Three Safe Rest Village Locations Announced, and They’ll Feature Heated Sleeping Pods

The city of Portland announced the first three safe rest village locations on Thursday afternoon.

They are: Menlo Park Park & Ride at Southeast 122nd Avenue and East Burnside Street, the 2300 block of Southwest Naito Parkway, and a paved lot at Southeast 45th Avenue and Harney Street. The downtown location along Naito Parkway will be a relocation of the existing Queer Affinity village that’s being removed from the inner eastside.

Ryan’s staff and Marc Jolin, executive director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, provided some other details about what the sites might look like. Though Ryan signaled he wanted the first three operating by 2022, he left room for error: “We want to have these up and running by the beginning of the year. If we don’t meet that, we’ll keep getting up and pursuing it.”

Each of the three sites will have individual sleeping pods—akin to tiny houses—outfitted with electricity, locking doors and heating. There will be shared hygiene services like bathrooms, kitchenettes and laundry services. Though the capacity of the sites will vary, Ryan says, the average capacity will likely be around 60 occupants per site.

City and county leaders also offered a glimpse into how people will arrive at the sites: It will be a referral-based process. Referrals can come from first responders, social service providers, houseless services agencies or park rangers.

Each site will be locked in with a three-year lease.

Earlier today, WW reported how Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury told Ted Wheeler and Ryan that she won’t promise long-term funding for the sites past 2024, despite the city’s request that the county provide ongoing funding.

Ryan says the safe rest villages are only partially a response to the U.S. Supreme Court case Martin v. Boise, which mandates that municipalities must provide enough shelter for each homeless person before they can enforce unsanctioned camping laws: “That was definitely a factor. But really, just open your eyes. There’s a humanitarian crisis on our streets. We can’t wait for affordable housing to be ready for every houseless person.”

The Menlo Park Park & Ride, as the name suggests, is a parking lot for bus riders. It’s owned by TriMet and sits along Burnside at 122nd in the Hazelwood neighborhood.

The Naito Parkway location is a stretch of land co-owned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Transportation and sits near a number of buildings, including the International School. Southwest Barbur Boulevard runs along the site.

The 45th and Harney location is owned by the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services and lies on the edges of Errol Heights Park in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood.

Ryan said the next steps are to sign contractors to manage the sites 24/7, find and announce the three other sites, and “begin construction as soon as possible.”

None of the three sites is a safe car camping site, though Ryan says one of the six will likely be a car lot.

The city was in talks with Metro about using part of the Expo Center parking lot as a car camping village, but Ryan said it was too pricey of an option for the city to stomach.

“We’ll continue to keep the door open,” Ryan says. “Our office is open to any jurisdiction that can provide us some land for at least three years.”