Developer Tom Cody lost all the ground-floor retail tenants of his building on the Northwest Park Blocks and he thinks he knows why.

Customers avoided the tents, tarps and backpacks that filled the leafy corridor north of Burnside. In turn, his tenants looked for shops without dozens of people sleeping or hanging out in front at all hours of the day.

It's not the first time Cody saw his business jeopardized by the city's 4,000-and-growing homeless population.

His firm has developed 33 projects, some up to $300 million – some in neighborhoods where tensions with the homeless population run high. He opposed a preliminary plan for a homeless shelter campus near another one of his Northwest Portland properties, a 300,000-square-foot creative office development.

But now he's part of a business-led movement to do more than complain to City Hall or file lawsuits. He and two other high-profile real estate families have donated empty buildings they own for use as temporary shelter space.

So far, Cody, Brad and Jonathan Malsin and Jordan Menashe have collectively hosted five shelters in their buildings – with possibly more planned. City and county officials are trying to harness the momentum to create a permanent network of business owners who can carry some of the burden of the city's homeless crisis.

Cody and the others readily acknowledge that they need to protect their investments and are getting pressure from city and county leaders to alleviate an affordable housing crisis created by the hot market that they have fanned.

"It's having a very adverse effect on us personally and the city, and that's why we're so committed to working with the Joint Office of Homeless Services," Cody said.

They also recognize that they have the bricks-and-mortar means to provide a quick fix at relatively minimal cost that offers an option to the street.

Cody spent hours researching how to be a better partner to social service workers and advocates – and is starting to carry the torch. He wants to work with the city and county to create a trust of temporary shelters like his, possibly in exchange for tax abatements or development fee waivers.

His pitch to other developers and investors:

"Do you want to step over somebody sleeping on the street to get into your building or do you want to let them in? There's thousands and thousands of square feet of vacant space in the city."

He sees a movement forming. "People are opening their doors," he said.

MAYOR WANTS IN-KIND DONATIONS

Mayor Ted Wheeler has called repeatedly for the private sector to step up – both with financial support and in backing anti-homelessness measures for affordable housing. During the throes of the budget season, Wheeler told a board of homeless advocates, service providers and policy-setters that Portland needs a new source of revenue.

He wants more sustainable community-based funding – though he didn't specify what kind -- he said in the meeting, and more from businesses.

"I want to make sure we're not setting up a house of cards here," Wheeler said of the haggling over how much money to invest in the city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services. "Because I'll tell you, city and county budget priorities ain't it."

In an interview, Wheeler didn't call for a tax on businesses, but wants in-kind donations, like the temporary shelters. His staff is recruiting a ring of real estate players who are willing to offer their in-development buildings as shelter on a rotation -- so if one goes into construction, another one is available.

So say I have a vacant building and I want to help out …

The Portland-Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services has a standing call out to developers that if they have a building that isn’t under construction and won’t be for several months, it could be used as a temporary homeless shelter.

When someone answers that call, Joint Office Director Marc Jolin walks through it with the developer to check out the layout and its condition. A fire department official will perform safety checks. A representative from Transition Projects or another shelter operator will also see the space to see what upgrades and additions are needed and how many people the building could hold.

Jolin needs to ensure that the building is safe for people to sleep in and can accommodate the necessary number of toilets and showers for 100 or more people.

It’s at this point that many buildings are cut because they won’t work to house people or the owner is uncomfortable with the amount of work and wear and tear the shelter might cause.

If the developer is still on board, then either the company, the nonprofit operator or sometimes the Joint Office will perform the upgrades. Occasionally, the developer makes the improvements to enhance the value of the building for its future after the shelter. Sometimes space is the only thing that an owner is interested in donating.

In the case of the Bushong & Co. building donated by Tom Cody’s development firm Project^, the Joint Office paid $60,000 from its city- and-county-funded budget and businesses including Chown Hardware and Providence Portland Medical Center donated heating appliances and fixtures. Project^ spent $30,000 for interior renovations that needed to be done anyway.

The owner and the nonprofit shelter operator sign an agreement. Transition Projects has run all the shelters so far. Sometimes, the Joint Office also signs the contract. The Joint Office carries liability insurance for the shelter.

The owner then essentially functions as the shelter’s landlord. Owners have the option to shut down shelters if they think it’s necessary. But mostly, they trouble-shoot and make sure things run smoothly. They don’t charge rent. The buildings would remain empty if not for the shelters until redevelopment. But for comparison, commercial rent for the Project^ space would cost $52,000 over the same time – seven months – that the shelter occupied the building.

Jolin said the model is gaining traction as more building owners come forward.

“It’s taken hold and I think it can continue to be part of our sheltering strategy,” Jolin said.

