Faith-based CityTeam Portland will double its shelter and recovery capacity with move to Old Town

Lance Orton is the executive director of CityTeam Portland, which offers shelter, housing and recovery services to its clients. If you hadn’t read about him or heard him tell his story, you’d never guess Orton was himself homeless and addicted to heroin just seven years ago. In addition to being the executive director of CityTeam, he also sits on the board of Central Eastside Together and the Old Town Community Association. He also serves as board chair of Shelter Portland, a public-private initiative by Mayor Keith Wilson to create strategic solutions for homelessness and addiction.

Orton joins us to share more about his personal life transformation about how the faith-based nonprofit he now runs is hoping to expand its services in a new facility that will open soon in the Old Town neighborhood.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Jenn Chávez: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Jenn Chávez. Lance Orton first showed up on the doorstep of CityTeam Portland looking for a hand-up in 2018. He got it and didn’t stop there. Not only did he stay involved with the nonprofit that had helped him so much, he’s now its executive director. The faith-based nonprofit serves Portlanders struggling with homelessness and addiction, and it’s preparing to open a new recovery center in Old Town that will significantly expand its ability to do so.

To share about his own story and the work CityTeam Portland is doing, Lance Orton joins me today in the OPB studios. Lance, thank you so much for being here.

Lance Orton: Thank you, Jenn. I’m honored to be here.

Chávez: Well, we are honored to have you. And like I mentioned, I know your first experience with CityTeam Portland was as a resident a handful of years ago; your own struggles were what first led you there. What was that time like for you in Bend and then coming to Portland in 2018?

Orton: Yeah, it was a rough time for sure. I was struggling with addiction. I had never really been homeless before in my life. I came from a pretty normal middle class upbringing, college-educated. And then addiction started with pain pills, opioids. Then that led to heroin addiction, which very quickly led me to homelessness.

And when I arrived on the front doorsteps of CityTeam Portland, as I say, definitely not on a winning streak. I was terrified to live on the street, so sheltering was the option that was given to me. I actually had spent some time in the hospital from initially becoming homeless. From the hospital, they gave me a voucher to the CityTeam emergency shelter. So that was my first experience in any kind of sheltering system.

I didn’t know that recovery was what I needed, as many people in their addiction don’t really often know that that’s the thing that’s really holding them back from life. So, I was just looking for immediate shelter. And from there, the doors started to open to the various services that CityTeam offers.

Chávez: I see. So your focus was like, “I don’t want to be sleeping on the street tonight.” And then, it wasn’t immediately on your mind that you were also looking for recovery – help with recovery.

Orton: I didn’t know what I needed and I think that’s the uncommon thread right now. Those of us that suffer from addiction, there’s a lot of talk about autonomy, the autonomy of those on the streets; and I didn’t need autonomy at that point. I needed someone that had lived experience, too, that had been through the process to tell me what I needed. And it started with shelter. Then I spent a few days going through the normal sheltering, emergency shelter process, waiting in line, checking in, getting a bed.

After a few days, I noticed there was the houseless clients in the shelter. Then there was another group of guys that were kind of running the place. They had a little bit nicer shoes and more combed hair, but still rough around the edges, like me, and they were running the place. So I quickly learned that those gentlemen were in the long-term residential recovery program that I didn’t even know CityTeam offered.

On day three, one of those guys came out to me and said, “Hey, you look like you could use some help. We’ve got this program here. It’s called Renew. You can live here for a year for free. We’ll help you with your addiction. We’ll introduce you to the 12 steps of AA.” All I really heard at that point was, “You can live here for free for a year.” And I thought, OK. I went from one day at a time to now I’ve got a plan for a year.

Chávez: What were the most helpful things to you in your own recovery, things that made it feel possible for you to stick with it?

Orton: It started with a community of others that were in the same trench that I was. And they were working together, individually on their own, [toward] recovery, but then together in a community of people that supported one another. And that was something that I didn’t have. But at the very end of my addiction, I was so isolated. I was so alone. Addiction thrives in isolation, and that is the killer.

Chávez: Yep.

Orton: I always say this: People don’t become homeless when they run out of money; it’s when they run out of relationships. And I had just run out. My family had put tough-love boundaries. I’m so glad that they did, because it wasn’t until those doors shut, the couches, the soft landings, the money, all that finally ended because of the tough love boundaries they put up. That had to happen for me to hit the rock-bottom that I needed to get into the actual recovery journey. So, big piece was community, support and just meeting me where I was at.

