Portland non-profit Sisters of the Road searching for new home

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Portland non-profit that helps the homeless is searching for a new home more than a year after they initially made plans to renovate a former historic restaurant in Chinatown.

Sisters of the Road is a social justice organization that has been in operation since 1979. They offered meals for $1.50 or 15 minutes of work to help support the homeless community at their popular cafe on Southwest Davis Street — which was forced to close during the pandemic.

Then last year, Sisters of the Road announced they would be transforming the former House of Louie in Chinatown as their new base of operations. However, organizers are now saying funding for that plan has fallen through.

"This is not what we wanted to have happen," said Sisters of the Road Board VP Matt Chorpenning.

Back in the summer of 2023, the non-profit announced its plans to raise roughly $5 million to buy and renovate House of Louie, with the goal of opening it in late 2025. With that plan no longer on the table, KOIN 6 News asked the organization how much money they raised and where it goes now.

"I can't speak about specific numbers. I think the grant you're referring to is the Housing and Urban Development Grant, which we did get, and that is a grant that we have for $500,000 that we actually are in the process of submitting a correction to. So, to give us more flexibility for how we use it," Chorpenning said.

Though Chorpenning declined to say how much the organization fundraised, he said they plan to pivot the money as they search for a new location. He said a lacking capital campaign, staff transitions and economic instability greatly affected donations.

Tax filings show contributions to Sisters of the Road continued to drop over the last three years and the organization was over budget by $26,000 in 2022 — but was able to bounce back in 2023.

"There just wasn't as much funding out there as originally projected when we signed for the House of Louie," said Kat Mahoney, the former executive director of Sisters of the Road.

Mahoney recently stepped down after two years, a shift that she says was unrelated to the House of Louie project, telling KOIN 6 she accomplished her goals of stabilizing the organization and growing their system change program.

But beyond deadlines and fundraising, Mahoney says getting to know and work alongside the people they advocate for in the homeless community can take an emotional toll.

"Something can happen, and two days later, you never see them again, either they've been hit by a car, or, yes, they OD'd on something, or they've been arrested merely for the status of being homeless," Mahoney said. "And those stories will break your heart and burn you out faster than putting in a 70-hour work week."

Despite the setback, both Mahoney and Chorpenning tell KOIN 6 the organization remains committed to its vision.

"I hope it goes on for another 45 years. Folks look at the cafe and think, 'it's just a cafe,' but that is where change happened," Mahoney said. "If you look back to the Sisters history, there's many times we've been in front of courts, times we've been one of the forefront leaders of a protest, City Council testimony, statewide. I hope it continues."

"The mission of Sisters has not changed," Chorpenning said. "The location may change and has changed off and on throughout our history, but the work continues."

The National Council of Nonprofits found 74% of the organizations surveyed last year reported job vacancies and more than half said that number grew after the pandemic. The top reasons cited include salary, budget constraints and burnout.