Hundreds sleep in Multnomah County warming shelters as winter weather hits Portland

On Thursday afternoon, several dozen people took naps on sleeping mats arranged in tidy rows inside Tony Rinella Hall at the Ascension Catholic Church in Southeast Portland.

Forecasters warned that the morning snow could change to freezing rain, so volunteers were ready for hundreds more to come by the evening.

Prior to this week’s evening lows falling into the 20s, Robert Davis III reported sleeping outside in the downtown area.

Davis, 59, claimed that because of his prior trauma, he finds it difficult to spend extended amounts of time indoors. However, he claimed he didn’t want to take the chance of getting frostbite again because he had already had it several times in his life.

“I’m not a fool when the temperature drops and the wind chill factor increases,” Davis remarked. Taking care of myself is challenging enough. I so make an effort to visit the shelters whenever I can.

The county maintained six emergency warming shelters available throughout the day Thursday, including Ascension Catholic Church. On Thursday evening, it intended to open two more shelters.

According to county officials, 489 people stayed in the cold weather shelters on Wednesday, 356 on Tuesday, and 285 on Monday night. According to the county, an extra 177 people spent Wednesday night at two Salvation Army winter overnight shelters.

Up to 1,000 people could be housed in emergency warming shelters Thursday night if necessary, according to county spokesperson Julie Sullivan-Springhetti.

According to Sullivan-Springhetti, during the last 24 hours, the county assisted in arranging for 112 people—including 10 wheelchair users—to be transported to shelters. Forty-six more persons have been dropped off at shelters by community volunteers. Additionally, the county has placed 26 families into motels in the last three days, and Thursday night, more families are anticipated to be relocated into rooms, according to Sullivan-Springhetti.

The warming shelters may stay open later if circumstances permit, but they will be open until at least Friday at noon. When it is predicted that temperatures will be at or below freezing with rain or wind, that temperatures will be 25 degrees or lower overnight for at least four hours, or that there will be at least one inch of snow accumulation over a 24-hour period, the county offers warming shelters.

According to a statement released Thursday by County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, “these prolonged freezing temperatures with the potential for freezing rain, ice, and snow are extremely hazardous and require our entire community to respond.”

Although the shelter can accommodate 81 people, Deidra Gibson-Cairns, a retired Multnomah County employee who volunteered at the Ascension Catholic Church on Thursday, said that only 37 people remained there on Wednesday night. But by Thursday afternoon, she added, over fifty individuals had reserved overnight beds at the shelter, and staff had expanded its capacity to ninety-one in case more people needed it.

She expressed her satisfaction with the county’s ability to maintain six emergency shelters open on Thursday during the day. For (the guests), it’s less disruptive, she said.

A woman sat on one side of the room, staring at her phone with the hood of her hoodie drawn up. After the tent they were residing in on Southeast 148th Avenue and Division Street collapsed due to wind gusts, Kerri and her husband arrived at the shelter late Wednesday night.

Even though Kerri’s phone battery was only at 4% at the time, she managed to call 211 and get a ride to the shelter.

She stated that the pair hoped their belongings would still be at the campsite when they returned because they packed up so fast that they were unable to retrieve them all. But as long as the county maintained the shelter, she said, they intended to remain there.

She remarked, “It’s just so cold outside.”

You can get a list of all the emergency warming shelter locations in the metro region here.

Jamie Goldberg is in charge of covering homelessness, education, and politics for The Oregonian/OregonLive. You can contact her at 503-221-8228 or [email protected]. She can be reached on Bluesky at @jamiebgoldberg.bsky.social or on X at @jamiebgoldberg.