Hazelnut Grove should be celebrated, not destroyed
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Hazelnut Grove, a self-governed tiny home village located in North Portland with about 15 formerly houseless residents, is under threat of being torn down, dispersing the people who live there.
Although Portland promises to keep residents together, it only offered them about half of the spots in the new tiny house village in the St. Johns neighborhood which is only enough spaces for about two-thirds of the Hazelnut Groves residents. This leaves the residents who do not choose to move there no choice but to be thrown back into the temporary sheltering system, after living in stable conditions for years.
by Alex Zielinski • Feb 23, 2021 at 10:18 am
A banner hung over Hazelnut Grove s fence, which the city plans on removing next month. Alex Zielinski
A communication breakdown between Portland city commissioners last week has drawn new attention to the uncertain future of Hazelnut Grove, the tiny house village that s currently home to 17 formerly houseless individuals. The confusion added a wrinkle to the delicate, years-long process to relocate the village, which sits on a triangle of city-owned land between N Greeley and Interstate. I don t think they realize they re playing with people s lives right now, said Barbie Weber, a homeless advocate who s lived in Hazelnut Grove for almost a year. They re too focused on playing politics.
But the neighbors’ hostility has worn on the villagers.
“It’s not comfortable living in a community when you know you’re not wanted there,” said Bob Bremmer, who’s lived in Hazelnut Grove since 2015. “It messes with your own self-worth.”
Combined with the area’s environmental safety risks, this persistent pressure from OKNA encouraged Hazelnut Grove residents to begin meeting with the city in 2018 to discuss a move to a more welcoming plot of land. By then, the city had formed the Joint Office of Homeless Service (JOHS) with Multnomah County to oversee shelter development, including the possibility of alternative shelters like Hazelnut Grove. JOHS and the mayor’s office, now occupied by Ted Wheeler, offered to cover the costs of relocation to another property if the villagers agreed to allow a homeless nonprofit to oversee the program a structure mirroring the Kenton Women’s Village, opened by JOHS in 2017.