Montavilla community in Portland mourns unhoused neighbor Mary

Editor’s Note: Mary’s last name has not been used to protect the privacy of her family and her dignity in death.

On Friday night, the altar at Montavilla United Methodist Church was filled with flowers as the community in this east Portland neighborhood came to honor the life of their dear friend, Mary.

Mary wasn’t a noted community activist, nor was she a political figure or local business owner. She was a mother of three, a grandmother, a recovering addict and she was houseless.

In late August, she was found deceased in the Oak Street Village pod housing complex on 82nd Street. She was two weeks away from entering stable housing for the first time in many, many years.

“She had a hard life, and yet Mary was loved,” said Rev. Heather Riggs, pastor of Montavilla UMC. “The worship table was drowning in flowers. They were flowers from people who didn’t have the money to purchase flowers, yet that was what they felt they could do.”

Mary stood maybe 5-feet, 5-inches tall, with fading red hair, a slight build and weathered skin from years of hardened living conditions. She wore colorful dresses and kept her makeup tidy. 

Her appearance might be the face of the ongoing housing crisis, specifically in this neighborhood of Portland.

Mary’s face is also the one of hope.

Everyone who calls the Montavilla neighborhood home has seen the number of houseless in their neighborhood increase due to many socio-economic factors. For years there have been several day service providers and support groups for folks like Mary, but people still camped in their tents along the neighborhood streets leading to the highly trafficked 82nd Street.

“There was never any shelter,” said Rev. Dwight Minnieweather, executive director of Straightway Services.

Some things are changing.

Straightway is the operator of the Oak Street Station, which opened last spring, with Mary as one of its residences in the 29-unit fenced shelter.

“Mary was like a den mother,” Minnieweather said. “Everyone gravitated toward her spirit. Some of our participants knew her from before coming to this shelter.”

Shelter, alone, doesn’t solve the houseless crisis.

Mary had long been involved in Rahab’s Sisters, a non-profit housed at Montavilla UMC that seeks to build community and provide space for women, trans and nonbinary individuals that is safe from the impacts of gender-based discrimination.

“She was one of the core guests of Rahab’s Sisters. She brought joy to so many people,” said executive director Desiree Eden Ocampo. “She was never at a table alone.”

In this line of work, where you’re there to support people living on the margins, success is more than affordable housing, Ocampo said. For example, Rahab’s Sisters saw 400 to 600 unique visitors in 2019. During the pandemic, they served upward of 4,000 individuals.

Last year Rahab’s Sisters served 1,800 people needing everything from group therapy to mental health services, community meals and more. Recently, Ocampo said they’ve added a primary care clinic to serve individuals, regardless of whether they have Medicaid or the ability to pay. In this case, an increase in participants means more people have access to needed services.

“Our core purpose is to have community, because it’s a human need,” Ocampo said.

Riggs said she negotiated to have Rahab’s Sisters, along with PDX Saints Love and JOIN PDX be the three non-profit, wraparound service providers who refer participants into the Oak Street Village. 

Straightway Services is licensed through Multnomah County for Oak Street Village. Riggs said as the stable housing options open, the previously named non-profits continue to provide wraparound support to increase the likelihood of success.

Riggs said Montavilla UMC doesn’t have all the right pieces in place to develop affordable housing or offer shelter on its property. But the church has been deeply committed to working with its neighborhood partners.

“This project is working, because it is collaborative,” she said.

Minnieweather said over the last eight months, the pod shelter has regularly been full. It takes a couple of months for residents to adjust to their living environment. The first month is really spent settling into the routine of housing and the rules the village applies to its residents. Then in the second month, they start working on everything from apartment applications to job coaching and more.

“Even after they exit, we’re still available to residents,” he said.

So far, nine of the residents have successfully moved into stable housing. Mary would have been the 10th.

Minnieweather said residents of the village still expect to walk out and see Mary sipping her coffee in the shelter’s main gathering space.

Her death has made Straightway Services and other partners more aware of what they’re doing and why they are doing it – even when there are critics on the national stage ready to write off houseless people as unworthy of anything.

“We’ve got to get a little more humane. A life is a life. It’s hard to lose anyone,” said Minnieweather. “A lot of times we see (neighbors) as houseless people and what does that mean? It’s your uncle. It’s somebody’s daughter.”

It’s Mary.

You can also view this story on the Oregon-Idaho Conference website.