City-county effort tackles chronic homelessness

Nearly $10 million in grants, programs strengthen advocates’ resolve

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Dec 2, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

With each stroke of the ivories on one of the world’s finest pianos, John Prentice feels another breath of hope.

A gifted classical pianist who idolizes composer Franz Liszt, the 33-year-old Prentice focuses on what’s most important to him by playing at least an hour a day on any piano he can get his hands on. He once owned his own keyboards, but he sold them long ago to feed his drug and alcohol addictions while living on the street.

He walks into a downtown piano shop and talks with the director of sales, who seats him at the opulent $189,000 Bosendorfer 290, a model that’s been played by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

He feels like royalty.

What a difference two months Ñ and a different kind of treatment program offered by Central City Concern Ñ make. In late September, Prentice nearly died in a Portland emergency room after intentionally overdosing on prescription sleep pills. He had been living in a city park when he said he got depressed because someone stole his sleeping bag.

“It’s a feeling of serenity,” Prentice says of being in recovery after 25 years of addiction.

Prentice is symbolic of many of Portland’s homeless people: addicted to drugs and/or alcohol; cycling through jails, emergency rooms and detoxification facilities; and without housing because employment is fleeting in the midst of so many problems.

In addition, many homeless are dual-diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or another mental illness. They often have no access to treatment.

It’s that hardest-to-reach population that the city of Portland and Multnomah County are trying to rescue through a new, long-term strategy to end chronic homelessness. The plan, unveiled in October, builds on a few of the local programs deemed most successful over the years, including a “housing first” strategy and two comprehensive peer mentor programs that won’t kick people out if they relapse.

City and county leaders are excited about the new phase of the work, which utilizes $9.2 million in federal grants to end homelessness, awarded to the city on Oct. 1.

The five-year, renewable grants will help provide intensive case management and housing subsidies to 200 people who are chronically homeless.

The city also received $625,000 in two other private grants, which will help fund 400 new units of supportive housing Ñ which includes readily accessible treatment services Ñ in the next two years.

Ed Blackburn, director of health and recovery services at Central City Concern, said the grants are a testament to the work the local community has been doing with innovative programs.

“Chronic homelessness has gotten a lot worse in a lot of urban areas in the nation,” said Blackburn, whose nonprofit agency helps people with housing and addiction problems. “In Multnomah County and the city of Portland, we have demonstrated leadership in addressing homeless issues. The federal agencies saw this.”

City Commissioner Erik Sten, who oversees housing issues, said the grants are a testament to the work the community has done so far.

“It’s a more formal version of what we’re always trying to do,” he said of the plan. “In town here, there might be a sense that we’re not as focused as we should be, so this is partly about reaching out and telling a story, and it’s also about trying to build some bigger partnerships.”

The city has no estimate as to how much the program will cost. But a related Blue Ribbon Committee on Housing Resources Ñ a group of regional leaders Ñ is discussing ways to better use existing affordable housing resources within the city and county.

The costs of chronic homelessness

An estimated 3,500 people in Multnomah County and the city are chronically homeless, 2,000 of whom are in hospitals, jails, and mental health and detox facilities at any given time. Now that the winter months are here, waiting lists are beginning to grow at shelters, and advocates continue to work with limited resources.

“The stereotype is, people don’t want to get off the streets,” said Rob Justus, executive director of Join, a nonprofit agency that places people into housing. “We have people who are knee-deep in their addiction, when we can’t do anything other than give you a blanket and put you on a waiting list.”

Homeless advocates said they hope that the city’s new outlook employs better strategies than some of the current ways that city officials and police deal with the homeless population.

“The premise is, if you harass people enough, interrupt their lives, take them to jail, that’s going to somehow motivate them to seek services,” Justus said.

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