Portland Central City Concern

On Friday I got a tour of one of Portland's biggest, least known charities, Portland Central City Concern. In short, they help people get back on the road to self-sufficiency. The people they help are homeless or addicts or both. Many have been to jail and have a very hard time getting a job. PCCC takes people in, gets them sober, helps with medical issues and puts a roof over their heads. Most of the five hundred people who work for PCCC have been through the program. They work on the janitorial staff or painting crews that keep up the 24 buildings they own in downtown Portland. They also work for the clean and safe program you see around the city, picking up trash. Some graduate to be counselors and work in administrative positions.

It is an amazing place that boasts a lot of success stories, I heard from four of them. They had all been homeless at on point in their lives, one woman for 9 years and one man for 11 years. One lost a job and spiraled down from there, failing a couple of drug tests which made it harder and harder to get the next job. Another had been around addicted parents and drugs for as long as they could remember. Almost all of them had lost spouses and kids due to their addictions. One of the women had been arrested multiple times for identity theft, making her virtually unemployable. At rock bottom, each found PCCC, who helped them get clean and gave them a job. Even though it is a menial janitorial job for three of the four, they were all happy to tell me how much they liked their job and how happy they were to have someone take a chance on them.

Thanks to great people like my friend Adrienne, this organization is making a real difference in our community, moving people from burdens on society to tax paying citizens. Ade is responsible for the business enterprises at PCCC, so she is always trying to get companies to hire her paint or cleaning crews, which is a challenge when they are filled with ex-cons and recovering drug addicts. The biggest challenge is to find jobs that people in transition can do without being a security risk. In better economic times crews could pick up trash and separate out the recycling to make money, but no one is paying much for recycling right now, so we need another alternative.

Check out the website and you can see all the amazing things PCCC does. It is truly one of he biggest, most successful charities in Portland that more people need to know about.