New Drop-In Center Opens to Help Houseless Youth in Washington County
More than a hundred residents, shelter staff, donors and government officials gathered to celebrate the opening of the new HomePlate Drop-in Center in downtown Beaverton last week. Local shelter provider HomePlate Youth Services teamed up with Home Builders Foundation and Walsh Construction to transform an abandoned church property into a trauma-informed campus that will serve around 500 houseless youth each year.
Long seen as an urban problem, suburban and rural Oregon are now grappling with a growing youth homelessness crisis. A startling number of Washington County youth live unsheltered or are considered “houseless” meaning that they lack safe and permanent housing. According to Washington County school officials, a staggering 2,754 students in the 2019-2020 school year were considered houseless, a number that increased by 33% in the past decade. HomePlate’s Executive Director, Bridget Calfee, says most of the program participants are couch surfing, staying with relatives or friends for short periods of time, but ultimately have tenuous housing stability that lands them back on the streets.
The greatly anticipated day facility will provide trauma-informed care for hundreds of young people looking for resources from mental health counseling to employment and housing opportunities. Over the course of the twelve month, $3 million-dollar renovation project, HBF helped HomePlate bring in more than $250,000 of in-kind donated materials and labor as well as $81,000 of cash grants. A large matching grant of $43,500 was provided by Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District to design and build a more sustainable landscape with permeable pavers, native plants, edible plants and drip irrigation. The environmental grant also funds a three-year sustainable gardening program to help youth within the program manage the half-acre campus.
Despite the troubling increase of youth housing insecurity, volunteers stepped up big to help the project, saving HomePlate and Washington County hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs so they can focus public dollars on more important items like support services. Companies like Lennar, Windemere Realty, and Scott Edwards Architecture provided over 1000 volunteer hours to paint siding, install plants and put furniture together. Reynolds Learning Academy, a public alternative school in East Portland, built custom raised beds and a tool shed for the Drop-in Center. Professional associations and contractors like National Women in Roofing, Rick’s Custom Fencing, Budget Blinds of Lake Oswego and Pacific Landscape Services donated 100 percent of their time and materials in an effort to support HomePlate’s mission to curtail child homelessness.
Lacey Beaty, Beaverton’s Mayor and a board member of HomePlate, spoke to the large opening crowd about how her husband was homeless as a youth. She reflected that “our community will be judged by how we treat our young people and seniors… making sure they have resources to thrive.” Thanks to everyone who supported this project!
For more information on HBF shelter projects contact Project Manager Chris McDowell at chrism@hbapdx.org or visit buildhopepdx.org