The Hygiene Hub, under the Morrison Bridge, offers toilets, wind and solar showers, information and other resources
A cluster of small, bright blue buildings has recently bloomed beneath the Morrison Bridge on the east side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The buildings make up the Hygiene Hub, a new approach to compassionate hygiene situated in the midst of a sprawling cluster of tarps and tents that form a pop-up neighborhood of people who shelter beneath the bridge.
In one corner of the Hub, a peaceful rock garden planted with succulents is in stark contrast to the endless din of the southbound boulevard traffic just a few feet away. Waving bamboo plants in painted barrels dot the site. A small solar and wind tower has been installed. And when Street Roots visited, urals are underway. Several volunteers with paintbrushes were putting finishing touches on the buildings and on the pavement, where a giant turtle design was evolving, in readiness for the grand opening of the Hygiene Hub, which took place on Dec. 15.
The opening is the culmination of a vision spearheaded by Sandra Comstock. Comstock, a Portland based sociologist and homeless advocate, is the executive director of Hygiene4All, the organization that has built the new hub. She is also involved with other organizations, including the Central Eastside’s Compassionate Change and Dignity Coalition.
After threading a gauntlet of county and city permits, near constant fundraising, neighborhood objections, COVID-19 shutdowns and winter weather, the Hygiene Hub finally opened its chain-link fence to welcome visitors who can check in, use the portable toilets, shower with hot water provided by the wind and solar tower, change into clean clothes, and receive basic health care supplies and information offered onsite from 6 p.m. to midnight every day of the week.
One of the most practical aspects of the hub is the one-stop hygiene concept.
“If you’ve got bed bugs, you need to be able to wash your laundry and treat your body,” Comstock said. “One of the things people have talked about is the amount of time it takes to stand in line for laundry, and the fact that it’s easier for people to throw away their old clothes and get new stuff instead of doing laundry. What we came up with is a clothing and bedding exchange. As we get the funds to get the laundry program going, people will exchange dirty and soiled bedding for clean stuff available in our free store. St. Andrew’s has offered to be our laundering fairies; we will take it off-site and wash it,” she said.
“According to several audits, 70% of trash from off the street is from clothing and textiles,” she said. “We see this as a way to divert things from the waste stream as well.”
There will also be a place to throw away household trash, and organizers hope to offer a mini trash pickup service for the area.
In the center of the hub is a first-aid station that will be stocked with topical antibiotics, cold remedies and wound care. There is a place for visitors to sit, soak their feet and dry them completely. “People with trench foot can lose their toes,” Comstock said.
Informational printouts developed in part by Old Town Clinic will include tips on foot health, wound care, broken teeth, pandemic safety, bed bug and lice infestations, as well as referrals for these and other health concerns.
How to help
Hygiene4All Hub is raising money to launch its laundry exchange program and to help meet monthly fixed costs. For information on how to donate, visit h4apdx.org.
Dana Lynn Louis, Portland artist and founder of Gather:Make:Shelter, a nonprofit that provides collaborative creative projects for people experiencing poverty and homelessness, is the lead artist for the project.
“Sandra’s idea to do this amazing project, it’s totally brilliant,” said Louis. “She asked if I would be interested in doing the visuals on the site. She said we want you to do whatever you want to do,” Louis said. “We picked the colors for the building site, and the pavement treatment, and also we have gardeners that are part of the C3PO project (Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside is a coalition providing safe tent villages during COVID and beyond).”
The work includes creating an 80-foot long mural that will be hung on the fence line facing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Former Street Roots vendor Aileen McPherson is one of the contributing artists on the project.
“The weather has been killing us,” she said, paintbrush in hand. “It’s been our enemy for painting. But I hope the impact will be good. I can honestly say there just aren’t enough hygiene stations, period. It’s really needed. There’s lots of people living under the Morrison Bridge. On either side of the bridge there are multiple camps turning into small communities,” she said.
Finot is the head gardener for the Hygiene Hub. “I am interacting, first,” he said, explaining the meaning of his work at the Hub. “Two, I am creating conscious awareness of community, in a real environment that shows familiarity. Talk less, do more, in a sense. It is vague when one is standing there, words are many but action, our work, our consistency and our seriousness, our way of going about it is what will show such things should be taking place. What I do and how I do it says everything, that is what I am proudly doing,” he said.
Alberto is the current caretaker. He lives on site in a small pod and has worked on whatever needs doing for weeks. “He has done a huge amount of construction,” Comstock said.
“I have to push money in his pocket and run away; he won’t take it,” she said.
“I have the time, and I like to help people,” said Alberto, who speaks Spanish. Comstock, who is fluent in Spanish, translated. “This makes me feel helpful in the world. It will have a big impact. There are many people living on the streets who don’t have access to hygiene. This will give them access to showers, bathrooms; this will give them access to the things they don’t have right now.”
The safety and security of visitors to the Hygiene Hub is a top concern. Comstock has been holding trainings for all involved two or three times a week for the past three months on de-escalation conflict dissipation, microaggressions, and disrupting racist, sexist and anti-LGBTQ+ harm.
“One of the biggest priorities is making the space safe for our community,” Comstock said. “A lot of public spaces are very white and very straight. We want to make a space that is truly safer for targeted communities. There’s a huge need for that. So many people avoid using spaces they feel aren’t safe for them,” she said. “Doing the groundwork first, setting up the culture, that’s what we are doing.”
The Portland Bureau of Transportation owns the land where the hub stands. The City Council granted its use to Comstock. A long list of supporters helped make the project happen, including individuals, organizations and foundations.
“It’s been amazing to see so many organizations come together for this project,” Comstock said. “It’s like stone soup: (Jo Ann) Hardesty, (Chloe) Eudaly and the Portland City Council provided us with the stone, which is this PBOT property. And I was like, I have a stone, want to make soup? And all of a sudden people are bringing carrots, peas and pods.”
Comstock said the project is a community investment.
“We will be measuring our impact with police and 911 data and all the data on trash. I want to be able to go back to the city and say this is the money we’ve saved you,” she said.
“I think we can better invest our money in this kind of community safety, hygiene health, sanitation. This isn’t just services for me; it’s about community. I don’t want to make 10 more of these myself. I want to create a toolkit so other communities can build one in their neighborhood. I think these are best done when you build that sense of connection in each place and appropriate to each place.”
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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