East County Family Shelter

East County Family Shelter Update 10/31

Community Meeting #2 at Walt Morey Middle School, October 29, 2025

• Michael Austin, Just Compassion‘s deputy director, presented;
• Members of the community participated in the Q&A with many thoughtful and insightful questions;
• District 4 Commissioner, Vince Jones-Dixon, presented closing remarks; and
• Meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM.

Meeting Highlights:

• East County Family Shelter operations are expected to commence in mid-November, 2025 Winter 2025/2026.
• Just Compassion staff will begin taking occupancy at the site mid-November, and wait-listed families are slated to begin their residencies at the start of the following month.
• Just Compassion will bring a team of qualified and screened staff to oversee daily and weekly operations at the East County Family Shelter.  Among those key staffing positions are the following: Behavioral Health Specialist; Case Manager/Family Advocate; Childcare Development Specialists; Youth Services Coordinator; Safety Coordinator; Staff who will collaborate with local organizations to provide vital employment services

Meeting Notes and Presentation:

• Presentation (PDF): HSD_Community-Meeting-No2_29OCT2025_JUST-COMPASSION-public
• Combined Meeting FAQ and Q&A (PDF): October 29th Meeting Handout 01 (REV 11-3-2025)
• Meeting Notes (PDF): East-County-Family-Shelter_Meeting-Notes_29OCT2025

Family Shelter update (10/09/2025)

Since the Board approval on September 25, 2025, to move forward with the Family Shelter in East County, we would like to provide the following updates:

• Family Shelter Operator Selected
  Just Compassion has been selected to operate the new Family Shelter in East County.  They have extensive experience working in both Washington County and the City of Tigard, and they will be speaking at the upcoming community meeting on 10/29/2025.  URL: https://www.justcompassionewc.com/

• Family Shelter Start Date
  HSD anticipates a December 1, 2025, start date for programming at the 24124 SE Stark Street shelter site in Gresham.  Just Compassion will start pre-operations work in November 2025 at the site.

• Second Community Meeting
  RSVPs for the next community meeting at Walt Morey Middle School for Wednesday, October 29 @ 6:00pm is here: RSVP is closed for this event