[SOFT MUSIC]

This is the entrance to the Behavioral Health Resource Center, located on 333 Southwest Park Avenue. And the idea is that when an individual enters our facility that's been created and designed by people with lived experience, that they will be greeted by an individual who is a peer, a person who has been houseless themselves and has been in the same shoes that these individuals are accessing the facilities.

Unlike a lot of services, when people walk through the front door, they have an expectation that they have to come through the front door and engage in the services. And sometimes their mental health is too high or they're just not wanting to do that at the time.

So the difference and the innovative part about the BHRC is that an individual will be able to walk through the front doors and hang out and lounge out if they want to. We also have laundry services here. We have showers as well.

And if an individual wanted to come around and just hang out and engage with the community or charge their phones, or get food, we have microwaves here. Almost about eight years ago, I was houseless and I was out here struggling with addiction and houselessness.

And just the impact of that will make any human being also experience mental health struggles or mental health hygiene or mental illness. And that was my story, was somewhere along my journey, I got lost, and I ended up in a place that I never thought I'd end up at.

Since I've been in recovery, I've been just having this overwhelming urge to give back to the community. I went from nonprofit sector and then ended up at Multnomah County.

And then right when I got here, this project just started. And with a group effort, we kicked off. And now we're sitting in this facility that used to just be on paper.

Over this way, we have our restrooms. This is our restroom area. I have one shower down here. We have multiple showers upstairs. But these are our all-gender restrooms, which I think was another huge critical piece in trauma-informed design.

And as you move through here, you'll notice that there's all open space. There's no closed-off areas. This is a space for our individuals that they want to get online to access jobs, or to look up stuff for their IDs, or any needs that they have coming from off the street, they'll be able to meet with a peer and engage and get on the internet or make phone calls.

This space is our pet relief place. We'll have storage for individuals who are houseless. If they're coming in, they'll be able to sit out here, smoke, hang out with their animals, or go inside.

But they'll be able to keep their storage here while they're present on site. And if you look up here, this is one of the prettiest pieces I've seen done. This is done by Damon. This is one of the other artworks we're doing on our main wall. And this is another person with lived experience.

I also share an experience of mental health and addiction and recovery. And as I started to navigate services, I found out how difficult it was to navigate services for various reasons.

However, I learned how to navigate those services, and I wanted to share what I learned with other individuals. And so that's what drew me into the social service world. In addition to giving back, I wanted to share my knowledge.

And in my story specifically, it wasn't just a case manager or the probation officer or even a teacher when they told me what to do. When it was a peer that said, hey, I have gone through this, I know it.

This is what you should do or this is the experience. It's going to be tough. When it was a peer that was telling me that, that's when I was like, oh, OK, I can achieve this. I can do this.

On to the second floor. So behind this desk will be where the Mental Health and Addictions Association of Oregon staff will be at. And these are the peers. They will be greeting people here, helping people with their needs as people are navigating the services.

Our laundry room is right here. People will be able to do their laundry for free. And also, capacity for each floor when we're fully operationalized is going to be 75 per floor at any given time. So about 150 on the first and second floors.

Individuals will be able to hang out here, sit, do work, do art, whatever they need to do. There's computer access here as well. And then here is our kitchen. And this is going to be more of a staff kitchen.

The staff will be able to go in there and grab snacks or make meals for individuals who are in need of service of that. So this is our third floor. This is the overnight shelter, which is a 33-bed shelter. And then we'll come on in and show you one of the rooms.

This room is the dorm-style room. And on each bunk area, you'll see that there is a charging and bunk cord for individuals for their electronic devices.

And each individual have their own specific locker for their stuff as well. And so most shelters, if you look around, especially the Portland metro area, they're here and they have to leave at a certain time.

And this shelter is different from that, that they'll be able to still have access to the first and second floors, as well as be here all day and all night. Another unique part of the Behavioral Health Resource Center is we won't be exiting anyone.

Let's say that an individual came here and they're on their 29th day, and they have found nothing. We're not going to make them leave. The goal is we have a space dedicated for our community providers to come in because we know that they're the expert of their services.

So we have what we call a drop-in provider space, so that housing providers, sheltering providers, addiction recovery support providers, mental health providers can come in on certain days and meet the needs of our population.

One thing that I really enjoy about this program design is that we have tons of resources in one establishment. So instead of running over here, running over here, you have a day center, you have a shelter, you have a bridge housing program.

We also have on-site providers here that will come to you versus you going to them, which is a huge barrier when you think about access needs. And I think, for me, that was a key concept.

And this is our Bridge to Housing program. This is our 19-bed facility. So there's 19 beds on this floor.

This is for when either we're going to have outside referring agencies that are like, hey, we have an individual who's ready for work or has gotten their mental health sustainable right now and we can deal with them.

Or people coming through our program from the first and second and third floors that have navigated some of the services and are ready for longer-term housing and employment, this is the place for them to go.

So these are the singles. Take a look in here if you want. There's a single-bed space for this one. And this is more of a laid-back space because individuals will be living here on these quarters so it's a different setup.

The kitchen is open as well so individuals can come here and cook and make their meals and store their food in the refrigerator. The hope is that when participants move their way through the programs, that they'll be able to engage with newer folks that are coming through our center and they'll be able to have cooking classes up here.

And so we can assist people with life readiness skills. A lot of times, people who are navigating the streets are struggling with their own internal elements, whether it be addiction, mental illness, houselessness, they don't see a way out of it.

And I know when I was experiencing those things, I thought that I was going to die in that predicament. And to come in here and walk through those doors with that desperation and that despair, like, hey, I'm not-- it just takes courage to walk through any front door to be like, hey, I need help.

And to be able to see individuals who can just smile and greet you and be like, hey, man, your story isn't over. This is where I-- this is where I was, and look at where I'm at.

I know the difference it makes when an individual can just look at you. It's unspoken. It is a energetic thing when an individual can look at you and be like, that person actually understands what I'm talking about.

The moment someone walks through the door, they're going to be greeted by somebody who has been right where they've been, whether they know it or not.

[SOFT MUSIC]