David Boone, a 72-year-old Salem man, usually sleeps on the ground, but for one night, he slept in a palace.
It had an actual bed with a mattress, box spring and clean sheets. It had a bathroom with a shower, toilet and door. It was just a Salem hotel room no one else was using because of the pandemic, but for Boone, it was like a dream.
The problem with dreams, of course, is that they end — often abruptly.
Boone was supposed to stay for five days.
"Overnight, and my time was up," he said. "I was being comfortable and kicking back, and they said it was time to go."
Oregon lawmakers started Project Turnkey in 2021 with $65 million to give Oregonians experiencing homelessness a respite in hotel rooms left vacant by the pandemic. Boone said his stay was cut short because he became a community health risk.
He tested positive for COVID on his first day.
"My mistake was getting tested," he said. "The system wasn't worked out very well."
Now the Legislature has provided $50 million for the second phase of the program for what is being called Project Turnkey 2.0.
The money passes through Oregon Housing & Community Services, or OHCS, to the Oregon Community Foundation, which provides grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations. In Marion and Polk counties, the administrative duties fall to the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.
Jimmy Jones, Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency executive director, said Project Turnkey 2.0 creates opportunities for improvement.
"There needs to be more clarity around long-term funding for these projects," Jones said. "The upside is that they can quickly be turned into new shelter space within months and, in some cases, years of construction and other processes that come along with any building project in Oregon in 2023.
"The downside is that the funds generally have gone toward acquisition and renovation — and not operations. If you already had operational funds in place as part of a larger service system, the transition was easier."
The length of time someone can stay sheltered under Project Turnkey varies. Within each local nonprofit agency, there are usually several different programs.
"The length really varies based off of the program they are enrolled in," Sara Webb, Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency program manager, said. "For example, if you are in one of our veteran beds funded through the Veterans Administration, you can stay up to 24 months versus a Shelter Plus bed where you can stay as long as the medical provider requests.
"We have several programs running, so it’s almost impossible to give a black-and-white answer.”
Boone said he couldn't remember what program he was enrolled in. All he cared about was getting a bed, he said. There was probably a medical provider involved, he added.
"Let me tell you, a lot of shit starts to go wrong when you hit 70," he said.
Oregon lawmakers approved the original $65 million for Project Turnkey two years ago to acquire hotel space for homeless people and people displaced by wildfires.
The first incarnation of Project Turnkey created 19 new shelters in 13 counties in less than seven months, leading to a 20% increase in the state's supply of shelter beds, OHCS spokesperson Delia Hernández said in a March OHCS press release.
In the Portland metropolitan area, organizers at Do Good Multnomah used a $3.45 million grant to work with county and city officials to convert a former Motel 6 on Southeast Stark Street to provide 43 housing units.
Rockwood Community Development Corporation received $7 million in 2021 to convert a former 75-room motel in Gresham. Central City Concern also received $7 million, converting a former 70-room Comfort Inn & Suites on Northeast 102nd Avenue.
Grant recipients are selected through an application process with guidance from an advisory committee of state, local and community stakeholders.
Of the 32 applications received from entities across the state, 12 have been selected for Project Turnkey 2.0. Properties used in the project include hotels, motels and other vacant properties that can readily and affordably be converted to shelters such as duplexes, apartment complexes, care facilities or dormitories.
Aside from the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Salem, grant recipients for Project Turnkey 2.0 also include Clatsop County as well as the Mid-Columbia Community Action Council (serving Hood River, Wasco and Sherman counties).
The grants total $10.6 million and leverage an additional $4.2 million to add more than 140 new units of shelter and transitional housing. Clatsop County officials received a grant of just more than $2.8 million to acquire and renovate the Columbia Inn off Marine Drive in Astoria.
Officials at Clatsop Community Action and The Harbor, a nonprofit that serves survivors of domestic violence, will operate the property as a shelter and transitional housing for families as well as individuals.
"Since 2015, Clatsop County has experienced the highest rate of homelessness in the State with a current rate of 22.7 per 1,000 residents," Clatsop County Board Chair Mark Kujala said in the March OHCS press release. "This opportunity through Project Turnkey 2.0 is another tool that will allow Clatsop County to continue to work diligently with all of our community partners to address the housing needs of our unsheltered population.”
The old hotel will open as an emergency shelter while renovation work is completed to meet safety requirements for year-round operations, Hernández said in the same press release.
The hotel will eventually provide 22 units of housing as well as onsite services focused on the LGBTQIA+ community, families, survivors of domestic violence, people with disabilities and those confronting mental illnesses.
"As a community, we have a responsibility to meet the needs of the unhoused," Terri Steenbergen, The Harbor executive director, said in the March OHCS release.
In the same release, Viviana Matthews, Clatsop Community Action executive director, said the fight against poverty is one in defense of human dignity.
“When we fight poverty, we defend human dignity," Matthews said.
The Mid-Columbia Community Action Council in The Dalles received nearly $4.23 million to acquire and renovate a downtown hotel and provide 15 units of transitional housing for families with children as well as 30 units for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.
"The site will provide critical housing and shelter capacity while also revitalizing the entry to the downtown core," Kenny LaPoint, the council’s executive director, said.
LaPoint predicts the project could reduce homelessness in the community of 16,000 people by as much as 50%.
The project will also include a center on the premises to provide peer support, crisis services, behavioral health, jail diversion, case management and weekly health services.
Salem's project will provide an additional 74 units of housing.
The Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency received $3.56 million in 2021 toward a $7.56 million project to transform the former Capital Inn & Suites on Northeast Fisher Road into the ARCHES Lodge.
The Lodge serves veterans and people who are “medically fragile,” as well as households referred by culturally specific partners.
Jones said the hotel is renovated to make more units accessible to people with disabilities, so it is well-suited for people in need of medical respite.
"I think the first phase of Project Turnkey went really well," Jones said. "There were some local concerns around the state, centered on the old narrative that humane sheltering projects draw homeless folks to the region."
People experiencing homelessness don't sniff out and follow services nearly as much as locals peeking out from inside their homes might think, he said.
"While there’s always some migration with a population that is transient, most people who become homeless remain in their local communities," Jones said. "The state understands that these projects are important and that they’re a very successful way of sheltering an aging and often very sick homeless population.”
Boone told Street Roots he is glad to hear it. He has specific medical needs. He lost both of his legs shortly after Christmas and said he received little to no physical therapy to help him learn how to use his prosthetic limbs.
Even a wheelchair won't help, he added.
"An electric wheelchair won't do me a hell of a lot of good because there's no place to plug it in in the park," he added.
While he would love to spend another night on a bed with clean sheets, Boone said years of being homeless have eaten away at anything that might be described as hope.
"I'll take a room if I can, but I'm fed up like I'm fed up with a lot of things down here," he said.
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