Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2018)
Page 10 Community Street Roots • Oct. 12-18, 2018 Last Summer, the Clackamas Service Center was nearly destroyed by fire. Today, the center has reopened with a new vision and fresh approach to helping the neighborhood. . r ' I z , H 9 H H From the ashes BY AMANDA WALDROUPE STAFF WRITER ecessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. For the Clackamas Service Center, which provides low- income and homeless services, necessity arrived unwelcome last year in the form of an early morning fire that gutted its Southeast Portland facility. Staff rebounded from the July 2017 fire as quickly as possible. They worked out of a construction trailer for a year, and a large, temporary tent was set up, along with a food truck, so that warm meals could be served. But the center’s main building remained closed for more than a year, and many PHOTOS BY A M A N D A W A L D R O U P E services had to be suspended. Richard Pruiett, 48, has been homeless on and off for much o f his life. He said he walks three miles from where he camps to get to the In a lot of ways, the fire became a blessing Clackamas Service Center. A t top, Pruiett stands in front o f the newly renovated center. in disguise. The Clackamas Service Center’s staff used the year for strategic thinking and planning about how the agency operated and Gresham-based agency, is eight miles to the longer allowed. Some clients» she and Boldt food, both through the meals the agency what needed to change to better serve their east. said, would become bored and agitated. serves on site and through its food pantry. clients. As a result, many aspects of the “i t ’s a huge resource desert out here,” Fights and arguments would break out. “It Meals are served six days a week, up from agency have changed, and there are now said center Program Director Michael Boldt. was an unhealthy environment,” Boldt said. four days a week. Before the fire, the plans for creating new programs that not “And there’s really not much shelter out here Physically, the Clackamas Service Center Clackamas Service Center’s kitchen was too only help the agency’s homeless clients at all.” has undergone a dramatic facelift small to cook meals. Instead, volunteers survive the day-to-day challenges of being The Clackamas Service Center is often the The former church has fresh coats of paint would bring in meals that had already been homeless, but also help them toward only agency that its homeless clients many inside and out, new flooring, office space for cooked and prepared. People would line up eventually moving back into their own home. of whom camp along the Springwater staff, and a new commercial kitchen with with paper plates and cutlery, serve “We re-envisioned everything,” executive Corridor - can rely on for warm meals, appliances. themselves, sit down and, if they wanted director Debra Mason said. “It sounds like a showers, clothing and other services. A desk near the entrance was installed, so seconds, return to the counter. really weird thing to say, but it was almost In any given month, the center serves clients coming into the center’s day space The new kitchen is larger, with what we needed. I know that our members close to 700 people. The agency’s clients are now greeted by staff and checked in. commercial appliances and a dishwasher. suffered and I’m not happy about th a t But it make up a slightly different demographic Previously, Mason said, people came and Meals are now cooked on site, and because was a massive luxury to be able to just create than the social-service agencies in central went as they pleased, which made it difficult the kitchen now has a dishwasher, real plates the space the way we wanted to and make Portland: many are Russian or Asian * . for staff to keep track of who was in the and silverware are used instead of paper the changes.” immigrants, and a significant proportion are space and when. plates and cups. not homeless, but simply deeply A ramp was built at the front of the Clients are served by volunteers who impoverished. people, so people using wheelchairs and deliver food from the kitchen to seven round Mason and her staff re-envisioned the walkers can now enter through the front tables set up in the day space. It’s more café he Clackamas Service Center is the only Clackamas Service Center with an eye entrance. Previously, people used a ramp in than soup kitchen. social service agency in Southeast toward providing its clients more autonomy, the back to enter through the back door, The general atmosphere during mealtimes Portland near Southeast 82nd Avenue and more dignity and a sense of peace from the which Mason said added to an atmosphere of was chaotic, and, depending on how much the Springwater Corridor area, a place where daily chaos of their lives. chaos. “It was just a disaster,” she said. food volunteers brought, could run out. “We hundreds of homeless people camp. JOIN, The center historically was a day center, a “Now, everyone comes through the front” would have to scramble d make something the outreach and housing agency, is five place where people could come and spent}, Some of the biggest changes concern how miles to the north, and My Father’s House, a any length of time. Mason said that is no the center helps its homeless clients access See CLACKAMAS, page 11 N T
