Right 2 Dream Too in North Portland, Ore., April 4, 2024. R2DToo is a self-managed camp for unhoused people. According to a recent crowdfunding plea, the village has little operating revenue and is in jeopardy of closing.
Bryce Dole / OPB
One of Portland’s oldest houseless communities is running out of money.
Right 2 Dream Too is a village of tiny homes and shelters run by more than a dozen unhoused people. Located in the Lloyd District between the Moda Center and the Willamette River, it can serve up to 60 people daily, providing supplies, medicine, a bathroom and a place to lay their head overnight.
But now, the nonprofit has less than two months of operating revenue left. If it doesn’t get more money soon, it might have to shut down the overnight shelter.
“If they close, that’s 60 more people out on the street,” said Danielle Klock, a volunteer, who added: “To lose that would be really devastating, not only for the people who live there and call it home, but for the city as well.”
The funding crisis is the latest development for one of the city’s oldest and — at one point — most prominent houseless communities. The fate of Right 2 Dream Too dominated political discourse in 2013 and efforts to move it from the base of the Chinatown gate were polarizing and stretched on for years. The city helped the camp move to the eastside in 2017.
As homelessness has grown into one of the region’s top issues, the city has contracted with a California nonprofit to manage numerous tiny house villages not unlike the Right 2 Dream Too model. Multnomah County also has tens of millions of dollars available each year to help transition people off the streets and into housing, thanks to Metro’s supportive housing services tax.
Cody Bowman, a spokesman for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office, told OPB that the city is aware of the situation and that officials have met with organization leaders to find ways to support people should the camp close. He noted that the organization is not managed by the city.
Julia Comnes, a Multnomah County spokesperson, said in an email that officials with the Joint Office of Homeless Services were unavailable for an interview.
Vince Masiello outside of the Right 2 Dream Too camp in Portland, Ore., where he has lived for the past two years, on April 4, 2024. Right 2 Dream Too, a self-managed camp for unhoused people, has been in operation since 2011, moving to its current North Portland location in 2017.
Bryce Dole / OPB
Right 2 Dream Too is a low-barrier shelter, which means it has few to no requirements for entry, including proof of identification or sobriety. That makes it a critical resource for dozens of vulnerable unhoused people who would otherwise have to walk long distances across the city to get help, says Vince Masiello, a member who works and lives there.
“Villages like us are a staple in the city right now, because there’s no real big solution, and [homelessness] is definitely getting worse,” said Masiello. “We need solutions like what we have here to remain open and remain operating so that we can keep helping people who really need it.”
The camp started in 2011. It’s funded through a variety of sources: grants, donors, fundraisers, sometimes the city of Portland and the Lloyd EcoDistrict, a local nonprofit. It runs on a shoestring budget, but leaders say operating costs have steadily increased over the years. Last year’s budget was $63,994, much of which goes to bathrooms, showers and garbage service.
This isn’t the first time the camp has struggled financially, said treasurer Grant Swanson. It was in a similar situation during the pandemic. Then it received city funding as part of a coalition of groups and municipalities that opened three city-sanctioned camps for unhoused people to shelter from the coronavirus.
The funding for those efforts dried up.
“We’ve never had much stable funding,” said Swanson. “We don’t really have a solution in the wings to make it sustainable,” he added.
Jaimie, a 44-year-old resident who declined to provide her last name, said the people staying at the village have helped her when she needed it. This was where Jaimie stayed with her partner while he helped her recover from leukemia. More recently, she’s recuperating from torn ligaments in her foot. She had surgery last week and uses a wheelchair to get around.
On Thursday, a man wheeled Jaimie up to the front of the village fence, where she smoked a cigarette and propped her bandaged foot up on a blue crate. She wore a purple sweatshirt and spoke about how people have been carrying her up and down her stairs all week.
“I feel safe here,” she said. “It’s a community.”
Without the village, Jaimie is concerned about how she’ll get across town to other shelters in her wheelchair. And she’s concerned for other people in the village.
“What are people going to do?” she said. “We’re the last place to go.”
Klock, the volunteer, is among those trying to keep the camp running. She organized a GoFundMe page with the goal of pulling in $10,000. An anonymous donor has pledged to match that amount if Right 2 Dream Too can hit that goal. According to the GoFundMe, that would keep the site open for just four months.
