Andrew Cecka sees homeless people all around his Foster-Powell-area neighborhood. In the past few years, he says, he's seen more and more of them sleeping and storing their possessions in residential areas just off Foster, the community's main four-lane road.

He wants more services, more shelter, more attention paid to the Southeast Portland homeless population.

He just doesn't want that to happen at the site of a former grocery store at Foster and SE 61st Avenue, where the Joint Office of Homeless Services plans to shelter up to 120 people. Critics say it's too close to a school, to homes, to daycares and other elements of their neighborhood.

"At this point, I'm 100 percent for a shelter in the neighborhood and 100 percent against the shelter at that location, personally," said Cecka, who is the chairman of the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association, which has not taken an official stance.

The Joint Office of Homeless Services, which is funded and led by the city of Portland and Multnomah County, opened about 650 shelter beds in 2016. But some of those, such as the 200-person Hansen Shelter at Northeast 122nd Avenue and Northeast Glisan Street, are in buildings that were old and crumbling when the shelter opened. With that many people living in them each day, the shelter can't stay in that location for long, shelter operators say.

So the Joint Office is now identifying buildings that could last longer and have room for more services than just a place to sleep. The proposed Foster shelter is part of that push.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury have repeatedly voiced their support for the new Foster Road shelter and met with residents multiple times. County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson has also participated since the site is her district.

The Multnomah County board will meet Thursday to discuss signing a lease to occupy the shelter, which would cost between $1 and $1.21 per square foot over a 10-year lease. The county would have two options to extend the lease with Winson International LLC by five years.

The 13,000-square-feet space would house up to 130 people -- with bathrooms, kitchen space and other living necessities -- as well as room for case workers and housing liaisons to meet with shelter occupants, according to a spokesman for the Joint Office.

The Hansen Shelter is slated to close, but the proposed Foster shelter and others like it are not intended to be a one-for-one replacement. Agency spokesman Denis Theriault said some Hansen residents may be moved to the Foster shelter, but the Joint Office and shelter operator nonprofit Transition Projects want to draw many of the residents from neighborhoods that surround Foster.

The people who stay at the shelter will be able to access it 24 hours a day and bring in their pets. They don't have to be sober or drug-free, but they won't be allowed to use drugs or alcohol inside the facility.

The Joint Office and Transition Projects plan to carry out a new model of outreach, in which officials will meet with neighborhood leaders from Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood, Foster-Powell, Brentwood-Darlington and Creston-Kenilworth on a steering committee to solicit feedback, set rules and garner support, Theriault said.

However, community leaders are more focused on the fight over the site.

Within a mile of the shelter site lies a community center, a library and several bus lines. A Walmart, Portland Community College, a workforce training center and other retail services on Southeast 82nd Avenue are all less than two miles away.

Far closer, within a two-minute walk, is Mt. Scott Learning Center, an alternative high school.

Tom DeJardin, the school's executive director, sent Wheeler a letter that said his 160 students have encountered vandalism, threats, theft and garbage strewn around the school from homeless people in the area.

"Ultimately, that is what this will come down to -- whether the city and the shelter operator can ensure the safety of our students and community members and whether they can preserve a neighborhood working hard to thrive," DeJardin said.

A Dec. 18 neighborhood meeting packed a 150-person room, with many more waiting outside. Anti-shelter activists from Lents and other areas joined with people who will shop, live and commute past the building each day.

Other residents have been vocal proponents. Former progressive mayoral candidate Sarah Iannorone, a Mt. Scott-Arleta resident, has used her social media presence to promote the shelter and organized a rally in favor.

Graffiti artists who put up flyers in the area have at times painted opponents of the shelter as hateful and NIMBYs.

The tenor of the conversation makes it a minefield for those on the fence.

"I would rather have people sleeping inside the building than outside it," said Chelsea Powers, chairwoman of the Brentwood-Darlington Neighborhood Association. "We have 22 percent of the city's unhoused neighbors here in our region. That's what it boils down to for me."

She added the caveat that she wants Transition Projects to bar any registered sex offenders because of the proposed shelter's proximity to schools.

Since she moved to her Brentwood home three years ago, the issue of homeless people's interaction with housed neighbors has dominated conversation in the area.

She gets why. Her own home might be too expensive had she bought it just a year and a half later. People move on and off the street as they are rousted from nearby camps.

A relative who isn't able to afford a place stays with her family.

"A good portion of my friends are already housing someone who would otherwise be homeless," Powers said.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger