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News
Street Roots • Feb. 5-11,2016
Street Roots • Feb. 5-11, 2016
News
COMFORT
to a certain degree
As M ultnom ah County's first year-round homeless
shelter prepares to open, service providers aim to help
families become stable - but not too complacent
BY AMANDA WALDROUPE
agencies to operate satellite locations to meet
with residents. There will be no time limit for
how long a family can stay.
r I Ahree weeks ago, Jake P., his wife,
The significance of opening a year-round
I Christina, and their 8-month-old child
shelter in Multnomah County cannot be
X became homeless.
overstated. In the past, shelters have been
One month ago, B.J. Coney, 39, chose to
regarded as the ugly duckling of homeless
become homeless rather than continue to live
services: necessary during the winter, but not
with her husband, who she said verbally and
regarded as a solution to ending
physically abused their four children.
homelessness.
In mid-November, Jerri Menard, 44, and her
Andy Miller,-Human Solutions’ executive
12-year-old daughter, Raven, became homeless
director,
says the need to provide shelter for
after being evicted from their two-bedroom
homeless
families has become more urgent as
apartment, an apartment Jerri said she could
that segment of the homeless population
no longer afford after she asked her abusive
grows.
husband to leave.
“With respect to families, the community
These families became homeless for
has
always supported the notion that no child
reasons that have become all too familiar in
should sleep outside,” Miller said. “The
Portland: no-cause evictions. An inability to
shelter is really trying to immediately address j
find a new home in a city with one of the
the trauma that people and children
country’s lowest vacancy rates. A struggle to
experience when they experience
keep up with drastic rent increases.
homelessness.”
But they have all found a temporary home -
The shelter will be an experiment in
of sorts.
creating more robust services within a
They sleep in a shelter operated by Human
structure that has been defined by how
Solutions, a nonprofit that serves homeless
stripped down it is. As more shelters open,
families in Multnomah County. The shelter is
Jerri Menard and her daughter, Raven, get settled in at Human Solution’s family shelter. It will soon
they will look to Human Solutions’
a bare-bones operation; people sleep on mats
programming as a model, which, staff agree,
that are slightly thicker than an inch. It opens
must walk a fine line between helping families
them.
L-shape around the play area. Residents eat
at 3:30 in the afternoon. Lights-out is at 10.
become stable and allowing them to become
“These new folks are wide-eyed. Their
dinner there. After dinner, the tables and
Residents wake by 6 in the morning, and leave
too complacent or too comfortable.
bandwidth
is incredibly limited, and they get
chairs
are
folded
to
make
room
to
sleep
on
by 7.
overwhelmed really easily,” Hodge said. “They j
the floor.
The shelter is low barrier, meaning
want to know how do I get a bus pass? Where !
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Jerri
residents are not required to be sober or
‘The newly homeless’
do I shower? Where can I get extra clothes,
Menard
is
in
the
room
assigned
to
her
and
clean. The only requirement is that residents
extra shoes? They know nothing. The learning j
her daughter. She and Raven lie next to each
either are part of a family with children or«arew
On Jan. 21, a Thursday, it is gray and cold.
curve is steep.”
other
on
mats
padded
with
blankets
and
in their third trimester of pregnancy.
A cluster of people loiters near the entrance
Jake P. agreed.
Around 130 people stay at the shelter every of the shelter, a nondescript one-story building pillows. Menard reads a book; Raven plays a
“Most of these people know the ropes,” he i
game
on
a
laptop.
night. Last year, shelter staff rarely saw such
across the street from a MAX stop on
said.
“We have to ask as we go. We’re still
Jake
P.,
Christina
and
their
baby
are
also
high numbers during the winter. This year,
Southeast Burnside Street. Some shuffle back
getting used to it. That’s the hardest part, just i
assigned
a
room,
down
a
short
hallway
and
those numbers are average.
and forth and swing their arms to stay warm.
getting used to it.”
around a corner. It is quieter and more
The shelter opened in November. But
A couple sit in folding chairs and snuggle
Menard calls homelessness her “great
private
than
the
other
rooms,
and
the
family
unlike the winter shelters of previous years,
against each other. Another couple pushes a
awakening.”
often
rests
there
before
dinner.
this shelter will not close in the spring. Once
baby stroller. A father chases his daughter
“Before, I was very much a homebody. I
B.J. Coney normally sits at a table with her
it relocates, by the end of February, it will be
around the parking lot.
stayed in my house. I didn’t reach out to a lot
three
children.
