The shelter prioritizes culturally informed design and aims to serve at least 56 families with children each year

Arusha Dittmer, a Ho-Chunk Nation member, spent weeks carefully painting a mural of salmon, lilies and hummingbirds — illustrating Indigenous peoples' first foods and medicines. The artist’s work will live on the walls of a new Native American Youth and Family Center, or NAYA, shelter in Milwaukie opening June 26.

To some, having art in a living space may seem trivial. For Dittmer, it's an opportunity to preserve Native history and remind Native people of the cultures they come from.

“There's such a strong push to eradicate Native people and our way of life,” Dittmer said. “A lot of things were lost or forgotten, and I think that it's really important to remind people of our past and where we come from.”

Dittmer hopes her art will welcome and give hope to the Native families who will see her art daily, along with the art of three other Indigenous artists, in the new family shelter called Kʰwat Yaka Haws, which is Chinook for “Auntie’s Place.”

The shelter will offer eight spaces for Native families in Clackamas County experiencing homelessness. One unit can house up to seven household members, and ultimately, NAYA aims to serve at least 56 families with children each year.

The Metro Supportive Housing Services measure, which tri-county voters approved in 2020, provided Clackamas County $1.96 million in funding for Kʰwat Yaka Haws, according to a June 20 press release.

Oscar Arana, NAYA Interim CEO, said the shelter anticipates working with families starting in July.

NAYA is working closely with Clackamas County to ensure that the most vulnerable Native and Indigenous families are prioritized in the process of getting families into Kʰwat Yaka Haws, according to Arana. Clackamas County’s coordinated housing access system will score families seeking housing or shelter placements based on need.

Ben West, Clackamas County vice chair, said shelters like Kʰwat Yaka Haws are the best use of Metro’s supportive housing services funds in the June 20 release.

“Clackamas County isn’t just managing homelessness, we are ending homelessness by supporting the whole person,” West said. “I’m happy to partner with NAYA in our common mission to support our local youth and families. This is the best use of SHS funds. Families will be surrounded by their community, given time to recover, and be connected to employment and housing. We will stay with them for as long as it takes to see them thrive.”

Naming the shelter Kʰwat Yaka Haws is one of NAYA’s several intentional decisions to make families living there as comfortable as possible. To help transition families into permanent housing, shelter staff will offer supplemental support in addition to temporary housing, such as helping families find employment, gather documents and apply for apartments, provide mental and physical health services and more.

“Our goal is to have folks find secure housing or permanent housing within the first couple of months that they're living in these units,” Arana said. “Our goal is for our staff to make sure that they're working with the households in a trauma-informed way to help them find housing that suits their needs.”

Christine Lewis, Metro councilor, said it’s difficult to find shelter providing culturally informed services and support for homeless Native families.

“We know that in addition to experiencing higher rates of homelessness than the general population, many people of color also experience discrimination within the very system they turn to for help,” Lewis said in the June 20 release. “That’s why providers like NAYA, that can offer culturally responsive care and services, are critical in our efforts to address our region’s housing crisis.”

The new shelter comes at a time when Oregonians who identify as American Indian, Alaska Native or Indigenous experience higher rates of homelessness than their proportion of the overall population in nearly every county, according to the 2023 Oregon Point-in-Time count.

The risk of homelessness among Native Americans has roots in a long history of displacement. In Oregon, the U.S. government forcibly removed many tribes from ancestral lands in the 19th and 20th centuries.

While the United States returned a small fraction of that land through the Indian Appropriations Act, which established the reservation system, the U.S. government left many impoverished and unhoused, the effects of which can be traced to the present day. Arana thinks this may be one reason homeless Native people may not seek other services and support, highlighting the need for more culturally-informed shelters like Kʰwat Yaka Haws.

“I think that it's important to have these services because otherwise, the Native community might not feel comfortable accessing mainstream services,” Arana said. “I think that the Native community will always try to seek out what is comfortable for them. If they do, that service provider is going to be catering to their unique needs or really understanding their experience.

“We have primarily Native American staff, who have either lived experience or have a lot of experience working with families with housing instability …You know, it's really important for us to have that kind of connection to their culture in terms of making sure that they're going to be successful as they move forward.”

Amaranta Colindres, an artist and muralist, contributed to the art featured in Kʰwat Yaka Haws. Her illustrations were inspired by the idea of creating a sense of belonging and comfortability.

“I'm grateful for the space because we have so many tribes here,” Colindres said. “400 different tribes that live in the Portland metropolitan area. To have a space that is culturally specific where Native kids can be Native kids and don't have to explain anything about what they eat, or what they look like, or what they're wearing.

“They have a comfortable place to just be in their own culture, feel at home and celebrate their culture.”

While Kʰwat Yaka Haws remains rare in its ability to provide services specific to its community, Arana hopes it can become a model for the future landscape of housing support services.

“I want to believe that this is a really important first step for being able to create more shelters that are culturally specific, not just for the Native community but for other communities as well,” Arana said. “A lot of this is possible just through unique opportunities that we had … It's important to step into these opportunities to be able to show that these are important models and that this is extremely necessary.

“It's important to be able to demonstrate success and make a case for future shelters that are culturally specific. I think we're going to be leading the effort of a new way of doing things. I'm hopeful and happy about the possibility of NAYA kind of taking him leading in this area.”

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