Using a grant from Multnomah County, Catholic Charities of Oregon staff have been busy buying dishes, sheets, towels, brooms and other household goods as welcome gifts for future residents of affordable housing.
Francis+Clare in Southeast Portland and Beacon at Glisan Landing in Northeast Portland are set to open this fall. They will house a combined 102 people who have faced homelessness.
As staff awaited completion of the two buildings, the boxes of goods filled almost every empty space at the Catholic Charities Portland headquarters.
“These are items that will really make the units feel like a home,” says Sally Erickson, community services director for Catholic Charities.
Rose Bak, chief program officer for Catholic Charities of Oregon, says it’s hard to overstate the importance of connecting homeless individuals with household goods when they move into a new home for the first time.
“An empty apartment is just a box,” Bak explains. “Without a bed or furniture, people are essentially camping in their apartment. Without pots and pans and dishes, they’re unable to prepare food. Without cleaning products or even basics like toilet paper or towels, they cannot keep their apartments in good condition. At Catholic Charities, we move people from the streets into homes, not empty spaces.”
Bak concludes that having a warm and welcoming environment helps ease the transition from being outside and “gets people out of the survival mode they were in on the streets so they can heal from the trauma of homelessness and begin to thrive.”
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