Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland's effort to keep people off the streets could get a boost from the merger of two non-profits.

Over the next few months, Outreach In Burnside will become part of the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Center.  Both Catholic-based agencies say this will allow them to better serve people on the brink of homelessness. Becca Bartleson reports.

The 16-year-old Macdonald Center operates in Old Town. It provides 54 housing units for Medicaid patients in the center. And it  provides services for other poor people as well.  Many are veterans. Some are mentally or physically disabled. Others are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

Pat Janik: "There was a need survey done which showed that social isolation was a big, big problem among the urban poor that live in Old Town."

Pat Janik is executive director for the Macdonald Center.

To help combat isolation, the center runs a visiting program that reaches people in 21 residential hotels. Volunteers from faith-based communities, and local universities check on the residents weekly. Janik says this program is an important part of the center's mission.

Pat Janik: "I guess you could say that they all come under caring for or serving the forgotten in the heart of Portland, people who are poor and are not out on the street so they aren't as visible to society."

The person that runs the visiting program is Marylee King. On this day she's visiting a resident at the Butte Hotel.  After unlocking the outside door, she enters a closet-sized entry way, barely big enough to wait for the elevator.

We're headed for Henry Bachman's room. It's small, with barely enough room for a bed and small kitchen. The residents of this hotel share one bathroom on each floor.

Bachman says he's not doing so well. He recently took a pretty bad fall.

Henry Bachman: "I can't move, I can't move this leg."

Marylee King: "Did you go to the hospital?"

Henry Bachman: "I can't"

Marylee King: "Can't get there?"

Henry Bachman: "Yes.

Marylee King: Is it your hip?

Henry Bachman: "Yeah. I don't think it's broken just badly bruised."Bachman tells King he needs to see a doctor at the Burnside clinic around the corner.

Henry Bachman: "I can't get there, I can't walk."

Marylee King: "Well I'll see ... I'll call the clinic and then I'll be back over here with a wheelchair."

Later, King says Bachman did need medical attention. Without this visit his condition may have gone unnoticed and untreated.

Eileen Turner is a retired nurse. She's volunteered with the visiting program for thirteen years.

Eileen Turner: "Some of these people that we visit have no living relatives or any living relatives that would be interested in having anything to do with them. We're the only guests they have in a whole week."

She says the Macdonald program improves patients' quality of life, and keeps them from completely isolating.

The non-profit Macdonald will soon merge with is based just a few blocks away. Outreach in Burnside also seeks to help poor people by offering practical services.

It helps with everything from financial management to medical appointments to house cleaning.

58-year-old John Wagner is a recovering addict.

He's been receiving help from both organizations since the mid-nineties.

Wagner says Outreach has been a lifesaver for him.

John Wagner: "I'll just be real close to going back into the old scene or something like that and then somebody pulls me out. I don't want to go back into that rutt I was in, I was pretty hopeless."

Wagner says he has lived in the Macdonald Center twice. Each time the two non-profits helped him get back on his feet.

Macdonald Center Executive Director Pat Janik says she expects the economic downturn to send even more people in search of services.

Pat Janik: "It's a crisis for all of America but it's definitely a crisis for those who are on the edge of being poor. So we will definitely see an impact."

For Outreach the merger means it can continue offering the same services. The non-profit was struggling to survive financially: joining with a more established organization increases its stability.

As for the Macdonald Center, it will gain new programming and experienced staff. Outreach will eventually change its name and location. It will move next door to the Macdonald Center in a couple of years.