The boutique Jupiter Hotel will become a shelter for homeless people who are at high risk of dying if they contract COVID-19.
The hip hotel on East Burnside Street connected to the restaurant and venue Doug Fir Lounge will open 81 rooms to people who are already in publicly funded shelters and have respiratory issues or other underlying conditions that put them in a high risk category but have not tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Twelve people have already moved in, and officials expect the hotel to fill up eventually. In addition to people with serious underlying conditions, the other occupants will be people now staying in homeless shelters who show signs of sickness and need to avoid potentially spreading it to other shelter residents.
Jupiter Hotel General Manager Nick Pearson said he heard Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury say on XRAY FM Tuesday morngin she wanted to add hundreds of shelter beds to the homeless services system quickly and by that afternoon he was in talks with officials.
“Hotel occupancy rates were plunging, and we had an underutilized asset and the county had an oversized need,” said Nick Pearson, Jupiter Hotel’s general manager. “Working together seemed like a no-brainer.”
The Jupiter was forced to lay off half its staff last week as cancellation requests piled up and daily occupancy rates dropped to between 7% and 20% for the 148 rooms between both the original location and the annex, said Katie Watkins, the Jupiter Hotel’s marketing, public relations and brand manager. At the time, Watkins said the Jupiter may have to lay off another 25% of its staff by the end of that week. Already, losses stemming from the coronavirus outbreak had forced the Jupiter and its two restaurants, Hey Love and Doug Fir Lounge, to lay off a combined 150 employees.
The renovated 1962 motor lodge will be repurposed into a space where social service and medical staff can care for people who will be moved out of existing shelters.
Joint Office of Homeless Services Director Marc Jolin said that the Jupiter will have a nurse on siteand a full staff of shelter workers at all times. The three other recently opened shelters also have 24-7 staffing.
The Jupiter Hotel is the first of a rash of temporary shelters targeted specifically for people who are sick. Another shelter is planned that will hold people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have no home to recover in and don’t require hospitalization.
Homeless people are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 because many have respiratory infections and weakened immune systems from harsh living conditions. They also have few resources to stay hygienic enough to prevent illness and no place to go to recover.
The annex, Jupiter NEXT, which is a separate building next door to the original hotel, will continue to remain open to the public as a hotel. That hotel is following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocols for sanitation and hygiene, according to management.
Jupiter NEXT will also be providing rooms to hospital workers who can’t return home at night, either because of a household member with a compromised immune system or other issues.
None of these spaces, including the rooms at Jupiter Hotel, will increase overall shelter capacity. Existing shelters are still open, but many have paused or limited new arrivals to make sure that beds can be placed six feet apart and there is enough room for residents to socially distance.
The city-county Joint Office of Homeless Services opened two city parks properties, the East Portland Community Center and the Charles Jordan Community Center, as well as Metro’s Oregon Convention Center, to serve as homeless shelters in the past two weeks.
Multnomah County is now trying to hire temporary shelter works. Anyone who is unemployed or could volunteer who has a background in social services, behavioral health or medical training is encouraged to apply.
Jamie Goldberg contributed to this report.
-- Molly Harbarger
mharbarger@oregonian.com | 503-294-5923 | @MollyHarbarger
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