A homeless shelter and services center backed by developer Homer Williams is on track to open in Northwest Portland as soon as June 1, according to city and county officials.

Oregon Harbor of Hope, led by Williams and Don Mazziotti, will pay $3.5 million for construction and capital costs. The nonprofit received a $1.5 million contribution from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle in April 2018.

The city of Portland and Multnomah County, through the Joint Office of Homeless Services, will contribute more than $1 million to cover operating expenses.

The shelter will be located on a city-owned vacant lot slightly north of the Broadway Bridge along Northwest Naito Parkway. The 1.17-acre property sits opposite the Albers Mill Building.

In addition to 100 beds, the tent-like Navigation Center, as it’s called, will provide services such as individual assessments and recovery plans, mental health treatment and housing services.

Public officials had struggled to find a location for the Navigation Center.

“It’s difficult and expensive to find and invest in good sites close to the right services,” Williams stated in a news release. “We’re grateful for our deepening partnership with the Joint Office, and we’re excited we can keep working to make a difference in hundreds of lives.”

A 120-bed shelter on Southeast Foster Road is also expected to open this summer.

Public officials have struggled to respond to rising homelessness in Portland and other West Coast cities. In 2017, 79 people died in Multnomah County while homeless.

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Multnomah County and city of Portland officials are eyeing a long-vacant warehouse near the Steel Bridge as a potential site for a 200-bed permanent homeless shelter.

Converting the warehouse, at 320 N.W. Hoyt St., into a shelter could exacerbate tensions with property owners and business operators in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, but it also would offer public officials a long-term alternative to the temporary-shelter hopscotch they’ve engaged in recently.

“We haven’t had a big permanent shelter in the downtown core, and we still see that need,” said Denis Theriault, spokesman for Multnomah County and the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

Negotiations with the property owner, Alco Investment Co. of Seattle, are under way, Theriault said. The Joint Office is seeking a long-term lease for the shelter.

“There isn’t a lease yet,” he said.

The Joint Office has applied for an early assistance meeting with the Bureau of Development Services to determine whether the property could host a shelter.

The warehouse, built in 1925, needs significant renovations before it can function as a shelter, Theriault said. Carleton Hart Architecture and project management consultant Shiels Obletz Johnsen are at work on the project. Transition Projects, a Portland nonprofit, would operate the shelter.

Some neighbors are fighting the drive to establish another center for homeless service in Old Town Chinatown. The Old Town Chinatown Community Association has held public forums on the topic, and met with Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury.

“It’s just not the right time to add any additional social services to the neighborhood,” said Helen Ying, chairwoman of the neighborhood association.

The group has sent a letter to Wheeler and Kafoury protesting the proposal.

Guardian Real Estate Services President Tom Brenneke said adding a shelter would not conform to a years-old agreement with the neighborhood that there would be no net gain in shelter beds. Guardian owns two properties nearby – Block 33 and the Tuck Lung property.

“I am opposed to it,” Brenneke said. “The area’s overburdened with that type of social service. We already have a significant facility in Bud Clark Commons, and adding 200 more beds doesn’t seem to be in keeping with the agreement.”

Theriault said the shelter could make a positive contribution to the neighborhood.

“We understand there are livability concerns in Old Town Chinatown,” he said. “This shelter is a way to help.”

Public officials continue to receive complaints of homeless individuals lining up to wait for a bed in Portland’s few available shelters. Part of the strategy to address those complaints is to offer a 24-hour, low-barrier shelter with in-house services, Theriault said.

The Joint Office is evaluating the possibility of closing other facilities in Old Town Chinatown if and when the Hoyt Street shelter opens to lessen the burden on the neighborhood.

Wheeler supports the Joint Office’s strategy, spokesman Michael Cox said.

A large shelter would also lessen the city’s and county’s reliance on short-term, temporary shelters hosted by developers. In recent winters, the Menashes, Malsins and others have agreed to host short-term shelters.

The Portland Business Alliance supports using the Hoyt Street site, president and CEO Sandra McDonough said.

Neighbors have legitimate livability concerns, she said, but those are being addressed by measures such as increased police patrols on foot.

“There’s not a lot of sites,” McDonough said. “So this represents a good, long-term site that will work.”

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The Portland Development Commission is partnering with Transition Projects Inc. on a 72-unit apartment development, along with 14 tiny houses – all for formerly homeless individuals.

The proposed project is planned for 2221 N. Argyle Street in an industrial corner of the Kenton neighborhood.

The PDC and the developer want to build 36 studio apartments and 36 single-room occupancy units. The single-room units would be clustered in groups of six; each pod would share a common kitchen and two bathrooms.

Three small buildings would have two pods each, for 36 single-room units. The studio apartments, the manager’s unit and a large community room would be part of a separate three-story building.

Also, the tiny houses, designed by several architecture firms and Portland State University architecture students, would be deployed for a minimum of a year. Catholic Charities would manage the tiny house community on contract with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, a collaboration started in 2016 between the city of Portland and Multnomah County.

All of the units are intended to house people earning no more than 60 percent of the median family income, according to a PDC agenda.

The commission’s board voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize selling the 0.99-acre property to Transition Projects. A PDC staff report said a price has not been finalized; it will be set by an appraisal.

A February 2016 analysis estimated the property’s value at $1.33 million, according to the staff report.

A PDC spokesperson could not be reached for comment, and Transition Projects Executive Director George Devendorf was not immediately available for an interview, a spokeswoman said.

The lot is unimproved. If the purchase were to close, crews would break ground in 2018.

Meyer Memorial Trust in January awarded Transition Projects a $500,000 grant for the project. However, the nonprofit developer will need more than a year to secure approximately $11.2 million to finance the project, according to the staff report.

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