PORTLAND, Ore. – Multnomah County on Thursday announced the sale of the Wapato Jail has been finalized, and the $5 million for the jail will be earmarked for housing.
“The long saga of Wapato is over,’’ said Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. “We didn’t need it as a jail. We couldn’t afford to convert it. We couldn’t reach back into the past and recapture the money spent. But we could work with professional real estate managers to sell Wapato and get that property back on the tax rolls to bring vital revenue to serve those in our community who need us most."
Last week, county commissioners voted 4-1 to sell the jail to a developer for $5 million, foregoing a $7 million offer which promised to turn the facility into a homeless shelter.
Instead, owners of Kehoe Northwest Properties have said they plan to use the building as a warehouse or distribution center.
“Building Wapato was a mistake,” said Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson at the April 12 meeting.
The jail has sat empty since the County spent $58 million to build it back in 2004. Just maintaining the property has cost taxpayers $300,000 per year, since.
“There would never be the funding to actually operate the jail on an ongoing basis,” said Commissioner Sharon Meieran.
Though the $7 million offer from developer Homer Williams and his nonprofit “Harbor of Hope” wasn’t mentioned on the meeting’s agenda, talk quickly turned toward the years-long debate of whether to use the large, empty facility to house Portland’s homeless.
“When you have a homeless guy using your backyard as a bathroom, you really don’t feel you have time for all this discussion,” said one community member during public testimony.
Williams testified at the meeting as well.
“We talk about building our way out of this,” he said to Commissioners, talking about Portland’s homeless crisis. “We can’t. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the time.”
“This is your job to help get these people off the streets,” said Brad Perkins, who sat alongside Williams and fellow developer Don Mazzioti. “If you're not willing to do that, then these gentlemen are willing to do it.”
But Commissioners came with concerns about Williams’ offer and the concept of using Wapato as a shelter at all.
Operating it as such, they said, would cost the county $5-10 million per year, not including providing or arranging transportation to and from the somewhat secluded facility in North Portland.
“Putting people in small shelters in the community close to their families their schools their jobs, that's what gives people success, what gets them into housing,” said Kafoury.
There were also concerns about zoning hurdles, as the land is zoned “industrial”.
Developers had a response for that.
“We’ve consulted with several outstanding land-use attorneys, including the original attorney who worked for the county in setting the CC&R’s, the zoning and the incumbrances for the Port of Portland,” said Mazzioti. “He agrees, as does our land-use attorney, that rezoning is not only feasible but quite possible.”
But specific to Williams’ offer, in conjunction with his nonprofit Harbor of Hope, the county’s assistant attorney raised a red flag.
In a two-page summary submitted to Commissioners earlier in the week, Ken Elliot called the offer “illusory” because it includes language that would deduct "any unknown or extraordinary costs, which may be discovered within the ninety day inspection and due diligence period, at the sole discretion of the purchaser."
The Kehoe Northwest Properties offer was for $5 million with no future ties.
But Commissioner Loretta Smith, who voted against the sale, argued Kehoe was “bamboozling” the county, given that this was their second offer.
Their first came in at $10.8 million in 2017, but the sale fell through.
“He's going to flip it, and we're going to look stupid,” she said.
After the vote, she said other commissioners gave undue preference to Kehoe’s revised, lower offer, instead of fully considering Williams’ pitch.
“He's trying to use private sector to engage the public sector to use a building that could serve all of us,” she said “And we poo-poo'd him.”
“There are thousands and thousands of people who are living in vans and RVs and camps that have jobs,” said Williams after the vote. “You know, if they had a safe place to sleep and they had a bed, then they could save some money and they could rent an apartment.”
Commissioners’ approval on April 12 was contingent on Kehoe’s paying a non-refundable $200,000 deposit and closing on the sale by the end of next week.