Chávez: You are very open about your own story. Why is that important to you, to share your story publicly like this?

Orton: Yeah, not all of my peers in recovery are as open as I am. I think it’s kind of twofold. One, of course, my now chosen career path allows [and] requires me to really speak out loud about it so that other people can see that recovery is possible. But I think, for me, it’s personal, too. My rock-bottom was so low and there’s a whole story that we don’t have time to get into. But I had drug dealers after me. I had warrants for my arrest. I was robbed at gunpoint. My car, which I was living in, was stolen from me. And that is what led me to the shelter. That rock-bottom was so low.

I remember October 1, 2018 – which is my sobriety date today and the day I walked into CityTeam – I was standing there, I’d just been robbed at gunpoint. My Jeep is driving off with everything I owned in it: my birth certificate, Social Security card, everything that like stated that I existed. [It] drove off and I’m standing there, just had this surreal moment. Like, how does a college-educated kid wind up like this: addicted to heroin, homeless in a strange city that he didn’t know anyone? And that was the moment for me.

So, as soon as I got into the program, a few months had gone by and my head started [to] clear up, I just kind of made a deal with God that I don’t ever want to go back there. So I will be open about my story, I will share it. Anytime someone asks, I will be brutally honest and share that story. But you got to take care of me because I don’t ever want to go back to that. And at 42, 43 years old, obviously, I didn’t know how to live my own life and I needed help with that.

Chávez: In conversations around recovery, I hear a lot about peer mentorship and the power of that for people who are being served by people with lived experience. But it’s interesting, because you’re not just a staff member or a peer mentor, you are the executive director of this organization. So how do you feel like your lived experience allows you to assist and connect with the people who come through CityTeam, at that highest level of the organization?

Orton: Yeah, I don’t get to do it now as much as I did when I was early in recovery, even when I first came in as director in 2022. Also, I had a lot more time on my hands to figure out the role and meet with the actual clients coming into the program. But I will tell you this, there’s a story I remember at one point – about a year or so ago – a new client had come into the program. And I’m in my office juggling meetings and Zoom calls – it was peak pandemic time – and one of my program staff comes and said, so-and-so “is having a rough time right now. He really wants to talk to the director. Can you have a conversation with him?” I was like, “Yes, let him in.”

And this gentleman comes in and he wanted to leave the program. His bags were packed and he’s about halfway out the door. And he said, “Man, I just need to tell you ...” And he went on for about an hour about his own personal story, and things he had gone through, and trauma, and a lot of really rough stuff. And then at the end, I was like, “Man, why don’t you just give this one more day? Can you do that? Give it one more day, and come back at the end of the day tomorrow and we’ll talk about if you still want to leave.”

And he looked at me, he said, “You know, I have been through so many recovery programs, and I’ve never been to one where the executive director takes an hour to talk to a client.” And that hit me as significant. I kind of realized … I made a deal with myself like, OK, I’m never going to become too busy or too important to not be able to pull away from my executive role and spend time with people in recovery, because that’s really what recovery is about, is that peer support and helping; the 12th step is helping another addict or alcoholic out. So, yeah, that was very significant.

Chávez: So CityTeam provides a whole slate of things: shelter, housing support, addiction recovery services, employment opportunities. Why, to you, is it important to tackle all of those things simultaneously with your clients versus focusing on any one individual component of that?

Orton: Yeah, I love that you set that up for me. OK, so one of the big things I see that’s broken here in our region around homelessness, and recovery, and addiction, and housing, is it’s so disjointed. First of all, we have more nonprofits focused on homelessness in the area than any other city in the region, per capita, by a long shot. And there’s some great organizations doing things, but there are very few that do all of the things required, from homelessness, all the way to employed, housed, self-sufficient.

So for me, it’s really important that we … The journey from where I was, on day one to where I am now, required so many different moving pieces, relationships and services, and CityTeam does a really good job of providing all of that while you’re with us for the period of time. And our total services, our recovery program, shelter, everything’s included. Someone can spend up to 18 months, maybe even two years, with us under our roof. Everyone’s different, but it takes a long time to get from where I was, with warrants, no insurance, a 500 credit score and a mountain of debt, to where I am now, which is debt-free, an 800 credit score, married and all the things.

