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Ibrahim Mubarak considers Right 2 Dream Too, the homeless camp he founded in Northwest Portland, a place for people to get some restful sleep.

Developer David Gold sees it as something else: a deal breaker for his plans to improve the building directly across the street from the camp.

Gold last week announced that he was shelving his plans to renovate the Grove Hotel into a youth hostel. He said he was unable to find a business willing to lease ground-floor space in the building because of its proximity to the homeless camp. Investors have since withdrawn their financial backing.

“As of now, the Grove is not a project 鈥� it’s over,” Gold said. “It’s not feasible. We’ve lost our financing and we can’t rent the space. I’ve said before (that) we can’t rent the space with a camp across the street.”

Mubarek in October 2011 struck a lease agreement with landowner Michael Wright to open a “rest area” on his property at the corner of West Burnside Street and Northwest Fourth Avenue. The idea for R2DT was to provide homeless individuals a place to rest for eight to 12 hours.

“When people are sleeping on the street, they’re sleep deprived,” said Mubarak, a co-founder of Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. “It’s just not safe. They’re worrying about safety issues; they’re worrying about being out in the rain and cold (and) people waking them up (because) they can’t sleep there. They’re not concentrating on how to be productive. They’re concentrating on how to get sleep and food.”

However, R2DT isn’t activating the street.

The Portland Development Commission invested $3.7 million to purchase the Grove Hotel and make various fire and life safety improvements. Shawn Uhlman, spokesman for the PDC, said the plan was to sell the building to Gold and his investors 鈥� including John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy and Portland hotelier Alex Calderwood 鈥� for $550,000 (it was appraised at $650,000, but the price was reduced to account for needed roof repairs).

The PDC also planned to issue the developer two market-rate loans totaling $2.65 million for the renovation. Interest would have accrued at a rate of approximately 4.25 percent for the first year, and then 7 percent thereafter.

The terms of the disposition and development agreement expire on June 30, and Uhlman said the PDC is continuing to work with Gold.

“It’s absolutely a challenging project, but it’s not dead,” Uhlman said. “We’re operating against the June 30 expiration of the DDA. But I would say we’re still having discussions; I think David would agree with that 鈥� that we’re still talking. Everyone acknowledges that this project faces huge financial challenges. Every side is still interested in seeing this thing move forward, but the challenges are very real.”

Meanwhile, Mubarak has issued a challenge of his own. In December he filed a lawsuit against the city, Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Bureau of Development Services Director Paul Scarlett to combat what he feels is an incorrect and unjust interpretation of state code. William Manlove, senior deputy city attorney, said he would file a response this week.

Essentially, the city has deemed R2DT a recreational camp, and Mubarek does not have the appropriate permits for such use. He maintains that his site is merely a rest area, and not subject to the permit requirements. So far, he says the city has fined him approximately $15,000.

At this point, he said, staying on the site is a matter of principle.

“To stay at the site is to let people know 鈥� it’s like an in-your-face thing where we do have homeless issues, and homeless issues can’t be resolved overnight,” Mubarak said. “The shelters and missions are overcrowded. We don’t just need a place to sleep 鈥� we need people not to belittle us.”

Gold said he is not unsympathetic to Mubarak’s plight. He said he’d like to see a humane and equitable solution, but the unfortunate truth is that no restaurant wants to open its doors across the street from a homeless camp. Gold is hoping to see the city enforce the state law that prohibits R2DT from operating at the site without permits.

Doreen Binder, the executive director for Transition Projects, a nonprofit that helps homeless people transition to housing, takes issue with R2DT, but for an entirely different reason.

“It’s an unacceptable temporary situation,” she said. “It’s a blight on our visual, and it’s a blight on the statement about what we think about people and what we’re willing to do to help people. I don’t think it’s an acceptable way to live.”

Binder is on a committee that is involved in guiding the direction of the Central City 2035 plan. One of the conundrums facing Old Town Chinatown is how it can be revitalized while the presence of social services, which often generate long, street-side queues, is maintained.

Binder said part of the solution involves moving people indoors. Old Town Chinatown has many vacant buildings that she thinks could be used, even temporarily, to house the homeless.

“I’d like to look at some of the old buildings,” Binder said. “How do we retrofit them to be able to house people in them? They’re just sitting there.”

Mubarak has the same goal.

So far, he said, his rest area has serviced more than 32,000 people. At least 45 have found permanent homes, and 32 have found work. He thinks the complaints surrounding R2DT are undeserved.

“We sweep every morning,” Mubarek said. “Every day we’re picking up trash. We’re stopping graffiti on the wall. The crime has (gone) down since we’ve been there. Also we’ve become a tourist attraction because of our ‘Doors of Opportunity.’ ”

He referred to a fence made of brightly painted doors, where people have written statements about homelessness. It’s become a popular attraction for photographers. It’s also in violation of city code because of its height.