November 18, 2010

The City's innovative program to help our homeless move off the streets and into homes is garnering national attention.

In today's USA Today, reporter Marisa Kendall highlights the Resource Access Center, opening next summer, and the City's pilot storage facility that will operate until then.

The need for storage is great, Kendall writes, but city-sponsored programs to make it available are rare. Commissioner Fish led the collaborative effort to provide this service in Portland.

"Having to cart around their possessions is just another insurmountable barrier," Commissioner Fish told her.

Our storage facility, he explained, will give people a safe, clean place to keep their things while they go to appointments, look for jobs, or search for housing.

Read the full article.

Update: In response to community concerns, the entrance to the storage facility has been moved from Burnside to Northwest Fifth Avenue.

Left: The Grove Hotel, Portland's temporary storage site