So I think it’s just really important to be able to spend enough time with the individual, a person-focused approach that is custom-tailored to that individual’s needs to get them all the way through the continuum of care.

Chávez: Like I mentioned, yours is a faith-based organization. My first question, I guess is, were you a religious person at all before you came to CityTeam?

Orton: No, not at all. I mean, I think the technical definition would have been agnostic. I didn’t grow up in the church, so to speak. I went to Catholic school my senior year in high school in San Francisco, but the faith element of that school did not stick or resonate with me. So when I showed up at the front doors of CityTeam, I didn’t know it was a faith-based program. I didn’t care. I mean, I was so desperate at that point that you could have probably thrown anything at me and I would have been at least willing to explore it.

And that was another thing; I really went into the program with an open mind. And I said, “Yes, I’ll participate in the Bible studies. I’ll participate in the things that were presented to me with an open mind.” And it’s really funny, I still don’t consider myself a religious person. I have a relationship with higher power, whom I call God, and he has been instrumental in my own journey. Do I resonate and agree with everything within the Christian faith? No, I don’t.

I’m still exploring, and wrestling, and doing my own discovery. But I can tell you this: The full journey of my story from where I was when my Jeep was stolen, to where I am today, looking back, it’s so evident that God was there, a higher power, some higher divine entity that was there taking care of me, watching over me and loving me through that process. Because otherwise, there’s no explanation of where I am today. So that’s a long-winded answer.

I now believe that the faith component, what we do really well is community. For example, church – I hadn’t spent any time in churches or been part of a church group, but what I really needed was community. So, as I started attending the various churches that are connected to CityTeam in a partnership kind of way, I looked around and I saw, here’s a group of incredible human beings that have all in one way or another devoted their life to serving the lost and helping in their own time. And I thought, OK, here’s a group of people that I could probably hang out with and not get into a lot of trouble, right? So I just joined on board and it’s been great. It’s been a huge part of my own journey.

Chávez: OK, I want to get to some of the more recent news about the new recovery center that’s in the works. It’s in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood. Can you tell me what that new facility will be like? And as I understand it, this is going to expand your capacity to help people, right? How so?

Orton: Yes, it’s going to double our capacity in our recovery beds, which is recovery beds and long-term recovery housing – two things that are really, really missing in our area. So yes, we’re moving from the Central Eastside to Old Town. This was not an easy endeavor, because there are many voices that think Old Town is too heavy on the social service organizations. So breaking into that environment in a way that was healthy and making sure that we were working with neighborhood stakeholders, businesses, that were already there … I knew that we were going to have to distinguish ourselves from other organizations to be welcomed in there.

What we did is we just spent a lot of time listening to people about what they thought Old Town needed. Of course, we had our own models and things that we do well, and [that] we wanted and needed to expand on, but we spent some time just kind of listening. From those conversations and relationships, we were able to make a few changes to our own programs, such as increasing housing and recovery beds beyond just the recovery program and shelter. [We also] added workforce development partnerships with hiring companies that would hire the people that go through our programs, so that individuals have opportunities to work in jobs that maybe it wouldn’t be available to them otherwise.

The average recovery job, people coming out are going to get a job at Jackson’s or Washman’s Car Wash, which there’s not a lot of big future there – and nothing against those jobs, they’re important. But we really wanted to open up opportunities that would create career paths. So we’ve just established some great hiring partners coming into Old Town. We’re a big community-based thing. We wanted to create heavy, healthy foot traffic in Old Town, bringing people in that would go out and engage and activate the neighborhood. And that’s just something that we’ve been successful with since we purchased the new building.

Chávez: Well, congratulations on obtaining, purchasing this new building. I do have a question specific to the addiction recovery services you provide. Often, you hear about one resource being medically-assisted treatment. Is that something that is available to your clients? And how do you think about that?

Orton: Very interesting topic and an evolving topic. So CityTeam Portland is not a medical facility. We’re not what you would call a treatment facility; we’re a recovery-based program that leans heavily on the 12 steps in AA and NA. We do not provide medical-assisted treatment in the facility. We are working with various providers right now to explore what it would look like to allow individuals with opioid use disorder that are coming into the program that really, really want to use the medical-assisted treatment.

