April 17, 2019
The
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CAREERS Special Edition
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
Week in Review
C ALENDAR
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page 6
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and actor Russell Hornsby (center) join other community
members in a discussion about the interactions between police and communities of color following
a film screening of “The Hate You Give”—a fictional film that Hornsby co-stars in about a black
youth who is shot and killed by a police officer after a hairbrush he had is mistaken for a weapon.
Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee and ‘No Hate Zone’ creator Sam
Sachs (pictured in front) helped organize Friday’s event.
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M ETRO
Emotions Run High
Chief joins screening of
‘The Hate You Give’
D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Emotions ran high during a discussion with Portland
Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, actor Russell Hornsby,
and community members of color at Vancouver Ave-
by
nue First Baptist Church Friday, following a screening
of the critically acclaimed 2018 film “The Hate You
Give,” which Hornsby co-starred in, and delves deep
into themes of officer-involved shooting deaths of
black Americans, the Black Lives Matter movement,
and the sometimes tense relationship between police
and communities of color.
C ontinueD on p age 6
Toran Offers a Plan for Wapato
New proposal for
never used jail
pages 7-11
by
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
A new vision for the never-used
Wapato jail been drafted by Vol-
unteers of America. This time the
proposal is to create a 100-bed
residential treatment program for
addiction and mental health ser-
vices for men and women.
Kay Toran, a long time leader
from Portland’s African Ameri-
can community, who has directed
Volunteers of American Oregon
since 1999, is working on secur-
ing funding, going back to gov-
ernment agencies and the private
sector with pleas to help make that
dream a reality.
Jordan Schnitzer, who pur-
chased Wapato after Multnomah
County rejected proposals to re-
make the jail into a homeless shel-
ter because of the cost and dis-
tance from other public services,
has reached out to Toran in sup-
port of making the north Portland
site a resource for the VOA’s ad-
diction and mental health services.
Dubbed the Community Well-
ness Center, it would be “a col-
photo by
D anny p eterson /
t he p ortlanD
o bserver
pages 12-13
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Kay Toran,
president of
Volunteers of
America Oregon,
has proposed a re-
envisioning of the
never-used former
Wapato jail site in
north Portland.
laboration among treatment pro-
viders, social service agencies,
hospital care providers and uni-
versities to provide holistic ser-
vices to clients who need support
in behavioral health, substance
use disorder and issues related to
homelessness,” according to a one
page summary of the proposal.
“I believe our vision is very
different. We’re not talking about
trying to use it for the homeless,
we aren’t talking about trying
to use it for a jail, we are talking
about providing a resource to a
population that we know have
high needs in this community,”
Toran told the Portland Observer.
The facility would not be ex-
clusively for seniors, as has been
previously reported, but all adults
18 and up, Toran clarified, with
a special focus on those touched
by the criminal justice system. It
would be similar to two existing
residential centers that VOA op-
erates—one for men and one for
women—in Portland.
Schnitzer called the idea “fab-
ulous.” He acquired the property
last spring and has been exploring
the idea of repurposing it for a fa-
cility that helps the homeless ever
since. He’s also considered lev-
C ontinueD on p age 14