County governments and their nonprofit partners in Clark and Clackamas counties will open severe weather shelters Monday night as the Portland metro area’s overnight temperature is expected to dip near freezing.
Clark County’s Council for the Homeless issued a severe weather alert Dec. 26 that lasts through Dec. 30. During that time, the council is opening an overnight shelter at Living Hope Church on Anderson Road in Vancouver.
FILE: A Multnomah County warming center pictured in a February 2025 file photo.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
County governments and their nonprofit partners in Clark and Clackamas counties will open severe weather shelters Monday night as the Portland metro area’s overnight temperature is expected to dip near freezing.
Clark County’s Council for the Homeless issued a severe weather alert Dec. 26 that lasts through Dec. 30. During that time, the council is opening an overnight shelter at Living Hope Church on Anderson Road in Vancouver.
In Clackamas County, Father’s Heart Ministry, which usually operates as a daytime shelter, will remain open overnight. Father’s Heart is located on 12th Street in Oregon City.
Other counties in the region, like Multnomah and Washington, are not planning to open emergency overnight shelters this week because the current forecast does not meet their requirements for such a response.
“However, if forecasts did show conditions potentially meeting our thresholds, we would have shelters ready to go with essentially a flip of the switch,” Multnomah County Health Department Communications Coordinator Sarah Dean told OPB.
Multnomah County will open its emergency shelters if temperatures are at or below 25 degrees, if an inch or more of snow is expected or if it’s below freezing with an inch or more of rain and sustained winds greater than 10 miles per hour. Washington County uses the same measures in determining whether to open shelters.
Both counties have shelter beds available at several year-round facilities in the region.
Multnomah County and the city of Portland combined have roughly 3,000 beds available. That does not include the nearly 900 overnight-only shelter beds opened this year, many of which are unused most nights.
