‘Can’t keep our staff safe’: Meals on Wheels closes downtown Portland site due to safety, funding concerns

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As Portland continues to bring people back downtown, Meals on Wheels People says they have had enough.

The non-profit organization that provides food to homebound seniors recently closed two of its facilities, including its Elm Court location downtown.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Meals on Wheels Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Washington.

The site stopped offering congregate dining after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person dining options. Even after restaurants were able to reopen their seating areas, the Elm Court location never resumed in-person dining.

Instead, the location served as a delivery hub for volunteers to pick up and deliver meals to home-bound recipients. But even that has been problematic, Washington said.

“I can’t keep our staff safe and our volunteers safe because there’s always something happening,” she said. “We’ve been threatened with knives, and fires have been set. It was time to close.”

It’s been so bad that they’ve struggled to keep volunteers.

“Every day, they’re stepping over feces, and there’s needles and drug dealing and deaths,” she said.

Once, there was even a body that staffers had to step over to get into the building, she said.

Meals on Wheels had been at the Elm Court location since the early 2000s, but it wasn’t always such a tough neighborhood. Washington said the trouble started with COVID, and the rise in fentanyl use.

She said that things have gotten better, but downtown still hasn’t recovered and it was time to try something new.

Washington said they considered finding a new location, but due to funding uncertainty it made more sense to spend the money elsewhere.

“Instead of paying for someplace else, we want to keep people fed,” she said.

As KOIN 6 News previously reported, Meals on Wheels had to cut its budget significantly in April due to federal cuts.

Meals on Wheels is still providing its recipients with meals, just not out of the downtown location, or the other site that it also closed in Hillsboro.

Even with the funding cuts and the on-site challenges that staff and volunteers have faced, along with increased demand for services, Washington said there is still no waitlist.

Still, Meals on Wheels needs help. The organization relies on volunteers to help chop vegetables, deliver food and more. For more information or to sign up to help, visit mowp.org.