Hundreds of people attended a meeting with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson at the Armory on July 28, 2025. Pearl District residents raised concerns about a planned shelter set to open in their neighborhood.
Alex Zielinski / OPB
A new homeless shelter planned for Northwest Portland is set to open next week, despite strong opposition from some neighborhood groups.
The Northrup Shelter, located in the city’s Pearl District at Northwest Northrup Street and Northwest 15th Avenue, will open its doors Sept. 2. It will be open from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and is expected to accommodate roughly 40 adults. The shelter is expected to have space for up to 200 people by the winter.
It’s the fifth of Mayor Keith Wilson’s overnight-only shelters to open since Wilson took office in January, and the first in this area of town.
“By expanding capacity to Northwest Portland, we improve stability for unsheltered individuals,” said Skyler Brocker-Knapp, who oversees the city’s shelter plan. “The new site makes strides toward advancing safety, dignity, and opportunity for people in need of shelter.”
Not everyone sees it that way. Last month, hundreds of people crowded an auditorium to hear Wilson speak about his plans for the Northrup Shelter. They pressed him for details about where shelter guests would go during the daytime and how the city would handle crime related to the shelter.
Wilson explained that shelter staff will give people cards with information about other social services as they left in the morning. He also noted that city data shows little correlation between homeless shelters and crime rates.
Wilson’s answers were met with loud boos and groans from the audience.
“The mayor’s plan, I don’t think we really are buying it,” said Todd Zarnitz, president of the Northwest District Association, which lies west of the Pearl District. “We’ve been told, ‘This is the plan, we’re doing it.’ But what we won’t be is ignored.”
District 4 Councilor Eric Zimmerman, whose district includes the Northrup Shelter, has also raised concerns about the plan. At a council meeting earlier this month, Zimmerman urged Wilson to commit to removing homeless camps near the shelter, to ensure public support for the plan.
“I’m wondering when we’re gonna see what enforcement looks like,” said Zimmerman. “I need your help to be able to convey that to my district.”
The city’s plan to open the Northrup Shelter doesn’t come with an explicit strategy to remove homeless camps. But it does come with an outreach plan to offer help to people camping within 1,000 feet of the shelter.
According to Multnomah County, there are roughly 7,000 people currently living unsheltered in the county.
Once the shelter opens next week, it will move the city a step closer to Wilson’s goal to open 1,500 new shelter beds by Dec. 1. In all, city dollars have paid to open roughly 630 overnight shelter beds – still less than halfway to Wilson’s goal. Wilson has said he’s confident that he’ll meet his deadline.
