Portland’s newest hub for shelter services has been busy during its first six months. Managers report that all 130 apartments at Bud Clark Commons are occupied, and that 290 people who visited its day center have found permanent housing.

Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB

Former Portland Mayor Bud Clark got the ball rolling for the center, and it was named for him. He appeared at the meeting to thank council members for supporting the Center through some lean budget years.

“When I was a kid growing up in Portland, you never saw anyone sleeping in the street. It just offends me that every city I go to across the country now, you see homelessness every place,” he says.

Clark says predictions that the Center’s founding would draw more homeless people to town were unfounded, and that he’s proud to have played a role in getting it started.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.