Tonkon Torp Helps Human Solutions Secure New Family Shelter Site

Tonkon Torp helped Human Solutions to navigate a complex financing project to transform a shuttered commercial property into an emergency 24/7 family housing shelter. Human Solutions is a Portland-based nonprofit providing services and shelter to low-income and homeless families and individuals in Multnomah County. 

  

The new shelter increases Human Solutions capacity to provide emergency year-round shelter from 85 to 130 people each night, primarily families with children. Not only does the project serve as Multnomah County’s first year-round family shelter, it also revitalizes an abandoned strip club that had long been a community eyesore. 

  

To purchase the property, priced at $950,000, Human Solutions secured a $300,000 loan from Multnomah County, which agreed to forgive $50,000 per year the shelter operates, up to six years. Multnomah County would also provide approximately $360,000 in grant funds to cover the costs to build out the property. The remaining $700,000 in financing was provided by the HDC Community Fund, which offers flexible, low-interest rates to mission-driven organizations like Human Solutions. 

  

The creative financing arrangement secured by Human Solutions resulted in a complex loan environment. Tonkon Torp attorneys Jon Stride and David Petersen helped the organization to navigate the loan documents from the two lending parties, and also factored in remodeling criteria stipulated in the grants provided by Multnomah County. 

  

The new shelter opened February 1, 2016. 

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