For sale: A never-used building replete with bathrooms, showers, laundry and kitchen facilities bought by the city of Portland for a homeless camp.
Cost: Whatever you'll pay.
The need to auction off the 2,400-square-foot modular building that no one seems to want is the latest hiccup facing Portland officials after their attempts in 2016 and 2017 to find a permanent location for homeless camp Right 2 Dream Too. The City Council approved the auction Wednesday.
City officials bought the building for $216,175 in 2016 in anticipation of a city-endorsed move of the homeless camp from Old Town to the Central Eastside. Before the move could happen, however, the state Land Use Board of Appeals struck down the new location as a zoning violation, leaving the city with no use for the 100 feet by 24 feet "communal space" building. Right 2 Dream Too has since moved to a property near the Moda Center.
The city Office of Management and Finance, which owns the modular building, asked other city bureaus if they'd take it, but received no interest. Same for "a number of non-profit agencies," according to the resolution authorizing the auction. The building is now sitting in storage in four pieces in Aumsville, a town outside Salem.
Council members adopted the auction resolution 4-0, with Mayor Ted Wheeler absent at a conference in California, instructing the city to seek "the best price" possible.
If all goes to plan, the auction will begin Thursday and go for 30 days, said David O'Longaigh, the city facilities services manager.
-- Gordon R. Friedman