Multnomah County plans to shut a homeless shelter run by Sunstone Way, one of the county\u2019s largest contractors, at the end of March.<\/p>\n
The county announced the plan in June, but a memo obtained by WW indicate that the closure may have come as a surprise to some staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there has been a lot of talk and questions about the status of the Market Street Shelter,\u201d Joelle Wheeler, Sunstone Way\u2019s director of sheltering, wrote to staff on Dec. 9. \u201cIt is with deepest sorrow that we are officially announcing that the Market Street Shelter will be closing on March 31, 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shelter has space for 120<\/a> and has been open since 2021.<\/p>\n The closure is a blow to Sunstone Way, the Department of Homeless Services\u2019 11th-largest contractor in the 2024 fiscal year. Multnomah County paid Sunstone Way\u2014then called All Good Northwest\u2014$2.5 million in the year ended June 30, 2024, county records show.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Sunstone Way lost its contract<\/a> to run a pod cluster in Multnomah Village to San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy.<\/p>\n Sunstone Way has been in flux recently. Chief executive officer Andy Goebel began a six-week sabbatical on Dec. 22 to deal with the stress of his job, according to a memo, obtained by WW, that was sent to staff by Sunstone Way interim board chair Jaime Dunn.<\/p>\n \u201cRecently, the board met with Andy and had a conversation about the stress that doing this work can bring,\u201d Dunn wrote. \u201cAndy was very honest about his own feelings of fatigue. Andy has been CEO of Sunstone Way for over four years now. He\u2019s led with strength, courage, and unwavering dedication to our growth, and now he\u2019s showing that same strength through vulnerability as he recognizes it\u2019s time to take a needed break.\u201d<\/p>\n A more recent memo suggests that Wheeler is away from her post, too. Under \u201cstaff shout outs\u201d it says that another employee, Semoni Sherwood, \u201cis carrying the world.\u201d Wheeler \u201chasn\u2019t been gone for very long at all yet, and I\u2019m seeing just how much Semoni is juggling,\u201d the memo says.<\/p>\n Sunstone Way spokeswoman Devon Hoyt directed questions about the Market Street shelter to Multnomah County, which confirmed the plan to close it. Hoyt didn\u2019t answer WW\u2019s inquiry about Wheeler.<\/p>\n In addition to the Market Street Shelter, Multnomah County is closing the Wy\u2019East Shelter<\/a> at the end of March. Wy\u2019East houses 90 men, most of them veterans, and is run by Do Good Multnomah, the Department of Homeless Services\u2019 fifth-largest contractor as of June 30, 2024.<\/p>\n Sunstone Way is a spin-off, of sorts, from Do Good Multnomah. It was created by Do Good executives in 2021 to provide shelter services during the pandemic. Goebel left Do Good, where he was director of emergency managment, to become CEO of Sunstone Way. <\/p>\n