About Helping Hands
Helping Hands has been providing HOPE and CARE personal, trauma-informed programs to individuals experiencing homelessness in the state of Oregon since 2002. We have HOPE Centers in
Clatsop, Lincoln, Multnomah, Tillamook, and Yamhill counties.
Our Mission
Helping Hands provides hope and care through personal, trauma-informed programs to individuals experiencing homelessness.
Our Services
Helping Hands provides a helping hand to a sustainable life through navigation services, low-barrier emergency shelter, and a long-term transitional housing program.
Our Vision
Helping Hands’ Vision is to empower individuals experiencing homelessness to transform their lives by acquiring the health, life skills, and tools needed to thrive as members of their community.
Our Values
We support individuals experiencing homelessness.
We learn each person’s story with empathy.
We deliver programs that are trauma-informed, person-centered, and data-driven.
We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to maximize their full potential,
participants, staff and volunteers.
We cultivate a supportive community as each person navigates
through our programs.
We build collaborative partnerships in our communities for the betterment of all.
We transform lives through hope and care.
Our Story
Alan Evans lived for over 25 years homeless, addicted, and not knowing where to turn to change his life. Getting arrested meant getting rescued, and it was too complicated to get everything he needed to pursue housing and sobriety without extensive support networks he didn't have. After experiencing the coldest night of his life under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, he made his way to the coast, where he made the decision to get arrested. He even went so far as to call 9-1-1 on himself. What was a usual pattern of self-destruction was broken when the arresting officer sat down and asked him, "What's your story?"
That officer saw that Alan just needed the right opportunity and wrap-around services to change his life for the better, and one year later he approached the man who saved his life with $40 and a red pick-up truck and said, "I want to start an organization for people like me." Thugz off Drugz opened in 2002 in Seaside, Oregon as an 8-bed men's shelter.
After a decade of growth and providing services, the face of homelessness began to change. Fewer people with a history of incarceration and abuse were coming. Moms with children, seniors, and individuals who fell outside the "thugs on drugs" description were needing a place to stay. Without changing the core of his mission, Evans pivoted to make his shelters accessible to these new populations, and rebranding to Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers.
Helping Hands is now the largest provider of beds for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Oregon, with over 600 available on any given night. The values that drove our Founder to start that shelter in Seaside all those years ago still serve as the foundation for everything we do. We value lived experience, personalized plans for people to change their lives, and believing that everyone has a story worth hearing.
Timeline
2002
2004
2005
2006
2013
2015
2016
2018
2019
2020
2022
2023
2024
Alan Evans starts an 8-bed shelter in Seaside, Oregon called Thugz off Drugz.
Evans established Thugz off Drugz as a 501(c)(3) , operating 5 safe and sober houses for 64 men, women, and children in Clatsop County.
Thugz off Drugz expands into Yamhill County with 2 men's homes and 1 women's home.
The first men's home in Lincoln County operated by Thugz off Drugz opens.
Thugz off Drugz officially rebrands to Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers.
Helping Hands purchases the Tillamook Naval Headquarters, establishing its presence in Tillamook County.
Helping Hands expands its services in Yamhill County.
The organization purchased and opened the Uniontown Hope Center in Astoria in a Finnish boarding house from the late 19th century.
Alan Evans met Jordan Schnitzer, the owner of the Wapato Correctional Facility, who pitched the idea that Evans bring Helping Hands to Multnomah County. That same year, the City of Lincoln City gifted Helping Hands a new building centrally located in the city to better provide services there.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Phase 1 of the Bybee Lakes Hope Center at the Jordan Schnitzer Campus opened with 126 beds.
Phase 2 of the Bybee Lakes Hope Center opened, nearly doubling the number of beds available.
The Lincoln City Hope Center opens in November.
The Tillamook Hope Center expands its bed space by remodeling the second floor of the building, adding 40 more beds. In addition, Helping Hands secured its first contracts with the City of Portland and Multnomah County.
Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers is an equal opportunity housing provider, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, whether or not one has children, source of income, domestic violence survivor, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers is certified with the National CPR Foundation