Multnomah County commissioners last week held their first public discussion on turning the never-used Wapato Jail into a homeless shelter.

And the commissioners were just as divided as the residents, shelter operators and homeless advocates who showed up to testify for Thursday's hearing.

Commissioners Loretta Smith and Diane McKeel pressed leaders on homelessness on why the North Portland facility couldn't house a few hundred of the nearly 2,000 people believed to be sleeping nightly on the county's streets.

Smith forced the issue last month with a commentary in the Portland Tribune that demanded the board vote on reusing the jail.

"We are missing a giant opportunity to use the empty Wapato facility as a shelter," she wrote, before dialing back her stance and settling for a general discussion in the board chambers.

But Commissioners Jules Bailey and Judy Shiprack on Thursday backed Chair Deborah Kafoury's long-held position that Wapato is unfit to shelter the county's most vulnerable.

Kafoury had tried to end the Wapato discussion months ago, almost before it started. A county analysis in January found that transforming the 525-bed jail into a shelter would cost $953,500 up front, plus monthly building expenses of $136,200. Neither figure includes the cost of operating or staffing the shelter.

Smith's commentary, however, tapped into a feeling that many residents have long expressed through online petitions, at neighborhood meetings and in Facebook posts. Emails sent to Smith's office after her commentary appeared, obtained in a public records request, show overwhelming support for the idea.

"Well said," one resident wrote. "Every..Single..Word."

"It's about time!" wrote another.

In what appeared to be a rare response, Smith wrote back to one writer: "Thank you for your support. I think in this homeless crisis we have to put more county skin in the game."

Here's a more detailed look at the Wapato facility and why some think it might work as a shelter -- and why others believe it won't.

What is it?

Voters approved a bond measure in 1996 to build a new detention facility. Construction began on what was to become a 525-bed minimum security facility in the Rivergate industrial area in far North Portland. But as The Oregonian/OregonLive noted in 2013, voters in 1996 "also approved Measure 47, a tax-limitation initiative that effectively crimped some of the money that leaders had counted on to pay for the jail's ongoing operating costs."

In addition, a predicted rise in the county's inmate population never materialized. That meant, even if the county had found money to run the jail, it still wouldn't have needed the space.

So, Wapato, which cost $58 million, has sat empty since it construction stopped in 2003. The county spends roughly $300,000 a year just to keep the facility, at 14355 N. Bybee Lake Court, from falling into disrepair. Some of the bonds used to pay for construction will be paid off this year.

The building is often rented out by film crews, though not for county profit, a spokesman has said.

Why now?

Talk of using Wapato as a shelter flared as homelessness became increasingly visible this year, and neighborhoods felt the burden of makeshift camps, such as those ballooning along the Springwater Corridor Trail and on sidewalks and empty lots. Portland and the county also have declared housing emergencies, giving them wide latitude to open temporary shelters in surplus buildings and elsewhere.

The conversation surged with new energy in recent weeks after Portland approved high-profile developer Homer Williams' bid to open a mass shelter at Terminal 1 in Northwest Portland. Williams wants to open a temporary shelter in a city-owned warehouse and later convert the property into a long-term homeless campus that could cost upward of $60 million.

Arguments for?

Proponents say Wapato is nearly move-in ready, and it comes complete with toilets, showers, a kitchen, laundry facilities and enough space to accommodate hundreds of homeless people. They say it would be cheaper to reuse Wapato for a large-scale facility rather than building a new one.

The minimum-security jail has some open, dormitory-style rooms, which with little effort could look more like a shelter than cellblocks. And, some say, shelters in the area look similar to Wapato: Some of the bed frames, mattresses and other furniture in the county's other shelters came directly from the empty jail.

Smith and McKeel have expressed concerns about other shelter buildings. The jail was at least designed for human habitation, Smith argues. She said the county's two-month-old shelter at its old sheriff's headquarters houses 200 people in old office space with black mold and asbestos.

A bus line to Rivergate runs infrequently, and it doesn't stop directly at the jail. But supporters say transportation to the industrial area, 12 miles from downtown, could be added.

And even if it's a jail, they say, it's a jail in name only. For people on the streets facing a cold, rainy winter, Wapato could be life-saving, proponents say.

Arguments against?

Opponents hammer on the fact that Wapato is in a far-flung location and public transit is inadequate. That would be a problem for people who need social services that tend to be clustered downtown, and for people in eastern Multnomah County, where homelessness is a growing problem.

Homelessness advocates also say shelter spaces should be comfortable and attractive enough that people want to stay there and can focus on the hard work of securing permanent housing. It was designed for detention, Shiprack says, and the hard, institutional look would feel like a punishment.

Finding money to add transportation, remodel the building, pay for added utility costs associated with full time use, and staff and operate a large facility, could threaten or effectively end the county's other shelter projects, opponents argue. The city and county set a goal of adding 650 new shelter beds to the system this year, for a total of 1,240 beds. So far, including a shelter set to open this fall, the city and county have added 562 beds.

The Wapato facility sits on industrial land with special approval to operate as a jail. It's unclear whether the county could get permission to change its use. Approval for the jail, granted conditionally by the city every two years, is set to expire this year.

Aside from the expense and legal hurdles, some advocates say mass shelters simply don't work for everyone.

They argue people fare better in smaller shelters, which can serve particular populations more easily, such as military veterans, families, women, or domestic-violence survivors. These kinds of facilities provide a greater chance for people to form friendships with their peers and supportive bonds with staff, they say. And those supportive relationships and positive shelter experiences are crucial to transitioning into permanent housing, they argue.

What's next?

Officials are considering selling the property, with a June appraisal suggesting it's worth $8 million for industrial uses or $20 million as a jail. A county spokeswoman said two offers are under review but said the details are confidential. The county last solicited would-be buyers and renters in 2014, with millions of dollars still owed on Wapato's construction debts.

One offer, however, has come from Michelle McLoughlin, a pastor who wants to turn the facility into a private shelter. McLoughlin testified Thursday that her research shows a shelter could be up and running within a day for $80,000.

Smith said she wants to see the discussion continue on making Wapato into a shelter.

"We're in a holding pattern," she said. "We're not going to be able to do anything until we see if Terminal 1 is going to have a legal challenge that's successful."

Still, she was pleased with the hearing.

"For the last six years," she said, "I've wanted Wapato to have the conversation we had today."

Brad Schmidt of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

-- Emily E. Smith

esmith@oregonian.com

503-294-4032; @emilyesmith