Hillsboro: County Staff Rank Bridge Shelter Replacement Second for $7M–$15M in Housing Money
- Washington County housing staff recommend putting $7 million to $15 million toward replacing the Hillsboro Bridge Shelter, the 60-bed shelter at 622 SE 10th Ave.
- The proposal is in a Nov.
- That money is what remains of a projected $211,937,632 for fiscal 2026-27 after $191,815,492 in budgets, reserves and earlier commitments, the memo shows.
Washington County housing staff recommend putting $7 million to $15 million toward replacing the Hillsboro Bridge Shelter, the 60-bed shelter at 622 SE 10th Ave. County commissioners are scheduled to discuss the idea at about 4:25 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at a work session where the agenda lists a staff presentation and no vote.
The proposal is in a Nov. 10 memo from Housing Services Director Molly Rogers in the work session packet. It ranks the shelter second among nine one-time spending ideas for $20,122,140 in Supportive Housing Services money that the board has not yet assigned.
That money is what remains of a projected $211,937,632 for fiscal 2026-27 after $191,815,492 in budgets, reserves and earlier commitments, the memo shows. SHS is the county’s share of the Metro Supportive Housing Services measure, a city news post says.
Where the shelter ranks among nine proposals
Staff ordered the list by the board’s adopted priority tiers, then by the advice of the county’s Homeless Solutions Advisory Council. The shelter has the widest cost range.
| Rank | Proposal | Estimated cost | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eviction prevention with liaison support | Up to $2.3 million | Scale up |
| 2 | Bridge Shelter replacement | $7 million–$15 million | One-time |
| 3 | Healthcare system navigators | Up to $600,000 | One-time |
| 4 | Short-term rent assistance and workforce | Up to $3 million | Pilot |
| 5 | Access center stabilization | Up to $1.5 million | Scale up |
| 6 | Support for special populations | Up to $1.5 million | Pilot |
| 7 | SHS renewal communications | Up to $500,000 | One-time |
| 8 | Public agency partnerships | Up to $2 million | Pilot |
| 9 | Provider training | Up to $500,000 | One-time |
Source: county Housing Services memo, Nov. 10 work session packet, pages 158–160.
The other eight items add up to $11.9 million, our calculation. Funding all eight in full would leave about $8.2 million of the $20.1 million for the shelter. The memo’s table prints the package total as $19.9 million to $26.9 million, but the listed items sum to $18.9 million at the low end, our calculation, and the memo does not explain the gap.
Staff say they would aim to fit every priority within the $20.1 million by tapping other money, such as regional investment funds, and by adjusting the shelter’s share as more information comes in. That item “has the most unknown costs and the greatest range,” the memo says.
What the county says about the building
The memo describes the building in its list of system gaps. The county acquired the shelter during the pandemic through Project Turnkey, and the memo says it still operates “in an aging building with major systems risks that threaten the County’s total shelter capacity.” The memo does not name the systems.
Replacement costs are “likely to total $15 million,” the memo says, and other secured funding, including a pending federal earmark, would reduce the SHS money needed. The packet does not say who requested the earmark or how much it is for.
A county project tracker, updated Oct. 26 and printed in the board’s regular meeting packet, gives the shelter’s status as “In Operation” with an “Unknown Building Replacement Timeline.” It notes “Submitted Congressional Directed Spending.” Neither packet says where a replacement would go.
The site also appears in Hillsboro’s planning. The city’s Avenida Diez/10th Avenue Equitable Development Strategy, in the City Council’s Nov. 3 packet, names the “10th Avenue Bridge Shelter” as an example opportunity for affordable housing and other uses. It is part of the same 10th Avenue plan that covers the police headquarters block.
Three Hillsboro sites on the county tracker
The Bridge Shelter is separate from the 75-bed Hillsboro Shelter near SW 17th Avenue and TV Highway, which held a grand opening Nov. 14, 2025, the city’s post says. The county’s Oct. 26 tracker lists three Hillsboro projects:
- Hillsboro Bridge Shelter, 622 SE 10th Ave.: 60 units, 10 of them medical respite. In operation, with Greater Good Northwest as shelter operator and Virginia Garcia running medical respite.
- PHC Hillsboro Access Center, 363 SE 6th Ave.: owned and run by Project Homeless Connect. In construction, with an anticipated opening in early 2027.
- Transcending Hope Transitional Housing, 1010 NE Cornell Rd.: 36 units. Property acquired and in predevelopment, with an anticipated opening in late 2027.
The tracker files the other two projects under sites where the county is a funder or partner only. The packet defines an access center as daytime indoor shelter, generally 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., with services such as showers and laundry.
How to follow the Nov. 10 discussion
The work session meets in Room 120D of the Charles D. Cameron Public Services Building, 155 N. First Ave., and on Zoom, webinar ID 869 9559 7796, or by phone at 669-444-9171. The agenda says start times are approximate.
The work session agenda has no public comment period. The county’s meetings page says work session observers should hold comments for a regular business meeting, and it links forms to sign up to testify or submit written testimony.
The board’s regular meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. that day in the building’s auditorium. Its agenda puts public communication near the start, at two minutes per person and 10 minutes total, with a five-minute-per-person period later, capped at 30 minutes.
Beyond Nov. 10, the staff slides list December and later for settling allocations and purchasing, and January for seeking a regional committee’s approval of items eligible for regional funds.
Top image: Illustrative image, 2024: the Bybee Lakes Hope Center, a shelter in Portland, Oregon (not the Hillsboro Bridge Shelter). Photo: Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
