Mental health component at Heritage Square draws some unease

Jan. 28—A mental health component of a workforce housing project at Heritage Square would provide low-cost housing for people undergoing treatment and help fill a gap countywide.

The concept by Edlen & Co., a Portland-based developer, involves two buildings spanning the downtown block next to City Hall. The main building, planned along 12th Street between Duane and Exchange streets, would include up to 75 units serving mostly lower-wage workers.

A four-story building on the block's smaller lot at 11th Street and Exchange would provide 33 micro units of supportive housing for clients of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Clatsop County's mental health and substance abuse-treatment provider. Services for the residents would be on the first floor, and there would be an outdoor area for residents.

Many of the people would be part of the agency's Open Door program, which provides intensive wraparound services. The program serves between 70 and 80 people at a given time and is centered around those who need support in finding and maintaining employment.

Amy Baker, the agency's executive director, said clients outside of the Open Door program could also live in the building. The common denominator for choosing who would be suitable for the housing is some level of stability, she said.

Offices for the Open Door program are planned for the ground floor, with the micro units on the upper floors. Unlike the main apartment complex at Heritage Square, the building would not include parking, since the agency's clients typically do not drive.

The units would be priced at about 30% of the county's median income, using project-based housing choice vouchers.

Creative approach

The mental health component of the project not only fills a gap, but functions as a creative way to make the project more affordable while serving a wider range of incomes.

Heritage Square is challenging and expensive to develop, so Edlen & Co. proposed using income averaging. With income averaging, the project can receive tax credit equity for all the units if the average affordability is at or below 60% of area median income.

Because the project would include Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare units at 30% of area median income, the project can have units for people earning wages up to 80%, which means up to $19.65 an hour for someone living on their own in the county.

The City Council will discuss entering into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Edlen & Co. during a meeting on Feb. 7. The council is also expected to weigh code changes to enable development at Heritage Square. Mayor Bruce Jones said the council will use the meeting as an opportunity to consider public input and will likely hold a vote on the agreement on Feb. 22.

The mental health component of the workforce housing project has drawn broad support among the City Council, the county Board of Commissioners and social services agencies such as Clatsop Community Action, but it has also provoked some strong reaction in opposition.

Astoria's homeless population has grown over the years and has become more visible downtown. The city has received frequent complaints about uncomfortable interactions, feces, urine and trash left in public places and people smoking, drinking and harassing passersby.

Dialogue on social media and letters to the editor of The Astorian have revealed some unease about providing more support downtown for people who are homeless or experiencing mental health issues.

Some have tied the increased visibility of homeless people downtown to outreach like LiFEBoat Services, a daytime drop-in center on Commercial Street, and the Astoria Warming Center at the First United Methodist Church at 11th and Franklin Avenue.

The Merwyn Apartments, an affordable and workforce housing project that opened next to City Hall on Duane Street last year, has also been a source of complaints in the neighborhood.

'Stop the encroachment'

Since the city decided to move forward with Edlen & Co.'s proposal at Heritage Square, banners reading "Stop the encroachment" and "Senior Lives Matter" have been posted across the windows of the Astoria Senior Center.

The senior center faces the parking lot where the four-story building housing Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare's clients would be built.

Larry Miller, the senior center's executive director, said that while he is not against the supportive housing, he does not think Heritage Square is the right place.

In a letter to senior center members about the project, he expressed concerns about the loss of parking and highlighted examples of negative interactions some seniors have had with homeless people in the neighborhood.

City Councilor Tom Hilton and Walt Postlewait, a developer and the senior vice president for nonprofit lender Craft3, have also questioned whether Heritage Square is the right spot for supportive housing.

Postlewait was one of six stakeholders on a panel appointed by Jones that recommended the city move forward with Edlen & Co.'s proposal. He was the only panelist to oppose the mental health component.

"You build out the downtown core to help deliver economic stimulus that feeds on itself," Postlewait said. "You want to attract outside dollars into the downtown core that spends money and supports the businesses that employ the citizens of Astoria and Clatsop County."

Postlewait said any housing at Heritage Square should serve people who earn enough to spend money at downtown businesses.

He thinks Astoria is coming to a crossroads.

One path, he said, would continue the momentum over the past decade toward becoming a destination, with the expansion of businesses and new hotels and shops.

The other is adding more social services in the downtown core, which he believes would only invite more homeless people.

"The word is out in that community that Astoria is a good place to come because we're lenient and compliant with their presence. And I'm concerned," Postlewait said. "I think that crossroads is coming where we have to decide what is more important for the long run, because the two do not coincide together.

"If a different strategy is not embraced, I think in two years the shine will be off of Astoria and we'll be seen as kind of that 'grungy former fishing and lumber town of the '80s,' and our shine as a destination location will have faded."

'An opportunity to address the issue'

While the mental health component at Heritage Square will not fix homelessness in Astoria or the county, Baker said it would help.

"What I've found throughout my career is that when humans feel like they're connected to community and that they have something to lose, they don't hang out and congregate on the sidewalks," she said. "I think that doing nothing — like say we put no housing in — we're still going to have a massive homelessness problem, and we're still going to have people who are congregating in the Garden of Surging Waves and all of that.

"This actually gives the city an opportunity to address the issue."

Baker has been reaching out to people individually and on social media and offering to discuss the project.

In recent years, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare has pursued more housing options in the hopes of providing more effective mental health and substance abuse treatment.

"If you could see the faces of our case managers and the frustration, and really the pain of trying to help support somebody when they don't have a safe place to sleep at night — it's terrible," Baker said. "It's a burnout for staff. It's terrible when you don't have options for people."

Housing has become critical to the agency's mission.

"From my perspective, I can't possibly do this job — I cannot do this job — unless we have adequate housing for our clients," Baker said. "And this is the best opportunity that I've seen since I've been in this job to actually be able to address that need."