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Multnomah County plans to shut a homeless shelter run by Sunstone Way, one of the county’s largest contractors, at the end of March.
The county announced the plan in June, but a memo obtained by WW indicate that the closure may have come as a surprise to some staff.
“I know there has been a lot of talk and questions about the status of the Market Street Shelter,” Joelle Wheeler, Sunstone Way’s director of sheltering, wrote to staff on Dec. 9. “It is with deepest sorrow that we are officially announcing that the Market Street Shelter will be closing on March 31, 2026.”
The shelter has space for 120 and has been open since 2021.
The closure is a blow to Sunstone Way, the Department of Homeless Services’ 11th-largest contractor in the 2024 fiscal year. Multnomah County paid Sunstone Way—then called All Good Northwest—$2.5 million in the year ended June 30, 2024, county records show.
Earlier this year, Sunstone Way lost its contract to run a pod cluster in Multnomah Village to San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy.
Sunstone Way has been in flux recently. Chief executive officer Andy Goebel began a six-week sabbatical on Dec. 22 to deal with the stress of his job, according to a memo, obtained by WW, that was sent to staff by Sunstone Way interim board chair Jaime Dunn.
“Recently, the board met with Andy and had a conversation about the stress that doing this work can bring,” Dunn wrote. “Andy was very honest about his own feelings of fatigue. Andy has been CEO of Sunstone Way for over four years now. He’s led with strength, courage, and unwavering dedication to our growth, and now he’s showing that same strength through vulnerability as he recognizes it’s time to take a needed break.”
A more recent memo suggests that Wheeler is away from her post, too. Under “staff shout outs” it says that another employee, Semoni Sherwood, “is carrying the world.” Wheeler “hasn’t been gone for very long at all yet, and I’m seeing just how much Semoni is juggling,” the memo says.
Sunstone Way spokeswoman Devon Hoyt directed questions about the Market Street shelter to Multnomah County, which confirmed the plan to close it. Hoyt didn’t answer WW’s inquiry about Wheeler.
In addition to the Market Street Shelter, Multnomah County is closing the Wy’East Shelter at the end of March. Wy’East houses 90 men, most of them veterans, and is run by Do Good Multnomah, the Department of Homeless Services’ fifth-largest contractor as of June 30, 2024.
Sunstone Way is a spin-off, of sorts, from Do Good Multnomah. It was created by Do Good executives in 2021 to provide shelter services during the pandemic. Goebel left Do Good, where he was director of emergency managment, to become CEO of Sunstone Way.
Alicia Hovanas, Sunstone’s chief operating officer, is married to Do Good Multnomah CEO Daniel Hovanas.
