the street. They found that 1,928 people occupied transitional housing on the night of the count and, according to the Department of Human Services, 9,835 of the 66,948 households in Multnomah County receiving food stamps during the week of the count identified themselves as homeless, though they may be sleeping in their car or on the couches of relatives. Relief agencies spotlight the hidden homeless to raise poverty awareness and fight ingrained 'hobo' stereotypes most people associate with the homeless.
Though they may not comprise the majority, the basis for the 'hobo' stereotype does exist. Men continue to comprise 73 percent of the unsheltered homeless population and according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's estimates, 38 percent of homeless people are dependent on alcohol and 26 percent abused other drugs.
Since addiction can erode relationships and cause job loss, substance abusers can easily land on the street when they can no longer afford housing. Since substance abuse rates are higher among the homeless as compared to the general population, once on the street, homeless addicts find themselves enmeshed in a culture difficult to escape. Though homeless addicts may represent a less sympathetic figure to the public, homeless relief agencies, particularly those founded on religious principles (such as the Portland Rescue Mission), see every life as worth saving, and provide recovery services for those seeking to free themselves from their addictions.
The Portland Rescue Mission has strived to break the cycle of homelessness in Portland since 1949. Under their trademark lighthouse beacon on Burnside Street, PRM dishes out hundreds of hot meals a day and provides beds to 58 (134 during the winter months) homeless shelter-seekers year round. In addition to these emergency services, PRM attempts to tackle the causes of homelessness by providing a variety of services, including their 12-18 month New Life Recovery program. This addiction treatment program joins their administrative office, warehouse and Drive Away Hunger car donation program, as the PRM's Mid-county based operations.
New Life Recovery provides residential treatment in single-sex transitional housing.
Since 2003, the PRM has run the women's program from their Shepherd's Door facility located at 13207 N.E. Halsey St. The site also includes a state-certified childcare center. New Life men have traditionally completed their treatment in steps. The first currently takes place at the Burnside shelter downtown; after six months those committed to recovery complete the program at the PRM Next Step location at 10336 N.E. Wygant St. in Parkrose. Treatment includes counseling to delve into the root causes of their addictions, spiritual renewal through prayer and Bible study, and job and life skills training.
On Sept. 12, the Portland Rescue Mission and Home Builders Foundation hosted a kick-off event for a major renovation of the Next Step facility in Parkrose, double the capacity to 40 beds. This will enable all men to complete their entire treatment in the same location, free from the temptations and distractions of downtown, which PRM executive director Eric Bauer attributed as a primary cause of attrition to an otherwise successful program.
In addition to separating those committed to recovery from other users simply seeking a place to “sleep it off”, once the 29 New Life Recovery residents move east, PRM will repurpose the Burnside space to make room for their LINK program, a work share program for non-addicted homeless men who are currently on waiting lists to receive permanent housing. The move also allows them to convert a separate area to an emergency and day-use shelter for women, providing 10-15 beds in the building historically housing men.
Operating entirely on voluntary support from individuals, businesses, foundations, organizations and churches, the Portland Rescue Mission receives no government funding and is not affiliated with the United Way, making large scale renovation projects difficult to institute for a non-profit already functioning at over-capacity. Though anticipated since the purchase of the property 13 years ago, the actual renovation of the nondescript ranch-style property (formerly a convalescent home) came to fruition thanks to the generosity of private donors and indispensable help from the Home Builders Foundation's HomeAid shelter development program.
“The mission of the Home Builders Foundation is to build transitional shelters for the homeless and to provide construction related education for young people,” announced the Foundation's executive director Ken Cowdery at the groundbreaking. The Foundation's shelter program, entitled HomeAid, partners member builders with nonprofits in need of renovation or repair services for their transitional housing facilities. To be eligible, a charity must provide social services that enable the people they help to move beyond their temporary situation, transform their lives, and restore their independence, often in multi-unit shelters like Next Step and Shepherd's Door where the homeless can learn the job and life skills necessary to return them to the mainstream. Originally conceived in Orange County, California and since adopted by Builders Associations throughout the country, the HomeAid Shelter Development Program has become the largest developer of housing for the temporarily homeless in the United States. The Home Builders Foundation also operates an annual one-day volunteer shelter care event called Painting a Better Tomorrow, this year to take place on Saturday, Nov. 10, where The Home Builders Foundation coordinates teams of volunteers from the home building community to paint, clean, landscape and perform minor repairs to nonprofit homeless care facilities.
“No other organization locally does this type of volunteer work. It's a unique way for the HBA to give back to the community,” said Cowdery.
The Home Builders Foundation acts as the charity arm of the Home Builders Association of Metro Portland (HBA), which has represented the housing and residential construction industry since 1936. Its over 1,000 members include developers, builders, remodelers, subcontractors, suppliers, realtors, title companies, engineers, architects, designers, manufacturers, real estate attorneys and utility providers among others affiliated with the housing industry.
