Two major lines formed in downtown Portland on Sept. 24. The first, south of West Burnside Street at the Apple store, formed behind brutalist fencing for the latest iPhone drop. The second, just north of Burnside Street at Union Gospel Mission.
More than 100 people gathered at the church for Operation Overcoat, an annual distribution event supplying vulnerable Portlanders with winter weather essentials. Guests received free lunch and a backpack filled with items including new coats, boots, blankets, hand warmers and basic hygiene items.
The church met its increased goal to assemble and distribute 800 backpacks this year, up from 600 backpacks given in 2020, and 300 backpacks in 2019. Courtney Dodds, the church’s communications director, cited successful email and social media outreach campaigns in securing Operation Overcoat’s increased funds and resources. While the church met its goal, it illustrates a growing need for services in Portland.
Volunteers met Sept. 2 at the church’s Old Town headquarters to assemble backpacks, arranging them by clothing size. Operation Overcoat’s annual block party was canceled for the second year in a row due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the church volunteers and guests seemed to enjoy one another’s company. Guests ate volunteer-prepared hot meals, some while standing in line and some on the church’s socially distant patio, one of September’s last balmy days.
Federal analysis found Oregon’s houseless population had decreased by more than 16% since 2007 prior to the pandemic, and the Oregon Employment Department’s Workforce and Economic Research Division reports Oregon’s population experiencing poverty is heading back to pre-2008 low levels. However, the state is still tied with Nevada for the nation’s second-highest percentage of unhoused people per capita, and things may not be headed in a positive direction.
The recent loss of federal pandemic unemployment benefits and the looming end of eviction protections leaves thousands of still-unemployed Oregonians vulnerable. While those safeguards remain in place for those who have applied for rental assistance, Street Roots has reported on the delay in distributing emergency financial aid to impacted Oregonians. As of Sept. 30, the Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program’s weekly dashboard report shows just over 33% of Multnomah County applications are still pending initial review, with fewer than 20% submitted for funding.
The church factored in these urgent reasons, along with the increasing frequency of extreme weather, when deciding to generate more aid for people in need.
“These items are probably going to be needed again because if you’re living outside, you don’t necessarily get to do laundry, or people’s items get stolen a lot, so they’ll continue to be in need throughout the winter."
“It’s different every year,” Dodds said. “It’s 80 degrees today, but that can turn pretty quick. A couple of years ago, we had freezing nights in October.”
To Dodds’ point, Portland weather abruptly shifted from unprecedented summer heat to more than three inches of September rain. Portland’s HYDRA Rainfall Network reported 1.33 inches fell the weekend after Operation Overcoat’s kickoff event, while more than a third of an inch of rain fell during October’s first week.
The New Farmer’s Almanac predicts the Pacific Northwest could have a milder winter than the rest of North America, which could experience the heavy snowfall and frigid temperatures seen during Winter Storms Uri and Viola in February 2021. Uri was responsible for devastating snowfall in Texas that killed more than 700 people. Viola knocked out electrical service for more than 730,000 Oregon homes and killed at least four people in Clackamas County alone. Both storms originated in the Pacific Northwest.
However, the Pacific Northwest isn’t expected to escape the fall and winter months entirely unscathed. Oregon’s Department of Forestry forecasts increased precipitation after this year’s drought, with average-to-high precipitation, average-to-lower temperatures and high chances for low-elevation snowfall.
The upcoming winter’s comparative years so far match weather patterns leading up to the winters of 2008 and 1971. 2008 was the snowiest year of the 2000s, and among Portland’s snowiest since the 1940s, with more than 30 inches falling in some neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the winter of 1971 was notable for powerful, property-damaging wind gusts.
With the confluence of dangerous conditions in mind, Operation Overcoat doesn’t only benefit unhoused people, and won’t just distribute on a first-come, first-serve basis. Through its religious and secular nonprofit partners, Operation Overcoat reaches housed people who still experience poverty and could still use cold-weather essentials like socks, personal hygiene items, and waterproof coats.
Operation Overcoat’s Search+Rescue outreach initiative will also distribute backpacks to Portland-area encampments. The church believes only 25% of Portland’s houseless population lives in downtown Portland and knows this community will still require support in the coming months.
“These items are probably going to be needed again because if you’re living outside, you don’t necessarily get to do laundry, or people’s items get stolen a lot, so they’ll continue to be in need throughout the winter,” Dodds said. “This is sort of the launch point, but we’ll continue to go out all winter and try to provide folks what they need.”
For its part, Multnomah County’s Joint Office of Homeless Services operates a supply distribution center in downtown Portland, at Southwest Fifth Avenue and Washington Street. The joint office communications coordinator Denis Theriault told Street Roots in an email that the joint office has distributed hundreds of thousands of items — personal items one could receive during Operation Overcoat, as well as tents and tarps — to more than 60 organizations working with houseless people, including the nonprofit organizations Blanchet House, Our Streets PDX and Defense Fund PDX. The joint office also coordinates with 211 so callers can learn about houseless service providers and fulfill their online wishlists.
“Essentially, during COVID, we realized we needed to do it all year, not just during the winter,” Theriault wrote of the joint office’s non-emergency outreach efforts.
Theriault said one-time federal COVID-19 funds and the Supportive Housing Service Measure’s property tax revenue boosted the joint office’s annual budget from over $75 million to more than $150 million for the coming year. While the city offers some support for the joint office’s budget, it also supports organizations who oppose the joint office’s clients, such as Downtown Portland Clean & Safe. Portland City Council voted 4-1 on Sept. 29 to extend the Clean & Safe contract for five years, despite concerns raised about potential conflicts between Clean & Safe and its administrator, Portland Business Alliance.
The joint office always offers supplies and coordinates with heating and cooling centers during extreme weather, and in times of crisis is authorized to work with non-registered organizations, including mutual aid networks and grassroots collectives. Through the federal government’s relief funds, the joint office continued its Winter 2020 outreach efforts at the pandemic’s outset.
“There has to be some kind of accountability, but there don’t have to be a lot of barriers,” Theriault said in a phone interview.
The joint office’s increased operational capacity has connected providers and people serving Portland’s houseless communities that previously didn’t coordinate their care with each other, describing it as “a weird, almost silver lining of the pandemic.” Theriault said through expanded funding and networking, the joint office has broadened its capacities and built relationships across town.
“If you’re not building the relationship day to day, it’s a lot harder to ask people to come help you when it’s 110 degrees outside,” Theriault said. “But when you’ve been doing that work, because you’ve taken that time and you’re open to it, then when it comes time to get a big heatwave response going, people are there, they know what to do, they know you, you have that emotional muscle memory ready to go.”