FILE - Portland’s Old Town Chinatown near Northwest Fourth Avenue and Northwest Couch Street, March 9, 2025.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
A key part of Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s homelessness plan is coming into focus.
This week, Wilson announced plans to open and expand two centers where homeless Portlanders can access services during the day. These sites, the first of what will eventually be four total day centers, are meant to serve people who stay in the nighttime-only shelters the city has begun to open under Wilson’s direction.
“These new partnerships show how day centers are a key piece of our broader strategy,” said Wilson in a press release Monday. “Overnight shelters provide a safe place to sleep, but we know our neighbors need more — they need a place to find refuge, connect to services, and plan their next steps.”
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One center will be located outside in an empty lot at Northeast 6th Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street, in the city’s Old Town neighborhood. That site will be able to accommodate up to 200 people. It will have showers, bathrooms, a kitchen and resources for people wanting help with housing, jobs, and other services.
The center, open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., will open to the public later this summer.
While the site is owned by the city, the center itself will be operated by Urban Alchemy, a California-based nonprofit that runs several outdoors shelters across Portland. This type of outdoor day center, which they’ve named an “oasis,” is modeled after programs the nonprofit has operated in San Francisco and Austin, Texas.
“Developed in partnership with the city, this oasis will create a space where anyone, housed or unhoused, can feel safe, seen, and supported,” said Urban Alchemy CEO Lena Miller.
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The city is also expanding on an existing Northeast Portland day center run by nonprofit JOIN. That center, at Northeast 81st Avenue and Northeast Halsey Street, currently offers meals, showers, hygiene supplies, medical care and other services to roughly 100 people a day.
The city will pay to expand the operating hours of this center starting in the fall.
Wilson’s plan to swiftly open 1,500 overnight shelter beds by December has sparked criticism for not being clearly connected to daytime services or permanent housing. These centers aim to address that gap.
Originally, Wilson’s plan included funding to open four indoor day centers. But, in order to balance the city’s budget, Wilson cut that plan in half — instead committing funds to two indoor centers and two outdoor spaces. That shrunk the initial $28 million shelter program by $3 million.
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Some day center providers have felt left out of the process. In May, the director of day center nonprofit PDX Saints Love said the nonprofit was essentially promised a contract with the city to operate a day center — and then Wilson changed course. Director Kristle Delihanty said this reversal may force her program to shut down.
Since unveiling his shelter plan in January, Wilson has opened two city overnight shelters. Three more shelters are set to open in the coming weeks. That would bring the city to 630 total overnight shelter beds — still less than halfway to Wilson’s goal.