Over the past six years, the Home Builders Foundation has leveraged 1.3 million dollars of volunteer labor and donated materials from the industry to help create 123 new shelter beds. The Home Builders Foundation will contribute an estimated $325,000 in donated labor, materials and construction expertise to the Portland Rescue Mission Next Step project.
“The Home Builders Association has provided a good majority of our contractors,” said Bauer, “They have been very generous with their talent; the architectural support has been tremendous and affordable because of the connection with the Association.” He also went on to thank US Bank, a crucial partner who sponsored half the project's funding -$700,000 - through an Affordable Housing Program Grant.
After the Home Builders Foundation agrees to take on a shelter project, they assign a builder captain from their members, particularly one with similar project management experience who has the connections among subcontractors and suppliers to secure additional volunteer labor and materials. Next Step's builder captain is contractor Nathan Young, whose crew will run the project in coordination with other HBA member subcontractors such as Skanska, Coffman Excavation, Faith Heating & Air Conditioning, RK Electric, Craftwork Plumbing, Crown Fire Systems, and Azimuth Communications. Young, who was recognized as 'Volunteer of the Year' by the Home Builders Foundation for his charitable service, spoke for his team at the groundbreaking, “we are really excited to be out here getting this thing taken care of,” he said.
Talking over the din of heavy equipment working on a patch of freshly laid cement Brian Merrell, Community Relations Specialist for PRM, said renovations should have little effect on neighbors. “When we first came in there was certainly some talk with the neighbors to make sure that everybody is comfortable with what goes on here, but we haven't had any problems with that. Now what we are simply doing is making the roof taller. A lot of the work is going to happen on the inside to expand the building for more efficient use.” Merrell said the only modifications to the building's existing footprint include a 415-foot expansion of the cafeteria with a patio, and a covered garbage area.
“It is a horseshoe,” Darin Honn, president of the Home Builders Foundation Board of Directors, said of the building, “and has a flat roof so when it rains outside in the winter it rains inside.” The roof is trussed to a peak and solar tubes, donated in part by local company Lightbenders, to channel and amplify natural light down to the living spaces will be installed.
The construction noise on the residential road may temporarily annoy neighbors, and the process will last slightly longer than normal because the facility will continue to house nine men during construction, moving them to the unaffected wing while working on the other leg of the horseshoe and switching six months in. Organizers predict that they can start moving the men in from Burnside in June of 2013 when the renovation is 80 percent complete, but they will not achieve full occupancy until the project wraps up in the summer of 2013.
Since Next Step operates as a residential rehabilitation facility - whose services take place within its walls and only for those who also reside inside - the facility does not have the foot traffic the downtown shelter does. Clients are provided with food, a library and fitness center in addition to classrooms, a family room and a learning center. Though the solar tubes will bring light in from above, Merrell still emphasized the importance of connecting men with the outside community. “We have a number of facilities in this area so we are trying to continue to be more embedded in the community. If somebody needs a couple hours or a day project, we like to have the people available to help to give back to the community. It helps our residents in the job seeking. Part of this is not only job skills training but also life training and we like to give them the experience of giving back to their community while they are still living here. “It is a tough market for anyone, particularly folks that have been down a long road and some folks coming through have criminal backgrounds from way back. We have many businesses we are collaborating with that have taken on some of our guys, and it has worked out very well. There are a lot of opportunities for partnerships.”
Portland native Douglas Holiman, co-house manager of Parkrose Next Step, described the renovation as one of his happiest moments: “they [the men in recovery] get a chance of being in a normal neighborhood with regular people, not downtown where all the drugs are . . . They are going to have a nice facility that is safe.” Holiman, former gang member, inmate, and now New Life Recovery graduate nearing completion of his own alcohol and drug counselor certification, described the path of recovery he facilitates daily. “At first it's tough because you have to learn new things,” he said. “. . . when you're using drugs and alcohol you're only used to being with certain types of people, you don't know how to deal with others, you have to learn how to actually hold a conversation with people because you're not used to that, you hide from everybody. For a lot of guys it is very difficult because they have a lot of secrets and they feel like less [sic] men because of the things that they have done in the drug life and the things that they have been through. They are ashamed, and you have to overcome that. That's what we do; we teach them who they are.”
The lighthouse symbolizes hope through dark, often troubled waters. Portland Rescue Mission emphasizes hope in all of their outreach efforts, and they hope that the mid-county community understands their position in the neighborhood. “Even though we have been in the community and made ties for the last 13 years, we hope to connect to more people and make people aware of what kind of work we have going on here and how life changes happen right here in the Gateway [and Parkrose] area,” said Merrell.
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