STREET OUTREACH COLLABORATIVE
If you are sleeping outside and need help getting food or other resources, please call our outreach line at (207) 775-0026 extension 1880.
The Street Outreach Collaborative provides social work services and meals every day to meet the basic needs of hundreds of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Portland. Over the last year, this four-person team has provided services to 290 clients and has helped 1,308 individuals since the program was formed five years ago.
From its early days operating in the midst of the pandemic, the SOC has been a lifeline for people living outside. Collaborating with partner organizations throughout the city, they help meet the immediate needs of clients — including food, shelter, weather-appropriate clothing, health services, and IDs — while also connecting them with services to meet their longer-term goals like housing, health care coverage, and employment.
Additional Food Resources:
- St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen- 307 Congress St (corner of Franklin); M-F 11:00am-12:30pm
- Milestone- Outreach/food distribution on foot in the Bayside neighborhood; M-F 1:30-2:30pm
- Good Shepherd Food Bank Food Map
Learn more
5 years of “social work without walls”
When someone is focused on day-to-day survival, there is little time to attend to long-term goals. Accessing the limited available resources requires sorting through a convoluted web of systems and can be impossible to navigate alone. Every day for the past 5 years, the small but mighty Street Outreach Collaborative (SOC) at Preble Street works
Five Years Later: How Preble Street’s Response to COVID-19 Shaped Its Future
During our 50 years in operation, Preble Street has had to adapt to changing needs and a shifting landscape many times. Never was this truer than in the days, months, and years that followed March 16, 2020. Five years ago this month, while the world was urged to stay home, a question loomed over staff
A feeling of home sweet home
[A meal] is so comforting. It’s a feeling of home sweet home. There have been times when I’ve been hungry for so long and struggled for so long that I had a hard time digesting food… I know people that have gone without food so long that having a plate of food in front of
