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
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