Like many other downtown Portland businesspeople, Barry Menashe wishes there weren't so many homeless people on the streets.

"We have a problem with people sleeping on our steps," said Menashe, head of Menashe Properties. "That's the business side.

"But there's also a human side."

And the human side especially hits home for Menashe, 62, who has spent 40 years in the real estate business. Two of Menashe's four siblings - a brother and a sister - suffered from mental illness and were on and off Portland-area streets for years. They both died in their 50s.

"This is a problem that's been bothering me personally for many years," he said. So he and his son - Jordan, 28, who is Menashe's business partner - decided to do something about it.

A new shelter for homeless men opened Monday evening in one of Menashe's buildings, the Washington Center at 401 S.W. Fourth Ave. In a deal with Portland City Hall and nonprofit Transition Projects, Menashe donated part of the building's second floor for use as a safe place for homeless men to sleep and store their belongings over at least the next six months. The Portland Business Alliance also helped make the deal happen, Menashe said.

Transition Projects will operate the shelter using funds made available when Mayor Charlie Hales and the Portland City Council declared a housing emergency. A shelter for women and couples at the Jerome F. Sears Army Reserve Center opened on Thanksgiving under the same program.

"Hopefully, we save some lives," Menashe said, adding that there is no "catch" - his business isn't benefitting financially from the deal.

One night last year, more than 3,800 people in Multnomah County met the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's definition of homelessness, according to a study commissioned by the city, county and other groups. Nearly 1,900 of them were unsheltered, 872 were in emergency shelters and 1,042 were in transitional housing. An additional 12,500 were doubled up for economic reasons.

The plan for the new shelter came together partly because of timing. For nearly 20 years, the Portland English Language Academy leased the space until the school recently relocated to the Lloyd District. The academy moved out just in time to establish the shelter while the weather remains cold and wet.

"The stars aligned," Menashe said.

About 100 men were off the rainy streets Monday night and using the shelter, said Roma Peyser, development director at Transition Projects. The shelter has space for as many as 149, according to Menashe. The shelter provides a blanket, coffee, tea, games, books and a common area, Peyser said. The men slept on mats that were laid side-by-side on the floor. It will open at 7 p.m. daily and close at 6:30 a.m.

Jordan Menashe was the key player in getting the deal done with City Hall, his father said.

"I'm so proud of my son, who made it happen, and quickly," Menashe said.

Jordan Menashe said he's "not sure it's even been done before." He acknowledged that not all the business owners in the area are thrilled with the idea but pointed out that every person who stays at the shelter is one less person sleeping in a doorway.

"If this goes well, we're already thinking about another location," Jordan Menashe said. Both father and son commended the city for moving quickly to prepare the shelter.

Menashe Properties purchased the building in June 2014 for $9 million, records show. With vacancy rates in downtown Portland's commercial real estate market at historic lows, the company certainly could have commanded competitive rent in the second-floor space.

The company's portfolio includes the Wilcox Building on Southwest Sixth Avenue and the Portland Police Block on Southwest Oak Street. And Menashe recently entered the Seattle market, closing a $26.5 million acquisition on a suburban office campus in Kent in a deal announced Tuesday.

Menashe and his son still aren't sure about the future of the space beyond the next six months. In the meantime, Danny McClain hopes the shelter will provide him the stability to save enough money for a new home. A part-time employee at a cleaning-services company, McClain has stayed out of jail for the last four years, he said, after a drug conviction for heroin.

"I'm pretty healthy," McClain said on Monday night. "I'm happy I'm not living that lifestyle anymore."

But he has bounced between homeless shelters and unsafe apartments, he said. He wants to one day be able to host his daughter, who now stays with McClain's parents, at an apartment of his own.

"I've been praying for something better," he said before he entered the new shelter for the first time. "And things are getting better now."

-- Luke Hammill

lhammill@oregonian.com

503-294-4029

@lucashammill