The Annex changing 21 units to permanent housing
By Martin Gibson
Columbia Gorge News
THE DALLES — Liz Leon is glad to see 21 old hotel rooms, now units at The Annex, turn into permanent supportive housing.
“It will be 12 years the 15th that I was homeless in this town. And they did not have shelters. They did not have spaces for us to sleep,” Leon said. “My personal story was, I stayed in a car lot, and was allowed to stay there and do some recovery stuff.
“So the first time I walked into one of the ... shelters, I just immediately broke down with emotion — because the importance of being able to lay down in a space, as opposed to being curled up, the ability to touch heat, and know that you’ve got a space to have a meal — was just overwhelming for me.”
The Annex has 54 units, run by Mid-Columbia Community Action Council (MCCAC). It’s the only local housing for people on the brink of houselessness. Staff hope the remodel will be done by spring.
“That’s always been the plan for The Annex,” Executive Director Leslie Naramore said, with the knowledge that The Annex’sinitial grant funding wouldn’t last and the program would need to become self-sustaining.
The change is funded through a partnership with Center for Living. About $690,000 in state money from Oregon Health Authority is set aside for the renovations.
Many prospective residents for the new 21 units are already living at The Annex, but Naramore and Community Engagement Coordinator Miriam Starrett expect some spaces could open if people find other situations and move out.
Residents in the 21 permanent units need a referral from Center for Living, who’ll give ongoing case management for them. “A lot of the people are people who have behavioral health needs, and so being there and having a case worker on site who they can interact with every day is going to be really beneficial for them,” Naramore said.
Residents will sign a lease and pay fair market rate on their rent. Those payments will support operations at The Annex into the future, Naramore said. “We’re not trying to make any money other than, you know, to support the program.”
For the new permanent housing, each tiny room gets a remodel, with a custom kitchenette, microwave and sink. There’s just about enough space left over for a small wardrobe, a bed, and maybe a chair. Each room has an attached bathroom.
Naramore hopes the full 21 will be ready by spring.
“It’s an old hotel, and so every time we start working on something, it seems like we find things that then make the job take a lot longer,” Naramore said. “Like, for example, the plumbing is really old ...”
“There’s many, many stories related to the plumbing at The Annex,” Starrett confirmed.
Other residents of The Annex are transitional — they get supportive housing and resources, with the long-term goal of moving away to permanent housing after a short period.
“When people are wanting to go into the Annex, they go through something called coordinated entry, and they get ranked on vulnerabilities. And so if someone has really high vulnerabilities — like they’re escaping domestic violence, they’ve been homeless before — they’re going to rank a lot higher than someone who doesn’t have those things in their past, and so basically that means that the list that we keep is constantly fluctuating,” Naramore said. This assessment is set by the state.
Sometimes, then, people get on the list for Annex space, but can’t be found when their turn comes: Their phone number changed, they don’t have a phone, their friend isn’t letting them stay over anymore, etc. Staff will try three times before they move to the next person on the list.
Each person on the list also gets a multi-agency meeting to “talk about what resources are available to them while they’re waiting to get services through shelter services or housing services.”
The average stay at The Annex is four months. “We’re pretty proud of that number,” Naramore said.
More people need housing and rental assistance than MCACC can help. “We are not meeting the need. We have far more people seeking funds than we have funding for,” Naramore said.
Center for Living has some programs to help people with behavioral health issues with housing. MCACC is trying to spread funds over more people, paying 70% for re-housing payments instead of 100%. Staff meet people on the ground and help with Social Security applications and finding income. But all the town’s resources aren’t enough.
They all see unmet need in The Dalles, where most of Wasco County’s unhoused people gather— at least 170, according to the 2025 Point in Time count.
But five years ago, MCCAC was eight staff in little house on Fourth Street — some of them working in closets.
Services have grown — now 39 staff work around the Gorge. That’s as much as the org can afford, Naramore said.
Funding is stable for now. “But depending on how things go with the current administration — where they really are cutting Social Services, they’re cutting the safety nets; you know, healthcare, all of the things that were included in the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ [HR 1] — are cutting all of those safety nets around us, which means that more and more people are going to be depending on us, and we don’t have the funding to keep meeting an increase in need,” Naramore said. “We have the funding to maintain what we’re doing right now. But if things get worse, if we get targeted because we’re in a blue state, and the feds decide that they’re going to cut funds to our state, that would be really bad, and I don’t know where that leaves us.”
Another issue: the Housing Authority is out of money for new rent assistance vouchers for the rest of 2026. Current clients will be paid, but no new ones can join the program. “That is also affecting how quickly people can move through our programs, because if there’s not a long term support for someone to get into permanent housing, then people get stuck,” Starrett said.
She added, “The Annex provides a beautiful community space for a lot of people who have been isolated from family or community. And so to know that there will be 21 people who get to live there long term and maintain that community, even if they’re not in the transitional housing ... I think is just something that is really exciting.”
Leon said, “You are finally in a space where you can learn to have safer relationships, especially if you’re coming from the recovery end or mental health.”
“One thing that people don’t realize is that [houselessness is] really lonely, you know? You get ostracized by society. And so then when you come into a community that accepts you for who you are and wants to help you, and help you rebuild your life, and just focus on that little community with you,” said Naramore. “It’s just — it’s magical.” Leon remembers the first place she lived after being houseless. “I was — it was completely empty. I had nothing. And I remember sitting and feeling the heat coming from the furnace. And it was just, I hope I never forget those feelings, right? It was a sense of security.
“And I was working with a community partner at the time that came and supported during the fire (we had a fire at Foley Lakes), and I saw this white van pull up and offer services. You know, just knowing that people are there when you are finally in — supported, in your own house — is just as important as it is the day you walk in and need a piece of shelter.”
Leonsaid they need to open pallet shelters year-round so people can find a bit of stability while MCCAC builds trust with them and finds transitional housing for them.
“It’s really hard for somebody that comes in. Maybe they’re under the influence, maybe they’re needing some mental health stuff, right? It’s hard to tell someone, ‘Here’s some support,’ and then have them have to leave in three days,” Leon said. “You have to be able to buy in and feel comfortable and trust the program you’re in.”
MCCAC has half the funding to open seasonally, and needs another $54,000. It’s costly because pallet shelters require two full-time staff and a security team at night.
In Hood River shelters, “as soon as they opened, they were full, and they’ve been full ever since,” Naramore said. At the Gloria Center, last time the shelters opened for a very cold weekend, they sheltered 28 people — and three attendant cats.