At first glance, the Columbia Inn might blend in with other buildings and storefronts along Marine Drive — but behind the doors of the modest motel-turned-homeless-shelter, there’s more than meets the eye.

The property, which was acquired by Clatsop County last year through the state’s Project Turnkey 2.0 and is managed by Clatsop Community Action, offers 21 rooms for individuals and families facing homelessness, each stocked with sheets, pillows and basic appliances.

Just past the main office, jars of peanut butter, Campbell’s soup and canned vegetables line the shelves of the shelter’s kitchen. One door down, washing machines churn, cleaning families’ laundry and linens.

Since opening in October, the shelter has served more than 200 people.

A unique referral process

For the past several years, Clatsop County has had among the highest per capita rates of homelessness in the Oregon, and has struggled to establish a year-round shelter. Gradually, local organizations have been working to move the needle. Clatsop Community Action executive director Viviana Matthews said this is the nonprofit’s first time running a shelter — and in their first seven months, they’ve done plenty of learning.

Although the Columbia Inn offers many of the same amenities as a typical low-barrier shelter, the process for getting through the door can look different.

The shelter makes placements by referral only, partnering with agencies like Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers, The Harbor, Providence Seaside Hospital, Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria and schools and law enforcement to send people their way. From there, the referrals are reviewed by the Columbia Inn’s social services manager and its shelter manager.

“We take all the referrals, even if we have nothing and we’re like completely full,” Cheryl Paul, the shelter manager, said. “We’ll still take the referral so the person’s name is in there, and we’re aware that they’re looking for some shelter.”

Paul is one of the first faces people see when they walk through the doors of the Columbia Inn. Once a person is admitted, she works closely to build trust and connect them with the shelter’s case manager to access community resources. While capacity is a key driver in determining who gets a bed and when, demographics can also play a role.

The Columbia Inn’s main priority is families and children. It also focuses on other marginalized and underserved populations, including young people ages 18 to 24, people escaping domestic violence, people with mobility-affecting disabilities, veterans and people from the Latino and LGBTQ+ communities.

All things equal, the shelter will make placements on a first-come, first-served basis — but if a person comes from one of those backgrounds, they’ll be sent to the top of the list.

According to data provided by Matthews, the shelter had served 237 people as of early May, including 29 families, 69 people escaping domestic violence, 40 people with disabilities, 30 Latinos, 10 veterans and four people identifying as LGBTQ+.

“Those marginalized populations have not been served for so long that we have created a lot of trauma,” she said. “And then, by focusing our outreach and focusing our services to the Columbia Inn clients, it just helps a little bit of the healing.”

Safety is another consideration.

To remove barriers, Matthews said the Columbia Inn doesn’t perform background checks, but it does work with law enforcement officers to make sure people don’t have extensive criminal histories that could pose concerns for families with children. Drug and alcohol use is also prohibited on-site, although sobriety isn’t a requirement. If a person breaks the rules, that can influence the process of getting a bed, too.

“It is a shelter — we’re learning the process of it,” Matthews said. “And sometimes people come in and they don’t follow the rules and regulations and they have to be exited, and then they want to have a second chance. So then we look into that, too. We’re all about chances and giving opportunities for people to work on themselves if that’s what they choose to do.”

Successes and challenges

Kenny Hansen, a senior officer with the Astoria Police Department, said he frequently makes referrals to the Columbia Inn for people he encounters on the street. The process for navigating those referrals, he said, has evolved.

“It was a learning process for both the shelter and us on what the expectations are from both parties,” Hansen said. “And it’s become very streamlined now, and it’s worked really well.”

Referrals between the Columbia Inn and Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare have also been fairly smooth, said Dragosh Negrea, the crisis systems program manager for the mental health and substance abuse treatment provider. Thanks to the shelter’s proximity to Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare’s rapid access center on Bond Street, they’ve typically been able to get people in the same day.

Nevertheless, some people in the homeless community have expressed concern over the shelter’s placement process, while others have argued it isn’t a “true” low-barrier shelter.

Matthews acknowledged that the operation hasn’t come without its share of challenges.

Sometimes, a person isn’t ready to be sheltered, or they need a shelter that can provide more intensive support for their behavioral health needs. Other times, there just isn’t space available when a referral comes in. If that’s the case, the Columbia Inn will often work with partner agencies to find an available bed at a different shelter, like Helping Hands in Seaside or LiFEBoat Services in Astoria.

The Columbia Inn offers two Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible rooms, five adult congregate rooms and three rooms for youth, divided by gender. The rest are reserved for families. While capacity fluctuates, Matthews said the shelter has consistently seen a high demand for male congregate rooms. That demand, however, needs to be balanced with the shelter’s other needs and priorities.

“Even if we have a waitlist for the male congregate section, we are not going to be utilizing those (family) rooms for males, unless, you know, we look at the face of homelessness on the street and say, ‘OK, we have solved homelessness for families,’” Matthews said.

So far, that hasn’t been the case.

Matthews said families often face homelessness less visibly than individuals. As a result, they haven’t always been served in shelter settings. Part of the intention behind prioritizing children and families is to help change that.

“When people think about homelessness, immediately, people have a picture of a male in their 50s on the street with a sign,” she said. “The families that are staying in their car, it’s harder for them to ask for help. It’s harder for many reasons — because they have a substance use disorder, because they are chronically homeless, because they are in generational poverty — for many reasons. And also, we have focused so much in the past 20 years on the single individuals, that that’s why it’s most noticeable.”

Matthews said the end goal is for families to transition into permanent housing within six months of entering the Columbia Inn — and so far, a handful have. In the meantime, staff have also looked for ways to make the shelter feel like home. The facility’s kitchen and laundry room are reserved for families, and its youth and family rooms occupy a separate section of the shelter from its congregate rooms. Shelter staff have also hosted family events like cookie decorating and egg-dying, and have begun cooking nightly dinners with families to serve to others at the shelter.

For individuals, the goal is to transition out of the Columbia Inn within three months. Although services look slightly different for people in congregate rooms, they still have access to customized support through the shelter’s designated case manager. Matthews said she’s seen that support make a big difference — one Columbia Inn resident who had lived on the street for decades, for example, is now working toward moving into permanent housing.

To her, those kinds of successes aren’t achieved alone.

“We’re not able to have the Columbia Inn without having the county buy the hotel, without having the city of Astoria giving us permits, without having the community partners like CBH, like public health, the school district,” she said. “All of it is part of the big puzzle.”