Construction workers have been making rapid, steady progress, getting the County’s downtown Behavioral Health Resource Center – a refuge that will offer peer services, shelter and housing – prepped to open this fall.
But crews paused their work briefly on a recent Friday to make way for a special tour that gave Health Department leaders a chance to showcase the new center and its services, while also celebrating a new infusion of more than $3 million in federal funding.
Thanks to U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer, the County will receive $2.7 million to help build an outdoor plaza at the resource center. An additional $375,000, championed by Sens. Merkley and Wyden, will fund additional peer-led outreach work once the center opens.
“I can’t wait to let folks know that we see you, we’re not here to judge you, we’re here to support you and we’re here to walk with you along your journey,” said Health Department Director Ebony Clarke, speaking to reporters and other officials on March 4, 2022 as the tour was under way.
“It’s almost surreal,” said Deandre Kenyanjui, coordinator for the County’s Office of Consumer Engagement, part of the Health Department’s Behavioral Health Division.
“It’s unreal that this was just a concept years ago. Now we’re in this facility and it’s coming to life.”
Funding will enhance outdoor plaza
Construction planning for the Resource Center began in January 2019, after the County purchased a building at 333 S.W. Park Ave. for $4.34 million and an adjacent parking lot for $1.5 million.
The Board of Commissioners approved design and construction details in May 2021, with groundbreaking starting soon after. The 24,000-square-foot facility and adjacent 7,000-square-foot plaza will be operated by the Behavioral Health Division in partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
“Homelessness can be hardest on people with mental health and substance use challenges, and this innovative center will provide a safe haven offering a broad menu of urgently needed stabilizing services, including support from peer specialists with similar life experiences,” said Sen. Wyden. “I’m glad to have teamed up with Multnomah County and my congressional colleagues to secure federal investments in this ground-breaking center that helps vulnerable Oregonians in our community and serves as a model the entire country can emulate.”
The facility will offer respite for people with mental illness and substance use disorders who are experiencing homelessness downtown. The space will offer laundry services and showers, food, basic healthcare, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, referrals and peer-support, as well as emergency shelter and transitional housing.
Helped by the $2.70 million in federal funding, the resource center will also be able to offer an outdoor plaza with ample space for everyday social interactions, along with bike racks and a pet relief area for individuals to use. The building will have direct access to the plaza and will create a private outdoor experience for participants.
The resource center will allow clients to bring along their pets and comforting animal companions, creating a space where individuals can be supported, recognized and have a place to go.
Partnering with a peer-run organization to run day spaceA peer-run day center remains one of the resource center’s signature features, allowing people who come to the center to receive direct support from others who have personally experienced homelessness and/or mental health issues.
The Health Department recently selected the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon, a nonprofit, peer-run organization based in Portland, to operate the day center. The nonprofit offers recovery-focused peer services, training and technical assistance.
Kenyanjui said the peer-led and trauma-informed day center is the most important function of the facility.
“That means people who have lived experience are going to be working with the people living the experience, to meet them where they’re at,” he said. “It opens the door to healing and building relationships.”Renovation updates
For almost a year, construction crews have been reworking the resource center’s venerable building into a trauma-informed space that will serve the center’s specific design model. The renovation includes details like arranging the location of corners, planning for rounded corners and taking lighting and reflections into consideration.
“To incrementally see the change over the last couple of years,” said Clarke, “it’s finally coming to fruition.”
As County health leaders walked reporters through all five floors of the resource center, they explained that the renovation was moving along despite setbacks due to the pandemic that shifted the opening timeline from 2021 to 2022. Inside the resource center, walls and door frames have been completed as well as the elevator shaft.
Significant work also helped the building meet seismic standards. Seismic upgrades began from the foundation of the building through the top floor, including several concrete shear walls that have been placed throughout the building.
“I remember walking into the building before we even started to do any level of renovation,” said Clarke. “It was dark, it was dusty, it was hard to imagine if this space really could meet the needs.”
A vision for comprehensive services
As reporters stepped into the first floor of the building, health leaders explained that the first and second floors would house the day center, offering immediate respite to anyone just walking in.
“Anyone who’s impacted by chronic homelessness and/or impacted by a severe mental illness will have a place where they can come and be supported,” said Clarke.
Some of the proposed services for the day center include having a place to do laundry, showers, computers, and lockers for storage. The second floor will offer space to host classes, like cooking or dancing, and even hosting a hairdresser for the day.
The third floor will hold a 24-hour behavioral health shelter that is dedicated to serving people with a chronic mental illness. The shelter will serve 30 to 35 people at a time.
Transitional housing will be available on the fourth floor, where individuals can be temporarily housed while their needs are better assessed and while permanent housing is identified. Administrative offices will sit on the fifth floor, where treatment providers will also be co-located and available for questions or to provide resources for individuals.
“It’s created a new model of program development where we are working with peers and individuals impacted and bringing them in from the start to make sure that their voices are really raised and very loud,” said Dr. Christa Jones, senior manager for the Community Mental Health Program in the Behavioral Health Division.