Washington County, Metro and other project partners gathered Wednesday, March 19 to celebrate the grand opening of the Just Compassion Shelter & Resource Center. The new, expanded facility increases the nonprofit’s previous shelter capacity from 20 to 60 beds. Sleeping areas are divided by gender into several separate rooms, with bunk beds and storage for belongings.
Shelter and day center guests will have access to fresh meals, shower facilities, case management, housing navigation and behavioral health services. The center was also deigned "to make it easy for our guests to connect with services like health care and employement support from our partner agencies," explained Just Compassion Executive Director Dr. Vernon Baker. Additional activities like gardening and art classes will offer enrichment and connection. The facility can also accommodate up to 50 additional people overnight as an emergency shelter in extreme weather.
Oregon governor Tina Kotek addressed the crowd, touching on the importance of local efforts in the bigger picture of the statewide effort to address homelessness: “With a facility like this [and] people coming together over the years – literally – to find the dollars, to find the will to make this happen, this makes me so proud as your governor.”
Metro Council President Lynn Peterson cited a recent research paper on best practices in helping people transition from homelessness to housing. One of the paper’s key findings is how impactful it is for people experiencing homelessness to have help navigating services. “They don’t want to call a phone number and get put on hold,” she explained, “they need humans who know them as individuals and care about them. So thanks to Just Compassion staff and case workers, they don’t have to do that alone.”
These 60 shelter beds are the latest addition to the over 400 beds across Washington County that local partners have created using Metro supportive housing services dollars. The shelter and access center will welcome its first guests Monday, March 24.
Read about the latest progress in each county's SHS-funded work