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City officials are in talks to put a women's winter warming shelter in Old Town, in a spot formerly considered as a brick-and-mortar home for Right 2 Dream Too.
Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman, head of the city's housing bureau, is negotiating with Central City Concern to house women in its Medford Building, at Northwest Glisan Street and Fifth Avenue.
The building formerly held Transitional Projects Inc., and served as a winter warming shelter for women last year. It's a sign Saltzman, who named emergency and affordable housing for women among his top priorities after he took over the housing bureau this spring, is starting to make inroads on those pledges.
Housing bureau spokeswoman Jaymee Cuti tells WW that no official plans have been made and the city is still in negotiations with Central City Concern. She also says neighborhood outreach is also on the docket.
Ibrahim Mubarak, spokesman for R2DToo, told Street Roots in July that âundisclosed groupâ made an offer on the building on R2DTooâs behalf.
"We stopped pursuing that with the city and the Right 2 Dream group when they were told they had a line on another property," Central City Concern spokeswoman DeDee Wilner-Nugent says, adding that was more than two weeks ago.
City Hall sources say the Medford Building would need hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations to make it a permanent shelter option and that money is not currently available.
Officials are now discussing moving R2DToo to a city-owned plot under the Broadway Bridge.
WWeek 2015