Renewed space and renewed hope

By Emma Peterson. 

Volunteers from NWIR, Bliss Roofing, Mountainwood Homes, Lennar and more come together to support Project Homeless Connect’s mission. 

Project Homeless Connect (PHC) began in 2006 with Kim Marshall Gordon and her mission of helping the unhoused populations in Washington County, Oregon. Today, PHC operates a street outreach team, an access center, year-round shelters, inclement weather sheltering, a variety of affordable housing programs and collaborative day one resource events. One of the individuals that went to PHC for help explained the power of this organization, saying, “Amanda (case manager) smiled at me and looked me in the eye; she treated me like a human being, not like an animal on the street. She saved my life. She helped me get into housing after years of struggling. I get to call this my home. I am happy here. I’m safe.” 

And the team at PHC recently got an upgrade to their organization’s home. They have been operating out of a bungalow in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon that was sorely in need of some upgrades. The yellow, cramped house’s roof was sagging, the front steps were broken and the yard a wild, unapproachable space. This is the location of their access center, where they provide up to 100 unhoused people with hot meals, counseling, showers, clothing and other services and making it accessible and welcoming is key to supporting their mission. Luckily, over the last year and a half, another local organization, HomeAid Portland, coordinated multiple crews of volunteers and companies to help them revamp their access center and help more unhoused people. 

The first key player was Robert Wood of Mountainwood Homes. He and his crews were able to bring out a mini excavator to clear the 20-foot-tall blackberries in the backyard and the bushes blocking the front of the building. They were also able to repair the broken steps and add a handrail to make it easier to enter the access center. Other crews of volunteers built PHC a new six-foot tall fence to give the people using the center privacy and the front porch was refreshed with a new coat of paint. In four hours, these incredible volunteers used some hand tools, hard work and hope to transform the access center.  

But this was just the start. Bliss Roofing, a general contractor in Clackamas, Oregon partnered with a team from the local National Women in Roofing (NWIR) chapter to tear off the broken, sagging roof and replace it. This work happened to fall on the Charitable Projects Day of the National Roofing Contractors Association’s Roofing Week and the women onsite and the companies backing them donated an estimated $40,000 worth of labor and materials. 

From there, word of the project spread and more community members came to do what they could. National homebuilder Lennar, who has partnered with HomeAid in the past, brought a professional landscaper and crew out to finish the yardwork by taking out the turf and re-mulching the garden beds. Others came to paint and haul away debris for free and some local high school students in a construction program built storage sheds, a trash enclosure, a clothing closet and picnic tables for PHC. 

The cherry on the top for the project was a wheelchair ramp. Previously, the only way for disabled people to enter the access center was to be lifted up the broken stairs. Now, in addition to the fixed stairs, PHC has a wheelchair ramp thanks to Rick’s Custom Fencing’s donation. All of these donations meant that an estimated $250,000 of work was donated by volunteers to renew Project Homeless Connect’s space so they can continue to renew hope in the individuals seeking their assistance.  

Image source: HomeAid Portland