PORTLAND, Ore. — The future of a controversial homeless shelter in Northwest Portland is in limbo come the start of the new year.
The River District Navigation Center, located on the outskirts of the Old Town neighborhood off Northwest Naito Parkway behind Union Station, has been open since Aug. 2019. It's been met with frustrations from neighbors, like Joan Neice and her husband, who live across the street.
“About five years ago, our protectiveness, our safety, our security all decreased, and fears increased,” said Neice, who runs Neighbors 4 Safe Smart Shelters, a community coalition with almost 1,000 members. “Prior to the shelter, there was not a problem, not one problem anywhere.”
Neice said she believes once the shelter opened, crime, drug use and unsanctioned camping came with it.
“My husband picks up feces almost on a daily basis and fentanyl wrappers… he was pushed and approached by someone with a knife. I no longer walk my dog at night,” she said.
Yet those who stay at the shelter have a different experience, like David who moved in nine months ago and is now at the top of a housing waitlist.
“The shelter itself is really pretty clean, bathrooms are clean, the food is decent to good a lot of times,” he said.
This week, neighbors received a postcard in the mail from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office alerting them that the nonprofit Oregon Harbor of Hope — which holds the lease for the shelter — is ceasing its operations come Jan. 1.
It turns out they share many of the same concerns as the surrounding neighbors and are unhappy with how the shelter is run. They don’t manage the shelter’s day-to-day operations; Multnomah County's Joint Office of Homeless Services hired Transition Projects to run it.
It’s the Transition Project's management of the shelter that Harbor of Hope has an issue with, so they no longer want to be involved and asked the city of Portland to take their place.
“It’s been a constant battle, and we felt that if this was going to continue that, it would be best in the hands of the city,” said Homer Williams, the chairman of Harbor of Hope.
Transition Projects responded in a statement, saying, “Transition Projects remains committed to serving 90 individuals and couples at the River District Navigation Center 24/7 as they work to transition from homelessness to permanent housing. Over just the past few months, with our team’s support, more than 20 people from the Center have moved into apartments across the metro area."
With roughly two weeks until Harbor of Hope’s lease is up, the mayor’s office is quickly working to get the needed permits and approvals to keep the shelter open.
“Transition Projects' contract to operate the site runs through Spring of 2024, and in the interest of maintaining stable operations through this period of transition, we do not plan to make changes to this contract in the near term," a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement. "We have made no firm decisions about a site operator over the longer-term, but welcome feedback from the neighbors on the operation of the site and how site operators can operate within the neighborhood.”
They plan to meet with neighbors during an information session next week.
“It would be a great tragedy if we go ahead and close it now and put another 100 people out on the street. The facility probably helps probably three to four hundred people a year,” Homer said.
“I think it would be bad ... it’s a valuable resource,” added David.
Yet it’s a resource that has come at a cost for the neighborhood: Neice and her husband plan to move out of Portland if the city keeps the shelter open, which they plan to do given the city's current need for shelter space.