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The Bud Clark Commons, formerly named the Resource Access Center, is 鈥渁 triumph of perseverance,鈥� Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish said.

鈥淭here are probably people out there who wondered if we were able to pull it off,鈥� he said.

The Northwest Portland building is set to open to the public on Thursday, and services will begin in staggered fashion over the next month. The facility will provide 130 permanent housing units for the most medically vulnerable and chronically homeless people in Portland, 90 temporary housing units for men, and a ground-floor day resource center expected to serve approximately 400 people per day with showers and connections to community resources.

The $46.9 million project was in limbo for two years while grassroots organization Friends of Urban Renewal challenged the city’s use of urban renewal money. During the dispute, urban renewal dollars, which accounted for $29.8 million of project funding, was frozen. The project resumed when an appeal to the Land Use Board of Appeals was dropped in September 2009.

鈥淚 would have preferred that we were opening (the building) sooner,鈥� Fish said. 鈥淏ut in retrospect, the additional time has allowed us to rethink the project a bit.鈥�

The building had been conceived as a full-block, two- and three-story building with wood construction, but it was revised to become a half-block, seven-story concrete structure. The smaller footprint reduced the cost of land acquisition, and the greater height is closer to the maximum allowed on its site 鈥� a better fit for the city’s density goals, Fish said.

The Bud Clark Commons will be the first building in the country to co-locate temporary and permanent housing with a daytime resource center, Fish said, and he hopes it will serve as a model.

鈥淚ncreasingly, the thinking in government is to co-locate all of the core services under one roof,鈥� Fish said.

The building and the permanent affordable housing apartments will be managed by Home Forward, formerly known as the Housing Authority of Portland. Home Forward spokeswoman Shelley Marchesi said that the first 30 tenants for those units were identified, and will begin moving in at the end of the month. Home Forward will have 14 full-time and six part-time staffers as well as contracted staffers working at the building.

The day resource center and 90-bed men’s shelter will be managed by Transition Projects, which will move its existing resource center and transitional housing from existing locations on Glisan Avenue to the new building around June 10.

鈥淭he project is trying to encapsulate the entire cycle of homelessness, from right off the street to having a permanent home,鈥� Holst Architecture project manager Dave Otte said. This is part of the city’s 鈥淗ousing First鈥� policy 鈥� providing immediate permanent housing for as many people as possible.

鈥淭he city has found that we are more successful in helping the homeless when we give them housing first (and) then resources,鈥� Otte said. The goal is for the building to allow self-sufficiency, with housing available and then counselors and resources designated for the residents there.

Each of the building’s three parts will have a separate entrance, Otte said.

鈥淎ll three entries are serving separate populations,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s important that (for example) the men going to the transitional shelter are not sharing the same door as anyone right off the street.鈥�

The new building at Broadway and Northwest Hoyt Street is designed to give a feeling of individuality rather than institutionalism, Otte said.

The city built a new building instead of using an existing one because 鈥渨hat we were trying to accomplish didn’t exist,鈥� Fish said. The structure fits specifications and is 鈥渂uilt to last,鈥� he added.

鈥淭hat’s one of the hallmarks of this building,鈥� Fish said.

The goal is for the Bud Clark Commons to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification. Many of the windows in the 300-square-foot apartments are off-kilter and framed with eight hues of green, to reference a tree canopy, Otte said.

鈥淲e wanted to create an environment that is hopeful and lively,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o many (facilities) can be dreary.鈥�

Fish and others were scheduled to officially open the building to the public at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning. The facility is named after former Portland Mayor Bud Clark, 鈥渢he first Portland mayor who placed ending homelessness at the center of the city’s agenda,鈥� Fish said.