Oregon Motel Converted into Housing for People Transitioning from Incarceration

People who have spent time in jails, youth correctional facilities, or prisons often face steep challenges in obtaining stable housing stemming from their records, lack of credit history, and challenges finding steady employment. As a result, they often end up homeless and caught in what the Urban Institute calls the “homelessness-carcearal cycle,” rotating in and out of jails and emergency public services like shelters, emergency rooms, and detox facilities. A new sober-supportive housing facility for justice-involved persons on community supervision in Klamath County, Oregon, seeks to break that cycle, reports Zak Keeny for local media outlet Herald and News. 

With $1.7 million from Oregon’s Project Turnkey grant program, Klamath County retrofitted an old motel and RV park into Project Homefront, the first sober-supportive housing of its kind in Oregon. “Since 2021, beyond merely buying the property, Klamath County Community Corrections worked with many local contractors to morph the motel into 29 sober-supportive transitional housing units with new roofing and flooring, more secured dooring and windows and are currently retrofitting an old recreational building located behind the units for use as a restorative justice center,” Keeny writes. 

The goal of the project is to provide an affordable housing option and structured foundation for successful reintegration into the community, correctional supervisor Crystal Wheat told Herald and News. Project Homefront provides affordable rents ranging from $450 to $600 a month, with access to on-site laundry. An additional 10 tiny homes will be added later this fall. 

“Aside from housing, Project Homefront offers in-house treatment services by certified mental health professionals four days a week that are gender-specific and evidence-based. Project Homefront provides victim family support, cognitive therapy, alcohol and drug therapy and offers education and employment assistance. A Klamath County Community Corrections officer is on-site five days a week,” reports Keeny.