Human Solutions is proud to announce that we have secured financing from Multnomah County and the Housing Development Center to purchase a new location for our Emergency Shelter for Homeless Families.

Human Solutions will renovate the new site into a year-round multi-purpose family shelter with partitioned sleeping spaces for up to 130 parents and children and adequate kitchen, shower, and laundry facilities. Colas Construction is the general contractor, and the architect is Holst Architecture, which is donating their services.

The Emergency Shelter for Homeless Families (formerly known as the Family Winter Shelter) operated for seven years as a seasonal facility between November and April, the coldest and rainiest months of the year in Portland. Last year, the Winter Shelter provided a total of 21,585 “bed nights” to 960 individuals in 277 homeless families, including 442 adults and 518 children.

Once the new Emergency Shelter is completed, we will be able to accommodate homeless families on a year-round basis, rather than just seasonally. The new location will also have space for our partner agencies, including culturally specific providers, to establish satellite locations or hold regular office hours. This will ensure that families will have access to all of the support services they need to address the issues that caused their homelessness.

The new location – an abandoned strip club in disrepair – will be available in approximately February 2016.