Portland Homeless Services Center

Portland Homeless Services Center

This new, 52,000 s.f. facility is the result of a public/private partnership between the development team and the City of Portland that allowed the building to go through design, permitting, and construction in less than 18 months.

The building is designed to be the City’s main service hub for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to men’s and women’s dormitories with a total of 208 beds, the center also houses a health and dental care clinic, offices for partnering social service agencies as well as meeting space, a cafeteria and dining hall, guest laundry and locker facilities and group gathering spaces.The large site bordering wooded areas, allows for extensive outdoor gathering spaces, covered pavilions and sheltered bike and locker storage for people’s belongings.

The goal of the center is to provide a full array of services under one roof in a safe and comfortable environment that allows guests to easily access services and get the support they need to stabilize their situation and getting them on a path to permanent housing.

The project is also the first to go through the city’s recently implemented sustainable design ordinance achieving an overall energy performance level 30% higher than required national standards and is on track for LEED Gold certification. Sustainable features include a high performance building envelope, a photovoltaic solar array, all electric HVAC and hot water systems, low flow plumbing fixtures, lighting control, and extensive natural light controlled with automated shading systems.