Northrup shelter coming, ready or not

Mayor Wilson announces Sept. 2 opening despite objections of residents

The shelter is at Northwest 15th and Northrup, across the street from Interstate 405.

The city’s overnight shelter at 1435 NW Northrup St. will open Sept. 2, despite robust resistance from neighborhood residents that has apparently made no dent in Mayor Keith Wilson’s schedule to make this part of a 1,500 bed citywide network by Dec. 1.

The Northrup shelter will open with about 40 beds, increasing to 100 in a month and its maximum capacity of 200 thereafter.

“Based on need and operational capacity, the site may expand further to a maximum of 200 beds,” stated a press release from Communication Strategist Rob Layne.

The shelter, to be operated by the Salvation Army, will be open to adults of all genders from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“Participants are discouraged from lining up more than an hour prior to opening,” Layne wrote.

A neighbor of the city’s Moore Street Shelter in north Portland advised Northwest neighbors to place little confidence in such assurances.

Carrie Henderson, invited to speak at a July 28 town hall on shelters at the Armory but excluded at the last minute at the insistence of the mayor’s office, said her daily reporting of nuisance and threatening behavior by Moore Street Shelter have proved futile.

“There is no additional security provided for the Moore Street shelter. We've been told time and time again it's an ‘enhanced enforcement zone,’” Henderson commented on a NW Examiner story. “There is NO enhanced security whatsoever. We've been told to call 911 if we fear for our safety—that’s it.”