New transitional housing in SE Portland supports recovery, tackles homelessness
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The Woodstock House, a new transitional housing in Southeast Portland, is getting ready to open its doors to patients next month.
This newly renovated home will house nine people up to a year on their journey to recovery. Guests will complete an outpatient treatment program called The Resilience Initiative in collaboration with Miracles Club, a community recovery center providing peer services to the African-American community.
“It looks beautiful inside, and it feels worth it,” Operations Manager Eoj Johnson said. “It feels like a dream come true."
The program is billed as a way to tackle homelessness and substance use disorders while addressing the historical traumas faced by marginalized communities — specifically Black communities.
"They are one of, if not the, hardest hit communities from the War on Drugs from 35, 40 years ago,” said Dr. David Eisen, the executive director at Quest Center for Integrated Health. “Systemic racism and the oppression that is foisted upon them on a daily basis...is the reason that we felt it incumbent upon us as an organization that focuses on recovery.”
About 80% funding comes from the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Division in partnership with the Metro Supportive Housing Services program.
Back in 2020, tri-county voters approved a measure that charged a personal income tax on high income earners and a business income called the Supportive Housing Services Tax designated to pay for homeless services programs as homelessness continues to rise in Oregon.
A report from the Joint Office of Homeless Services from 2023 said that 99% of the 532 tenants who moved into permanent supportive housing in the measure's first year stayed in stable housing one year later.
The Woodstock House expects to open its doors in two weeks.