Something Spectacular is Happening
The holidays can be a tough season for many of us, including the survivors Henderson House serves. I would like to take a pause from these heartaches with you and share a genuine moment of spectacular joy.
Henderson House’s sister agency Center For Hope & Safety, serving Marion and Polk counties, in Salem, Oregon just opened the doors to a new affordable housing project for survivors – Hope Plaza. Our staff had the pleasure of touring this phenomenal project and were brought to tears by the the attention to detail, love, and care that have been poured into such a life-changing resource for survivors and their families.
Excutive Director Jayne Downing began with identifying a need: survivors need a safe place to land in order to succefully begin rebuilding their lives after fleeing abuse. Their agency aquired the lot adjacent to their advocacy center offices – a former Greyhound bus terminal – in 2015 for $650,000 (half of the listing price) and paid it off through community donations by 2018. The following year, demolition began and the project ran into various hurdles: asbestos, contaminated dirt, consolidating lots for the structure to be joined to their office building, and red tape.
While the project was underway, Jayne held over 150 presentations and conversations with stakeholders and funders, securing 97% of the over $14 million budget before doors opened. The largest funders were Oregon State Lottery Bonds ($7.5 million), Federal Appropriations from Senetors Merkley and Wyden ($2 million), investment from the Oregon Health Authority ($1.2 million), the City of Salem ($835,033), ARPA directed funds from Oregon Senator Deb Patterson ($500,000), in addition to many other foundations, charitable groups, and individuals.
The project broke ground for construction in November 2022 and as of this month, two years later, residents are beginning to move in to the 20 apartment units, ranging from studio to two-bedroom units to accomodate a variety of family sizes. The units are ADA accessible, pet friendly, have bike storage, a shared laundry facility, a private shared atrium, are fully furnished through “room sponsors,” and have access to a free clothing boutique. Community partners like local food pantries, mobile health care, and veterinarian care have planned rotations to offer services on-site throughout the year.
Henderson House was invited to tour and we took plenty of photos to share (the gallery can be viewed below), both to convey the magnitude of the resource survivors now have in our neighboring county, as well as to inspire our community to catch Jayne’s vision, illustrated in the quote below, to help us begin conceiving how we might better meet the housing needs of survivors in Yamhill County.
“In my nearly 25 years as Executive Director, I have seen so many families overcome the incredible barriers of living in an abusive home, only to face instability and uncertainty in finding permanent, affordable, and safe housing. The dream for HOPE Plaza grew out of a very real need for those we serve. The realization of that dream is an opportunity for survivors to overcome the barrier of housing instability and truly find a life free of violence.” – Jayne Downing, Center for Hope & Safety Executive Director
Hope Plaza was designed by Anderson Shirley Architects and built by Duncan Construction.
Contributed by: Rachel Flores, Henderson House Development Director
