How one state is tackling homelessness by turning abandoned buildings into shelters
The U.S. saw a 12% increase in homelessness in 2023, a recent HUD report found.
Nina Jarl never thought she would be homeless.
But as housing grew increasingly unaffordable in Oregon, Jarl, 63, said a series of unfortunate events left her sleeping in her car on the street in the cold weather.
“I raised four kids here by myself and always had a home and work and we made do,” Jarl told ABC News. “So for me not to be able to afford me, by myself, is just crazy.”
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The Annex is one result of Project Turnkey, a state-funded initiative that has invested millions of dollars in local organizations to renovate abandoned buildings into shelters and manage them in order to address the surge in the unhoused population.
The project was “born out of crisis” amid the pandemic and devastating wildfires in the state in recent years, Megan Loeb, Oregon Community Foundation program officer, who led the administration of Project Turnkey.
The project has created properties in 27 cities in Oregon, adding more than 1,300 beds to the state’s shelter system, according to Loeb. Though the project initially began in 2020, Loeb said a second wave of grants was given out to organizations in 2022 and 2023, with several properties still being built or renovated.
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