Hundreds of families facing homelessness have sought help from a new Salem resource center in the past year.

Many have two things in common: They’ve never been homeless before, and they’re struggling because they can’t afford their rent.

Families who come into the ARCHES Family First resource center have had a range of needs, said Jimmy Jones of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, which operates the facility. Some are single parents, some are living in their cars, some are facing an eviction notice. 

Since opening last February, 398 adults and 182 children have visited in-person, according to recently released data from the action agency.

“All of it is being driven by affordability issues,” Jones said. “The most common pressure on family groups is simply that they can’t afford their rent.”

The resource center, located at 1255 Broadway St. N.E., opened as Oregon ranked worst in the country for its rate of child homelessness. The project was largely funded by a $5 million Bezos Day 1 Families Fund grant the agency was awarded in 2023. 

It’s open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eight staff members are available to answer questions for families, help them fill out forms to get benefits and to direct them to options that they might not be aware of. Available resources include child care, health care, parenting classes, food and help with employment and housing.

Jones said many of the visits were one-time, either to get help with a job application, use the computer or have a resource explained to them, like how to get an appointment with the Marion County Health Department or to join a Salem Housing Authority waitlist for affordable housing.

“A lot of times it’s just staff members sitting with individuals and families, helping them fill out forms, talking to them about what the options are, gently coaching them toward a good outcome. And then sometimes we are moving those people into shelter when it’s necessary,” Jones said. “There is no typical outcome.”

The resource center is connected with ARCHES Nest, the agency’s shelter for families which opened around the same time. Parents can also directly connect the agency’s other programs, like free preschool at Head Start or help paying energy bills.

The center’s family focus makes it unique among homeless resources in the community. As parents get help, their kids can play with provided toys or read a book in the nearby play area.

“The facility is designed for families with children, so the engagement is much greater,” Jones said. “We’re not asking families to go down Commercial Street to the ARCHES Day Center, which is a very challenging environment, sometimes, with a lot of extraordinarily high-needs individuals.”

Jones said that it’s always a risk to open a program designed for a niche, and that there is some general skepticism around how many children are homeless in the community, since it’s a number often hard to track. A 2025 count in Marion and Polk Counties found 250 children and teens under 18 living in shelters or on the streets.

But the data from the resource center past year, Jones said, further proves there are homeless children in need throughout the Salem area.

In its first 200 days of opening, 200 families signed up for services at the center, according to data from the agency. Jones expects the visits to increase in the coming year.

Many of those coming in are at imminent risk of becoming homeless, Jones said. Resources for such cases, like assistance paying a security deposit for a new apartment, are hard to come by. Staff members can help patch together available resources to try to meet the family’s needs.

Common rental barriers are keeping a Salem family homeless

“In a lot of ways, this is one of the most tragic things we do. Because our homeless programs are really geared for dealing with the aftermath of somebody losing their house and living in their car, living outside, that sort of stuff. Our prevention programs are really geared toward preventing that moment from happening. These folks sit in a gray area,” Jones said.

That gray area includes people who have recently moved in with their parents or a friend. Staff at the center also see a lot of homeless single adults who have sent their children away to live with family, and want to find an apartment to bring them back home to.

Many of the parents also don’t fit requirements for more readily-available services, such as having an addiction or a mental health diagnosis. He said most of them are being driven into homelessness for the first time in their lives because of solely economic reasons.

“It is a very frightening place to be in when that happens,” Jones said.

Even with few resources, he said that the resource center has given families a support network in an increasingly isolated world.

“I think that’s the thing that I have been most proud of, is that we’re able to be there and help to provide some answers, even if we can’t solve all the problems,” Jones said.

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

LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED TO YOU: Subscribe to Salem Reporter and get all the fact-based Salem news that matters to you. Fair, accurate, trusted – SUBSCRIBE.