Wheeler wants to add 200 to 300 new beds this way – about a quarter as many as the existing permanent and extreme weather shelters overseen by the Joint Office.

"If we form this cluster of downtown property owners and developers -- or even citywide -- we can ration the supply of shelter," Wheeler said.

He reminds skeptics of the business community's intentions that much of the local real estate industry supported the city's landmark $258.4 million housing bond that Portland voters passed last November to build or preserve 1,300 affordable apartments. Homeowners will pay an extra 42 cents per $1,000 of assessed value on their houses.

Some also lobbied for the inclusionary zoning measure, passed last December by the City Council to require apartment and condo developers to set aside some units for low-income residents. Wheeler predicts more measures to protect tenants and create affordable housing are coming and he wants to shore up business support for them now.

"I see our relationship with the private sector being very much a leveraging relationship. Each party bringing their strength to the table," Wheeler said. "Their side of this deal is if they're going to help us raise support and contribute dollars, it's up to government to make sure we're spending those dollars effectively and wisely."

MENASHE FAMILY STARTS SHELTER PARTNERSHIPS

Jordan Menashe is ready to further that relationship.

He was frustrated when he spoke at the opening of his family's third temporary shelter effort. He called out other developers for not following his family's lead three years ago when they donated the use of their building for the first time – the Washington Center at Southwest Washington and Fourth – to shelter 250 people.

After he was quoted in the newspaper, friends and colleagues deluged him with emails and Facebook messages asking how they could help.

Menashe initially offered the use of his building to the city and county because his father empathized with the homeless plight after two of his siblings ended up on the street with mental health issues. It was also hurting their real estate deals.

The Menashes are one of the most successful real estate families in Portland, with commercial properties throughout downtown, as well as in the suburbs, Washington and Colorado. They have struggled with how to deal with homelessness for years – in 2010, founder Barry Menashe refused to pay fees to a business district that funds cleaning up after homeless people, saying it didn't make the area cleaner or safer.

Even now, Jordan Menashe and his tenants are infuriated by the dirt pit next to his Police Block building near the waterfront where homeless people sleep, shoot up and have sex.

"There's this business side when we're frustrated with people sleeping in front of our doorways and our tenants," he said.

But he also is vocal about the need for more compassion if the city is to tackle homelessness.

"I'm tough as hell during the business day as a negotiator," he said. "But I am the first to acknowledge the people sleeping on the street is just as much my problem as everyone's problem."

In 2015, Menashe coordinated with Dan Saltzman, who was the Portland commissioner in charge of housing under former Mayor Charlie Hales, and the Joint Office to open the first vacant-building shelter.

It was so successful, they kept the partnership going. This past winter, the family again offered its vacant office building at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Washington Street as a shelter for 100 men, women and couples. The Columbia Shelter lasted four months -- two less than originally advertised -- because Menashe thought that construction would start early.

By the time the Menashes needed their building back, another development family had stepped up.

Brad Malsin and son Jonathan offered the old Shleifer Furniture building to take 100 men, women and couples while they wait to start construction to turn it into a luxury hotel. Brad Malsin sits on the board of Multnomah County's homeless services office, A Home For Everyone.

They had opposed the move of Right 2 Dream Too, a camp where homeless people stay for up to 12 hours at a time, from West Burnside to the Central Eastside Industrial District -- where their offices and investments are. The Malsins said the industrial land wasn't suitable for permanent camping. They eventually added their business, Beam Development, to a lawsuit that ended in the state Land Use Board of Appeals halting the move.

Yet Jonathan Malsin said it wasn't about trying to avoid homeless people. It was about improper land use and the fear that Right 2 Dream Too would stay there permanently.

"We own a fair amount of property in the Central Eastside. We're very sensitive and aware of the impact homelessness has in the Central Eastside. From time to time it feels like it has a disproportionate impact," he said. "We felt like if there was something we could do to get people off the street and pull their lives together and find permanent solutions to homelessness -- (Shleifer) felt like something we could do."

'IT'S A CITY PROBLEM'

The private sector hasn't always been an enthusiastic partner.

Affordable housing took a backseat to remaking the city. The Oregonian/Oregonlive reported in 2014, for example, that Northwest Portland's Hoyt Street Properties would ensure that 35 percent of its thousands of units would be available to lower-income tenants – but ended up at less than 30 percent. The city had already spent millions to promote revitalization of the area -- and it flourished into the Pearl District, the city's premier shopping, dining and tourist destination.

At one point, Homer Williams led Hoyt Street Properties. He made part of his fortune transforming rail yards and warehouses into a place where current one-bedroom apartments easily rent for $1,400 and 27 percent of renters spend at least half of their income on rent. For home buyers, one square foot of real estate goes for $518 – the Portland average is $323.

