With new Supportive Housing Services funding, Washington County has expanded the Emergency Winter Shelter program to 187 beds for the most vulnerable members of our community during the harsh winter months from November 15, 2021 to March 15, 2022. The program offers emergency shelter to families, medically fragile individuals, and adults experiencing homelessness through a combination of congregate, shared space shelter settings and hotel vouchers.
The Washington County Supportive Housing Services program is collaborating closely with community-based service providers to deliver these new shelter programs, including:
- Open Door HousingWorks, operating the Hillsboro winter shelter location;
- Just Compassion, operating the Beaverton and Tigard winter shelter locations;
- Family Promise of Washington County and Tualatin Valley administering hotel vouchers for families;
- Project Homeless Connect administering hotel vouchers; and
- Boys and Girls Aid providing shelter for youth.
People experiencing homelessness can sign up for winter shelter through Community Connect at 503-640-3263 or work with a housing case manager to get on the wait list. Guests of the emergency winter shelter program are connected to available housing resources including housing case managers and rent assistance to move people through shelters to stable housing as quickly as possible.
Jeremy Toevs, executive director of Open Door, the operator of the Hillsboro Winter Shelter location says, “Open Door has been dedicated to the work of helping our houseless friends for over thirty years, but there has always been a deficit of resources. With winter at our doorstep the need to move quickly to help people transition into housing is more apparent than ever. Thanks to the new Supportive Housing Services program we hired additional housing case managers to work with folks individually to help them transition into permanent housing with ‘wrap around’ support and long-term rent assistance.”