On
this
Saturday
afternoon,
the first shelter in Multnomah County to be
Some people carry their possessions in
of people. One of the things that I think
she’s playing Monopoly with her daughter.
open year-round and during all hours of the
garbage sacks, backpacks, hand carts or
homelessness did for me was wake me up and
These
three
families
are
what
Charles
day.
luggage bags. Kids carry games or puzzles.
make me get out,” she said.
Hodge,
Human
Solutions’
emergency
services
The shelter will move to Southeast Stark
There are two dozen adults and a half-dozen
“When you become homeless, you do a lot
coordinator, calls “the newly homeless.” He
Street and 160th Avenue, in a building that
kids with nothing to do but wait for the
of soul searching. Why did this happen to me?
estimates
that
a
third
of
the
shelter’s
once housed the Black Cauldron strip club.
shelter to open.
This doesn’t seem fair. This doesn’t seem
population falls into that category.
The new space opened Feb. 1, and Human
They enter through the back of the
They’re
easy
to
pick
out.
They
wear
newer
right,” she said.
Solutions’ Daybreak program, which provides
building. A short hallway leads to a large open
clothes.
They
store
their
possessions
in
She realized that “why” wasn’t the
respite services during the day, has already
space that includes a partially walled-off area -
luggage bags. They are worn and tired, but
appropriate question to ask.
moved into the building.
a former office cubicle now used as a
their faces aren’t carved with the deep
“The question that I came up with and
The new shelter will have semi-private
children’s play area. Twelve rooms run along
answered is, what did I not do? What were the
weariness of years spent being homeless.
sleeping spaces for 130 parents and children.
one wall. Shelter staff assign two families to a
things that I was not looking at, that I was not
Hodge said serving that population is the
It will have showers, laundry, lockers to store
room each week through a lottery system.
focusing on in my life? Maybe it was what I
shelter’s biggest challenge. Unlike people who
belongings, a commercial kitchen to cook and
None of the rooms has a door.
have been homeless before or for a long time,
didn’t do rather than what I did do.”
prepare food, a covered outdoor patio where
Every afternoon, shelter staff and residents
they aren’t familiar with services available to
The story of how Menard became homeless
kids can play, and space for social-services
set up large folding tables and chairs in a
STAFF W RITER
P H O TO B Y JOE G LO D E
operating this month. A t the previous shelter, families have slept on the floor.
is one of complacency that turned into
catastrophe.
Last year, her husband of seven years
started drinking heavily. He would shout at
Raven and black out regularly. Menard asked
him to go into rehab; he refused. One night,
Menard and Raven returned home from
seeing a movie. Menard’s husband was passed
out in front of the couch. He lay in a weird,
unnatural position. Menard thought he had
died.
She asked him to leave, and he did in
March 2015.
“Think about it, seeing your dad that way,”
Menard said.
They were able to stay in their two-bedroom
apartment in Southeast Portland for nine
months. Menard does not work, as a result of
a spinal fusion, a surgical procedure that fuses
together two or more vertebrae in the spine,
which she had done when she was 15. She
receives $900 in Supplemental Security
Income each month. Menard cobbled the
$720 in rent together with her SSI and money
from a Department of Human Services
program that helps victims of domestic
violence make rental payments.
Menard’s divorce became final last year.
She is supposed to receive spousal support,
but she said she has not received any
payments. She asked her landlord if she could
make partial payments and catch up once the
support arrived, but she was turned down.
They were evicted Nov. 13, Raven’s 12th
birthday.
They spent the first weekend in a motel.
Menard called her daughter’s school
counselor, who told Menard about the family
shelter. Raven now goes to the Transitional
School, a school designed for children who are
homeless.
Many families try to establish a semblance
of normalcy and routine, for the sake of their
children if anything. Menard makes sure
Raven gets a snack after school and does her
homework, and that they have a chance to
spend time together during the afternoon.
