Forty families will begin to move into a motel in Southeast Portland this month -- the new home for the city-county family shelter.

Multnomah County signed a master lease in April with the owner of Briarwood Suites and renamed the motel Lilac Meadows. It is supposed to bring an end to the nearly yearlong temporary housing fix the Joint Office of Homeless Services has provided for families previously staying at a homeless shelter that had a faulty roof.

The owners of Briarwood Suites on Southeast Powell Boulevard, a 16,908-square-foot motel built in 1991, offered the space to the Joint Office after a call for suitable accommodations. The county evaluated seven hotels, motels and one industrial site before settling on Briarwood because of its size and location to transit, grocery stores and other amenities.

The county signed a seven-year lease for $35,000 each month. Human Solutions estimated that its operational costs will be about $1 million a year.

The space is still under construction and was expected to reopen as a shelter at the beginning of June, but Human Solutions spokeswoman Lisa Frack said that the nonprofit hopes to open by the end of the month.

While all the families who stayed in the former shelter have found permanent housing, twelve families are still in temporary housing -- motels paid for by the night -- and will have priority in the new Lilac Meadows if they have not been placed in permanent housing by then. After that, the rest of the rooms will gradually be filled.

The motel does not yet have a full kitchen, so the move-in process could happen over the course of three months to not overwhelm the existing facilities.

Each family will have one room, unless there are too many members. Some of the rooms are joined by a door, which could be used to accommodate families with several children.

The rooms will have a mini-fridge and microwave, as well as the existing bathroom and vanity. The spaces will be cramped but afford more privacy than was available at the former family shelter.

That one placed all the families together in a setting similar to a traditional homeless shelter, which meant that kids of various ages and genders had little separation for changing and other daily life functions.

The motel-style shelter creates some challenges for staff because families can close doors and be less accessible. But it also allows children to feel like they are staying in a more home-like environment.

They also will eventually be able to play in a designated area on the premises, perhaps where a covered parking area is now. The families will have access to a large gathering area, daily meals and laundry services.

A sauna will be converted to a room that will zap all new families’ belongings to kill bedbugs before they move in.

“The truth is, those families needed more than living in a large room with 120 bunks,” said Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury when the lease was signed. “They needed their personal space. Every family does, especially when the Portland housing market is keeping families in shelters longer than ever.”

The waiting list for a family shelter bed is about 400 families long right now.

“The market here is so tight that families are stuck in shelter even when they have a housing subsidy, even when they’re working full-time jobs,” Kafoury said.

There is no time limit to how long they can stay. Frack said that Human Solutions data shows that families are staying weeks and months now, when a few years ago, they were only in shelters for days or weeks.

“We find that if you send people out when they’re not ready, they come back,” Frack said.

While families are at the shelter, Human Solutions staff provides support to find housing, work with the children and clear obstacles to employment or other issues.

“It’s a place to come and be stable but also a place to get closer to where you want to be,” Frack said.

To sign up for a shelter, visit 211.org or call 211.