Community Care for Portland's Houseless:
Thanks so much RE/MAX Equity Group Foundation for the generous grant to HBF’s Care Kit outreach program. We are proud to be one of three organizations chosen for a grant this winter from among other Portland and SW Washington nonprofits.
HBF will use the donation to purchase materials for Care Kits. These small plastic bags contain necessities such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, and socks donated by Bombas. Previous funding from Bank of America through our national affiliation with HomeAid helped provide our supplies in 2021. We are thrilled to have RE/Max as a new partner. HBF sees outreach like this as a key part of our mission, which is to prevent homelessness, and to help everyone live in comfort and dignity. Here are some of the organizations distributing our kits:
Portland Street Team
Some of these handy kits are now in use to help people living outdoors with the Portland Fire Bureau's Street Response Team . The Team rolled out to the entire city late March, after a pilot program in the East Portland area. When people call 9-1-1, dispatchers go through a list of questions to determine which Portland responder is needed; Police, Fire, an ambulance, or the new Street Response Team. The trained mental health professionals on the Team are able to skillfully diffuse situations with people who are having a mental health crisis. Street Response Director Heather Middleton thanks us for the donation “These are so helpful. Everyone deserves to be clean”.
HomePlate
Our shelter partner, HomePlate Youth Services in Beaverton will be sharing the kits in the Beaverton area. The organization helps young people who are housing insecure, or houseless in Washington County. They offer needed services such as counseling, meals, a place to rest, and a place for showers. HBF is currently helping remodel a former church building into a drop- in center for the organization, allowing them to triple the number of clients they can serve. HomePlate also sends out a street team that provides services to young people in the community. They are appreciative of the kits, because as a member of their HomePlate staff tells us, they would never have time to put them together.
Allen Temple CME Church
Members of the historic Allen Temple CME church in NE Portland will also help deliver HBF Care Kits to people living on the streets in downtown Portland. Our connection with the church came from HBF’s Project Manager Chris McDowell working tirelessly to find materials and partners in the community to help restore the church, which had a fire back in 2015. HBA members and our training partner Constructing Hope also helped with various projects at the church, which reopened in March.
How to Help:
The kits are assembled by HBF and our supporters, such as this enthusiastic team from Taylor Morrison which that helped us last year. If you would like to help us by assembling care kits, you can contact Project Manager Chris McDowell, chrism@hbapdx.org.