November 21, 2019
Volunteer Brian Brown is unassuming, has a wry sense of humor, and sports a perpetual grin on his face.
Brown's place is in service to people, more especially needy people, most especially needy women.
Salvation Army Female Emergency Shelter (SAFES) is reopening its facility at 30 Southwest 2nd Ave. after being shuttered five months ago. SAFES's open house is today, November 21, 2019, from noon until 7PM. SAFES is introducing the public to its new Hospitality Program and showing off its "extreme makeover."
Brown greeted my wife and me at the secure outside entrance on Southwest 2nd Avenue in downtown Portland. A Salvation Army band played outside in the chill but sunny early afternoon.
Inside, a chorus sang love and pop songs in a short line extending between the spatious kitchen and modest dining area (breakfast is ordered and served, family style, at dining room tables, not as in a soup kichen or mess line).
These people are being sheltered.
Not rushed, not herded, not marginalized.
The bright, recently painted interior with high ceilings and an expansive landing felt like a warm embrace.
Brown proudly showed off 'his' kitchen. He explained that the 35 women regularly sheltered there--and others sometimes occupying one or more of the 12 emergency beds or others ushered into the shelter every morning off the street--are greeted with a hearty breakfast. Much of the food supplies and many of the kitchen implements were donated. Others were purchased with donated funds.
Twelve emergency beds and a lounge area and some overflow dining tables are provided in a room adjacent a large Americans with Disability Act (ADA)-friendly reception area at the shelter's entry.
Down a hallway, past a pedicure studio, we walked past brightly painted smooth walls and ceilings and wallcoverings to a free store containing donated clothing items, shoes, and hygeine supplies for the women who pass through the shelter.
Hospitality indeed!
The women's rooms upstairs were off-limits to us, but Brown described them each as having a bed, a vanity, and a fridge, all adjoining a single, shared kitchen space.
Finally, a meeting room and several offices including caseworker offices crowd the corner of West Burnside Street and Southwest 2nd Avenue. Brown's shared office was pointed out to be next to that of the very pleasant SAFES Executive Director, Becky McBrayer, to whom Brown introduced us.
All rooms and hallways and spaces freshly painted and trimmed, brightly lit, with an upbeat, open feel.
A far and happy cry from the dingy, dark, cold way this space looked and felt five and a half months ago, McBrayer and Brown humbly explained, beaming.
SAFES caters to women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Its temporary residents are rent-subsidized but they must pay their own way, get along with each other, and work their way through their own personal transition. With help and encouragement and counseling and job referrals, of course.
Women in need are treated like the adults they are, and they are empowered to improve their lot and to move into permanent housing within a year in a 24/7/365 transitional housing model that Brown says is best practices for a homeless shelter.
Learn more at https://safes.salvationarmy.org.
Donations and volunteer labor are welcome.
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