A Private-Sector Group Wants to Pay to Move Right 2 Dream Too Into the Pearl

Centennial Mills, the drab white property on the right, is being floated by some as a temporary home for Right 2 Dream Too.

As a deadline for the removal of homeless rest area Right 2 Dream Too approaches, a group of developers-turned-homeless advocates is floating an intriguing idea: Moving the camp to Centennial Mills.

Oregon Harbor of Hope—the same crew that unsuccessfully pushed for a massive homeless shelter at Terminal 1 last year—has offered Mayor Ted Wheeler to pay for improvements to a horse paddock on the long dormant mill site on the Pearl District's eastern edge. The paddock had been used by the Portland Police Bureau's Mounted Patrol Unit before a recent spate of demolitions on the property moved the horses elsewhere.

But it's still standing, owned by the Portland Development Commission (PDC), and—in Harbor of Hope's mind—a fine temporary possibility as R2DToo casts about for a new permanent home.

"Harbor of Hope would be willing assist in the redevelopment of that facility as a temporary facility for 100 people," says Don Mazziotti, a former PDC director who founded the organization along with prominent developer Homer Williams. "If it doesn't happen, those 100 people are going to be on the street."

There's a bit of irony in the proposal: Williams and his development partner, Dike Dame, were the chief voices opposing a proposal to move R2DToo to the Pearl in 2014. Now they want to help it move into the neighborhood.

Mazziotti says his group has telegraphed their willingness to pay to improve the site for R2DToo to Mayor Ted Wheeler's office in the last month. He did not characterize Wheeler's response.

"We have heard about this idea... and a few others," Wheeler spokesperson Michael Cox says. "A number of them are under discussion." Earlier this year, Wheeler shot down a proposal to move the camp to a SW Naito Parkway parking lot.

Update, 2:06 pm: Mazziotti now writes, notably CCing Wheeler's chief of staff, to say the property "appears to be off the table and that the Mayor's office is working on one or more alternative sites for R2D2. We are good with that and, as I noted, the Mayor’s office has been extremely helpful in trying to find a viable solution and one which Oregon Harbor of Hope will assist in, should that be needed. The MPU is off the table."

So it looks like Centennial Mills is a nonstarter at City Hall.

Original post:

Whatever discussions are happening behind closed doors, Sarah Iannarone, a former mayoral candidate and Harbor of Hope ally, brought the Centennial Mills offer out into the open at this morning's Portland City Council meeting. The council was discussing a resolution (which passed) to authorize the PDC to fully develop the mills property, after several false starts for projects that aimed to keep historic structures.

"It’s our understanding that the [horse paddock] there is sound an habitable and that there is going to be a significant time lag between now and when construction’s actually going to begin," Iannarone told the council. "This is actually a sound option for moving to R2DToo in the short term."

Commissioner Nick Fish wondered if there could be zoning issues with such a move, but Iannarone pointed out the city's still under a housing state of emergency designation that allows officials to override some zoning conditions in order to establish shelter.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who's worked for years to move the homeless rest area, inquired what sorts of infrastructure Harbor of Hope might build. She said anything indoors would "not fit the Right 2 Dream Too model," which for more than five years has involved housing people nightly in group tents.

Fritz noted: "It’s an interesting concept to explore. It would not be any kind of thing that would go inside with cots."

Lisa Abuaf, PDC's manager for central city properties, tells the Mercury the urban renewal agency would need to hear details about a proposed move before taking a position. She notes that utilities might have been removed in recent demolitions.

"We would need to understand what kind of utility improvements need to be done," Abuaf says. "It's been operated as a horse paddock."

She also notes: "PDC has been supportive of the city in terms of identifying our properties" that could be used for homeless camps. Centennial Mills has never been explicitly part of the discussion, she says.

The PDC could solicit development proposals for the site this year, and would need assurances about a timeline for R2DToo to use the property, Abuaf says.

In fact, it's a PDC deal that might force the camp from its home beneath the Chinatown Gate by April 7. As we've reported, the agency has a tentative agreement to purchase that plot for $1.2 million—but only if it's free of occupants. If property owner Michael Wright and his co-owners allow the camp to stay, they could forfeit more than $300,000 the city's paid under the agreement to-date.

Mark Kramer, an attorney for both R2DToo and Wright, has repeatedly voiced confidence the camp would remain in place past the April 7 date (it was originally supposed to move last October) but declined to go into specifics.

But Mazziotti believes Centennial Mills is a good idea. He says his group hasn't communicated with R2DToo's board of directors, but has received word from Ibrahim Mubarak, the camp's former leader, that it would be willing to move under certain conditions.

"It would not be too costly," Mazziotti says. "Even if it were we could mobilize donations from the public sector in a relatively short period of time."