Elijah is one of the shelter leads at Menlo Park Safe Rest Village, which is a village-style shelter in East Portland that was made possible through a collaborative effort between the city of Portland and Multnomah County, and is run by the grassroots organization Cultivate Initiatives.

Elijah faced homelessness and drug addiction after a difficult divorce. He said, “For me, being homeless came about because I lost a lot – the use of drugs took me out of feeling depressed. I didn’t know how to live my life without this person in my life, because we had been together so long. When I was introduced to meth, I was able to suppress all those feelings, and so I held onto that because I didn’t want to feel that depression. But then that addiction took me on a road that I couldn’t control.”

His personal journey from 14 years of drug addiction and homelessness to becoming a certified recovery mentor and shelter lead highlights the transformative power of support and structure.  “My clean date is 11/7/17”, he recalled, reflecting on his 8 years of sobriety. “My whole life has changed in the past 8 years, now I have no ties to drug addiction, and I actually support other people that have that struggle.”

Elijah described the village as a place where individuals can find safety and stability. “When they show up, we do a short intake, show them the space, the pod space, the bathrooms, showers, laundry room, kitchenette,” he explained. “They get a unit that has a heater, air conditioning, a mini fridge, a bed, a dresser. So they can have normalcy, stabilization, a place to stabilize, getting out of the elements, and having a roof over their head.”

The village also offers a range of services, including food from local vendors, wellness checks, and engagement activities. “We have an engagement coordinator that comes down and he does movie nights, bingo game nights, and we have these other resources – like Cultivate Initiatives has their things going on, like their shower program and stuff like that,” Elijah added. “People start shedding a lot of the street life and start seeing the resources we have, and they start grabbing onto those things and navigating through this stuff.”

Elijah emphasized the importance of peer support in the shelter environment. “We got two peer supports, Cassidy and Jessica, who now help neighbors, they have their clientele or their neighbor groups that they work with to help them navigate health services, drug addiction, whatever services they need to help them transition,” he said. “Peer supports help them navigate the space a little bit, and they also help them work on their barriers.”

He shared a story of a neighbor who had a 3-year old warrant on his record. “I was trying to help him just turn himself in, and told him we can work with the POs [Parole Officers] and try to help, cause I know a little bit about the criminal justice system,” Elijah recounted. “He was almost there, but then he got caught up in the parking lot, he got caught up by the police and he got arrested. We found out right away that they were gonna basically combine all these charges together, and then get him a new court date.”

Elijah’s team, including the peer support team, continued to support the neighbor through his court process. “Once they got connected, he was able to get housed. And now the probate PO has his address, and he qualified for social security, for benefits, so now he’s in a place that’s affordable,” he said. “Employment’s really a necessity in that transitional piece because eventually some funding will run out and you wanna be able to continue paying, and employment’s really a necessity in that.”

Elijah highlighted the engagement and community-building activities that are essential for fostering a supportive environment within the village. “There’s a lot of things in place for the engagement program, like in the summertime they took a group fishing, he was able to get licenses for some participants who wanted to go fishing.”

These activities help residents feel more connected and engaged. “People get beverages every morning too. They get coffee and juice,” Elijah added. He also mentioned the Cultivate Initiatives intern program and the employment specialist roles being developed. “We’re building up our workforce, so they’re right now they have an intern, they’re starting to build an intern program just for the SRV [Safe Rest Village],” he said. “And we’re gonna have an employment specialist, and employment manager, and that’s gonna help people, people that are here at the SRV are gonna be able to get on with the intern program and get a little bit of money, but also work towards workforce development like getting a resume and either get connected with full-time employment with Cultivate or navigate some other kind of employment.”

Elijah told us, “There’s more good people than there are bad people on the street. And knowing their story, knowing how they got there, that’s what is needed to help them get out.” The Menlo Park Safe Rest Village provides a low-barrier shelter with a holistic approach, including peer support specialists and housing specialists, to help residents navigate barriers such as criminal backgrounds, mental health issues, and lack of documentation. These elements are key for people like Elijah, who says he would never have made it to where he is now if someone hadn’t believed in him and provided him with the support and encouragement he needed when he was exiting homelessness and addiction.