Catholic Community Services Foundation (CCSF) was recently awarded a grant for $663,163 from the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance (MWVHA) to convert a warehouse building on its main campus into an emergency shelter that will have the capacity to house up to 32 individuals. This shelter site, located at 3749 Portland Rd NE, is part of an ongoing partnership with Church-at-the-Park (C@P), which has been operating its Family Micro-Shelter on the site since 2021, providing 100 temporary emergency shelter beds along with a seasonal temporary winter warming shelter in the warehouse space for self-defined family/kinship groups.
According to CCS Chief Executive Officer, Joshua Graves, “These funds are coming to us at a crucial time: the temporary permit is about to expire, it is optimal weather for a construction project, and the shelter will be ready for occupancy just as the cold and rainy weather returns to Oregon and the shelter needs of our community tend to increase.”
Once the conversion is complete, a unique feature of this shelter will be the capacity to house larger family/kinship groups and single fathers. C@P currently offers a wide array of responsive on-site health and human services for the residents of its 100-bed temporary shelter on the CCSF property, which will also be expanded to the permanent emergency shelter. In acknowledging the impact of the CCS Family Micro Shelter, C@P Founder and Pastor, DJ Vincent said, “Because of the CCS -C@P partnership, we were able to shelter 224 adults and 170 children experiencing homelessness in 2022.”
The MWVHA funds were made available as a response to Governor Tina Kotek’s Executive Order 23-02, which aims to address Oregon’s 63% increase in homelessness since 2016. The order declared a state of emergency resulting in increased funds to prevent homelessness, increase emergency shelter capacity and to rehouse unsheltered households.