City Hall also failed to enforce the conditions it negotiated with developers until the issue became public. The shortcomings on both sides led Hales to declare a housing and homeless crisis. Officials predict it will take years to make up the 24,000 affordable units needed to ease the crisis.

Since then, Williams has become a self-styled ideas man on Portland's homelessness. He's concerned about the private and public sector's ability to serve an aging, fixed-income baby boomer population and younger people who are on track to be in the same boat.

"There's people out there who recognize the problem. And it's a city problem. They're our homeless, not somebody else's," Williams said. "We need to jointly come up with some solutions and play to each other's strengths."

Williams pitched a 400-person homeless services campus and shelter to the Hales administration. When that lost City Council support, he switched to an affordable housing plan now under consideration that hinges on an ambitious land swap and city rezoning effort to build pockets of affordable housing throughout Portland.

Timeline

January 2016:

The Menashes, a prominent real estate family, offer their Washington Center building at Southwest Washington and Fourth Avenue to shelter 80 men.

May 2016:

The Menashes expand the space to accommodate 180 more beds for women and couples who had been staying at the city-owned Jerome P. Sears former Army Reserve building, which closed.

November 2016

: Tom Cody, president of development firm Project^, offers the vacant Bushong and Co. building at 333 S.W. Park Ave. The winter shelter is open for 60 men who are 55 years or older, are veterans or have disabilities. It’s made ready for occupants within a month of Cody suggesting it.

January 2017:

The Menashe family again donates the empty downtown Washington Center for winter shelter. For four months, the space now called the Columbia Shelter houses 100 women, couples and men who are 55 or older, have disabilities or are veterans.

May 2017:

Beam Development and Urban Development and Partners, run by Brad and Jonathan Malsin, donate the historic Shleifer Furniture building on Southeast Grand Avenue to be used as a 100-person shelter. It opens as the Columbia Shelter closes. It holds 100 men, women and couples.

Developers like Menashe who are taking on more active roles on homelessness say they're only providing a Band-Aid, while Williams is trying to generate solutions.

However, the balance in private-partner partnerships can be tenuous. Menashe wants to see local officials do more to alleviate the trash and other visible effects of homelessness – especially in business corridors.

The Portland Business Alliance, the city's chamber of commerce, also occasionally sparred with the Hales administration on issues like his attempted "safe sleeping policy." Hales ordered Portland police to stop sweeping homeless people from camps and sidewalks. That frustrated business owners and residents who said they interacted with homeless people more and the tents, tarps and trash outside their doors hurt their livelihoods.

In response, the business alliance launched a campaign that included full-page newspaper ads and a website calling for the city to provide more indoor shelter space and social services. The tone of the campaign largely put the burden for producing solutions and bearing the cost on local government.

Alliance leaders continue to push the new mayor hard on how camping and the detritus of street living affects businesses.

"We need to see some visible evidence that the illegal camping is being managed a little better and I know that is top of mind for the mayor," CEO Sandra McDonough said. "We get so many calls from people who are dealing with trash and behaviors that aren't really acceptable."

But McDonough said the chamber of commerce has always been a partner.

Corporate groups and small businesses have long donated time to nonprofits for cleanup or build days. The Portland Business Alliance members answered a call for donated lumber, appliances and labor to outfit the temporary shelters.

For more than a decade, the alliance has partnered with Central City Concern to employ homeless people to clean up around downtown business corridors. That program might expand across the river soon.

Ed Blackburn, the outgoing director of Central City Concern, said the homeless services nonprofit relies in part on the financial support of business owners and districts. He also appreciates the extra brainpower of people in the private sector working on the issue.

"Writing checks is very important," he said, "but it's also important that they know what's causing homelessness and part of it is figuring out the solutions."

ALLIES ARE BECOMING PARTNERS

Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury sees business community partnerships heading that direction.

The county has long worked to win allies in the private sector. Lately, those conversations are reaching a point of collaboration. She pointed to the shelter effort, where developers saw how hard it is to find suitable spaces to house people, even on a short-term basis.

Likewise, business leaders are getting a bigger seat at the table. Marc Jolin, head of the Joint Office, said that he has made a concerted effort to find more ways for business leaders to take part in policy and planning discussions.

"I think once we had one partner under our belt, it was easy to get others," Kafoury said. "Because then you can have a building owner talking to another building owner. You can show a success."

She wants to see how far those partnerships can go. Both she and Wheeler admit that what the initiatives in place aren't enough to stem the scores of people forced to move onto the streets. But the new wave of business support is a promising start.

"We need a building downtown. We need another shelter that's permanent, and to see whether that is something that can be financially raised by the business community -- people who have really benefited from this thriving economy and this increase in rents and property values," Kafoury said.

"I mean we're always going to want everyone to do more because it takes all of us working together."

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbarger