Overview:
Village-style shelters and motel shelters are examples of the expanding field of “alternative” shelters for people experiencing homelessness, which is poorly defined but largely identified in contrast to “traditional,” congregate shelters. Numerous villages have been constructed in the Portland region over the past several years, some led by community members and others developed by local agencies. A number of motel shelters have opened as well, initially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way of isolating medically fragile or sick participants, but continuing as a strategy to quickly make available additional shelter space.
Based on research team conversations with elected officials and government employees, pod villages are often believed to be:
- Faster to site and build than congregate shelters;
- Less expensive than other shelter types;
- More desirable to many people experiencing homelessness than congregate shelters;
- Better at successfully moving residents into housing than congregate shelters;
- Buildable on land not immediately suitable for other types of development.
In an attempt to address these questions and others, this report summarizes research by Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) for the Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) on the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village and motel shelters as compared to each other and to congregate shelters.