The East County Homeless Services Center will be a low barrier community that will provide culturally responsive services to ensure equitable access and outcomes for adults of all backgrounds and identities. “Low barrier” is a fluid term that indicates that services will be designed to be easily available for people experiencing homelessness but also ensuring that health and safety standards can be met.

Yes, there will be showers and laundry service on site for both users of the day center and participants of the pod village.

Yes, there will be food, beverages and snacks offered, as well as a kitchen to prepare meals for both users of the day center and participants of the pod village.

Current design plans for the Cook Plaza building includes storage lockers that will be available for individuals using the day center. People who are sheltering in the pod village will be able to store their belongings in their pods during the duration of their stay.

At this time, there is not a provider established to be responsible for the East County Homelessness Resource Center. Best practice for day shelter services programs is to bring as many different support types to the facility as possible to act as a hub for service navigation. The mission is centered around co-locating services to meet people where they are in a trauma informed manner, going beyond the basic act of providing safety from the elements during daytime hours. 

The provider(s) responsible for operating the site will ensure that all service delivery is organized in consideration of safety and security for both the site and surrounding areas.

Current design plans have a pet relief area and open-air shelter with lighting and heaters for both the day-use area and pod village.

The day shelter services are not overnight but the pod village project at the site will be operational 24/7 which will include 24/7 staffing. The JOHS supports dozens of shelter programs and in most cases, 24/7 site staffing is sufficient to ensure safety for the site and surrounding area. In some cases, we have added security services. We can be flexible and adjust the service level or type of services (shelter staffing vs professional security services) if needed.

This can be negotiated with our local jurisdictional partners during the Good Neighbor Agreement process, which we anticipate will begin in early 2025.

There will be limited parking available on site for use by participants and/or service providers of the pod village. We are working to find solutions to reduce the possible impact of available street parking adjacent to the site.

There will be no visitors for pod village participants, but there will be some traffic with service providers and inreach teams supporting the shelter and day-use center participants. The entry and exit from the dedicated parking lot is on Stark. An emergency gate will be available to first responders on the north side of the lot.

“Day services” by definition is not 24 hours a day and there will be a set opening and closing time (TBD to be established in partnership during GNA process with consideration for need and impact on community). Only during events of severe weather would that be changed.

Once a provider is selected, the JOHS will establish this parameter. The maximum length of stay will be determined in partnership with the operator during the program design phase. Length of stay needs to be in alignment with Oregon Fair Housing Law and best practice for shelter. We aim to have shelter stays be brief and ensuring that people are connected to resources that will support them in moving from shelter into housing. 

This will be determined once a provider has been selected. The site will never be staffed by a single staff person at any given time and staffing ratios should be no less than one staff person per 25 guests.

All staff will be trained in de-escalation, mental health first aid, and other training to ensure that they are well equipped to manage challenging situations. Both the day services program and the pod shelter program will include expectations for guests regarding acceptable behavior, particularly around safety concerns. Program staff will be expected to hold guests to those expectations and manage behavior.

Onsite use is not permitted for any JOHS-funded shelters. The program will not administer tests to determine sobriety but will expect that guests behave appropriately within the general expectations established.

Multnomah County has applied for and anticipate the awarding of a EPA Community Change Grant to renovate the HVAC system as well as adding a generator for the facility to improve it as a resource during severe weather and other climate-related disasters.