So, I’ll just use my personal story. I was a heroin addict. When I came in, I cold turkey detoxed in CityTeam without any medical-assisted treatment. It was the roughest 30 days of my entire life. Could I have benefited from MAT – medical-assisted treatment? It would have made that a lot easier and more comfortable for sure. But I will tell you this: I held on to that really challenging 30 days as a deterrent for me ever making a slip or going back to it.

Chávez: Interesting.

Orton: Now, with that said, fentanyl was not a big part of the scene when I was out there. And I have had conversations with people like Dr. Andy Mendenhall of Central City Concern, in which he described the benefits of MAT, particularly around fentanyl users, as being extremely valuable. So, I am open-minded to that. While I didn’t use MAT, and I’m glad today that I’m not using it, every single day, I know there’s a place in the continuum of care. So CityTeam is exploring particularly new drugs like SUBLOCADE, which is a shot, not taking the pills or the strips, which would be a lot easier for us to manage in-house within the recovery program without losing our abstinence-based model as well.

Chávez: Got it. So I know you’re also involved with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s Shelter Portland initiative. You serve on their board. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Like how those organizations are connected, and how you and other faith-based organizations like yours are working with the city?

Orton: Yeah, it’s an exciting time right now for faith-based organizations and the church, working alongside the city. We’ve had a couple of really productive meetings very recently with the mayor and his team at Portland Solutions. So, to answer your question, Shelter Portland is a 501c3 that Mayor Wilson set up when he was Keith Wilson, running for mayor, and it was designed to explore and deploy strategies to end unsheltered homelessness in our city. He spent a ton of time doing research all over the nation and outside our nation on effective strategies that worked, created this nonprofit, and then started to test some of these strategies within our own city.

Currently, I serve as board chair. We work alongside the mayor and his team to look at his existing strategy, look at what’s working, what’s not working and how can we adjust that as we go. For example, he’s laser-focused on shelter right now – big topic. I know you can’t open a newspaper or go online and not see some kind of pushback, particularly in the Pearl, on his shelters. And I think that the role that we play at Shelter Portland – many of us, almost all of us have lived experience – is to advise him on how we can tweak and change that strategy to really work.

When it started as just low-barrier shelters and would get people off the street into shelter, the next step is day shelters to connect them to services and then into more permanent supportive housing. We have advised and added onto that, not just low-barrier shelters, but actual higher barrier shelters like sober shelters. So, he’s now deploying shelter beds that are more high-barrier that are designed for people that are coming out of detox, or people like myself, where having a sober environment to heal and recover would be a lot more effective.

So he is using Shelter Portland as a way to guide him and change and I think that it’s an exciting time for us to be able to work alongside him.

I didn’t get to the church part here; I’m kind of rambling.

Chávez: That’s OK.

Orton: We had a meeting just this last week, where about 30-plus pastors of large churches in Portland sat down with the mayor. We basically just said, “OK, Mayor Wilson, how can the church help in ending unsheltered homelessness?” [We] had this just incredible hour-long strategy session. The church is super good at volunteering. They’ve got people that can come and help with these shelters. There’s a ton of empty church buildings all over our city that could be used for day centers, night centers. So, to have a seat at the table and have these discussions is really exciting.

Chávez: OK, we have like a minute left, but my last question is: How do you measure success? What do you see as success for the work you’re doing?

Orton: I think a real simple measure is, when someone is homeless and you take them in, and then they’re not homeless and they’re not living on the street anymore, that’s pretty successful. I mean, our goal, of course, is to heal the whole person and give them purpose, meaning, restore dignity, train them in some kind of skill, help them with their education. But at the very simple level, when someone comes in, they’re no longer living on the street, they’re building community, and at the end of the day, if they’re not homeless a year later, that’s a success.

Chávez: Do you see that kind of success in the people that you’re working with?

Orton: I do, all the time. In fact, I’ll just give some quick numbers. After a year graduating our program, 83% of our graduates are still sober, employed and housed today.

Chávez: Well, Lance, thank you so much for your work and for this conversation today.

Orton: Thank you.

Chávez: Lance Orton is the executive director of the faith-based nonprofit CityTeam Portland.

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