Oregon has the highest rate of child homelessness in the U.S. A new Salem center aims to help

Salem now has a homeless resource center designed with families and kids in mind. 

Since opening ten days ago, the ARCHES Family First resource center has helped 60 families get help with services they need, including finding health care, community shelters, food and paying rent.

Half of those families came in-person, their kids quickly making use of a dedicated play area with toys and books, said Ashley Hamilton, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency’s deputy executive director, in a speech.

The new center is part of the agency’s effort to address family and child homelessness. Oregon has the worst rate of homeless children without shelter in the U.S., ranking 14 times higher than the national average, said Hamilton.

“That is not a stat that I’m particularly proud of,” Hamilton said. “We want to stem the tide here locally… we had to create a place where families could find stability, support and the chance to rebuild their lives.”

The new center is located north of downtown, on 1255 Broadway St. N.E., which previously held the Youth Drop-In center. The youth center has moved to a different space in the same building. Most of the money for the new project came from a $5 million Bezos Day 1 Families Fund grant the agency was awarded in 2023. 

ARCHES last month also opened a family shelter, ARCHES Nest, with space for 36 people. It’s one of the housing options that families who enter the new Family First Resource Center can be connected with.

The resource center also offers essentials like diapers, hygiene products, meals and baby food, along with toys kids can take with them if they want. There are also computers available, and space to gather and unwind.

One of the first families who walked into the center, Hamilton said, was a couple with three young kids. Both were employed, but still didn’t earn enough to thrive in the community without help and had to move into a Marion County shelter, she said.

“They don’t know what the next step is,” Hamilton said. 

At the resource center, the family was able to get started with food stamps, Medicaid and a Head Start preschool program. The mother had a toothache so painful she couldn’t think clearly, Hamilton said, so they connected her with dental care.

“That is one of many stories that we are just going to begin to see through the ARCHES Family First Facility,” she said. 

It’s a judgement-free space, said program manager Pricila Tinajero in an interview at the center’s grand opening on Thursday. 

“Without judgement of where they’re at in their current housing situation, or where they’re at in life,” she said.

Tinajero said that the resource center aims to fill a gap that’s left parents who are homeless with few options to get help. Other community spaces offering homeless support, like the ARCHES Day Center downtown, can be difficult places to bring children. She said parents were having to leave kids at work or school in order to access services at places which felt unsafe.

In addition to focusing on families, the new center is also designed to help lift the burden from children, who in other resource spaces may be privy to tough conversations as advocates or translators for their parents, she said, which can cause trauma. They’ll instead get to enjoy a play area stacked with toys, and lined bookshelves with stories for all ages.

“The child, in this space, remains a child,” Tinajero said.

Case managers in the space work to directly connect families with Medicaid through the Oregon Health Plan, including dental services, which Tinajero said parents often aren’t aware is covered. 

English and Spanish speaking staff are available on-site, and the center has translators available on request for other languages.

There are five staff on site, including case managers and coordinators, and the agency is in the process of hiring three more to staff the space and address basic needs, said Breezy Poynor, ARCHES housing program director.

“There isn’t a lot of spaces like this, so the team has done a very good job, even in the 10 days they have been open… kind of writing the management and policy procedure on this space in the hopes that maybe other communities will replicate it,” Poynor said.

ARCHES Family First can be reached at 503-399-9080 ext. 4045 or by email at [email protected]. The self-assessment for families seeking case management can be done online. The center has an Amazon Wishlist to donate items for families.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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