Most parents at the shelter spend the
afternoon with their kids. They sit at the
tables with them, talking, eating snacks, or
playing card and board games.
Kids outnumber the adults two to one. The
majority of the kids are toddlers or in
elementary school. There are a handful of
teenagers.
It is never quiet. People talk loudly. Kids
scream. Much pf the adults’ time is taken up
by keeping kids busy. Conversations are
constantly interrupted, filling out paperwork
is put on hold, and thoughts are derailed as
adults tell the kids to settle down or be quiet
or sit in the chair or get a snack or stop
fighting with another kid.
Coney is often exhausted in the afternoon.
Like other parents, she struggles with how to
spend the day while the shelter is closed.
Many go to a day program at a nearby church.
Others go to Human Solutions’ Daybreak
program, where they can shower and do
laundry. Coney likes to take her kids to the
public library.
“They love it,” she said. “They can play on
the iPad, get on the Internet, read. I just go in
the car and go to sleep.”
She became homeless when she left her
husband. He had verbally and physically
abused her for years, she said, and gradually,
he began behaving the same way toward their
children. She knew it would get worse for her
kids. “That’s when I decided to leave,” she
said.
She said her kids are happy at the shelter.
They have other kids they can play with. But
she is overwhelmed.
“I’m doing a lot of things by myself,” Coney
said. “I’ve gotten more migraines than I
usually do. It’s not the shelter. It’s the
atmosphere.”
Jake P. is tall, rail-thin and wears a baseball
cap over his black hair. His beard partially
obscures his sunken cheekbones.
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“I have a hard time being around a lot of
people at once; too many things going on
around me,” he said.
The family started staying at the shelter
three days after becoming homeless in
Eugene, after Jake’s family kicked them out.
Their days, he said, have been “really chaotic.
Very anxiety filled.”
“At times, we feel hopeless,” he said. “At
other times, we feel uplifted.”
Like the other families, he and his wife
focus on the well-being of their child.
“We just have to keep smiling because that
little baby smiles, and we need him to be
happy,” Jake said.
Jake and Christina choose to be optimistic.
“As tough as this is, it’s a blessing,” he said.
“We could say this sucks or that sucks or this
is kind of hectic, but it’s all a blessing because
the alternative would be much worse.”
Commotion at the shelter
The shelter rents two PODS storage
containers, which sit in the parking lot, for
residents to store most of their possessions.
Every evening around 5:45 p.m., the container
is opened for people to retrieve their bedding
for the night. Shelter staff yell, “Pods! Pods,
pods, pods,” and a handful of people trickle
outside and use a single flashlight to see
inside the container.
The system has nearly gotten out of
control. The containers are overflowing with
plastic tubs and garbage bags. Once the
shelter moves to its new location, each three-
person family will be assigned a 26-gallon
plastic tub; larger families will receive more
tubs. Many people will have to discard some
of their things. Other people, like Menard,
can afford to rent storage units.
Dinner starts around 7 p.m. People trickle
into the shelter throughout the afternoon, and
at least 80 people have arrived by dinnertime.
There is no commercial kitchen at the shelter;
volunteers cook the food at their homes or
churches and bring the meals to the families.
The energy level ramps up. People talk
more loudly, children run around faster.
People lead their children to where a line
forms. These times of tránsition, when people
aren’t settled down, are when fights are most
likely to start.
“These fights just erupt,” Menard said,
snapping her fingers, “and you’ve got to try
and stay out of them.”
As people line up for dinner, two women
Scream at each other. People stand back in a
circle. Robert Anthony, the shelter’s evening
manager, walks up to the group. The
altercation is over cutting in line. Anthony
defuses the argument, asking a woman to
“please, please, instead of cutting in line, go
to the back of the line.”
Anthony, whose every action and word have
Zen-like attributes, takes fights like this in
stride.
“They have been in a desperate situation
for a long period of time,” he said. “Your
ability to communicate is diminished. When
you’re thinking about where you’re going to
rest at night, where you’re going to get extra
clothes, where you’re going to get your next
meal, that other stuff goes out the window. We
hope that bandwidth will open up eventually.”
The line re-forms and people calm down.
Volunteers from the S t Joseph the Worker
Catholic Church serve chicken Alfredo, salad,
See SHELTER, page 12