In a roadside motel with brown stucco walls and yellow awnings, Jeff Smith’s life began anew. Smith has been unhoused for nearly 10 years, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, he bounced among the homeless shelters of Portland, Oregon. There, he’d sleep in crowded rooms that offered only a brief reprieve from the streets. Each day between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., per shelter rules, he had to leave, only to get back in line at 5:30 p.m. in hopes of getting a bed that night.
On top of the relentless stress of finding a safe space to rest, Smith had spent the past five years battling thyroid cancer. In that time, he also had three heart attacks, cellulitis, and an infection at the base of his spine. Between shelter stays, Oregon’s Medicaid program gave him rides to the hospital for bloodwork, surgery, and radioactive iodine therapy.
By the end of the five years, Smith was engaging less and less with his medical care—he just didn’t have the energy or will. He still made most of his doctor’s appointments, but had completely stopped taking the medication he needed to survive. “I had given up,” Smith says.
Then, a few months into the pandemic, his case worker at the local nonprofit Do Good Multnomah told him about an experimental housing initiative: All over Portland, The Portland/Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services was leasing hotels to shelter those unhoused and at risk of severe coronavirus.
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