PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After closing down for three years due to financial concerns, Hopewell House has officially opened its doors again.
Since 1987, Hopewell House has served more than 10,000 people in the Portland metro area as the region’s only residential home for hospice patients. So when the facility closed in late 2019 due to a lack of funding, many Portland families felt the loss.
Friends of Hopewell House fortunately came together to find a sustainable way to reopen the site. In December 2020, Executive Director Scott MacEachern told KOIN 6 that $3 million were needed to buy the house.
According to a release from the nonprofit organization, more than 2,000 community members donated more than $5 million and dedicated many volunteer hours toward the effort to reopen the care facility.
Finally, in 2022, Friends of Hopeful House bought the property from its most recent owner Legacy Health — which gave the organization a $1 million discount on its big purchase. This support is why Hopewell House was able to re-open on Monday, Jan. 23.
“Every day I hear about people’s experiences with the death of a loved one,” Hopewell House Executive Director Lesley Sacks said. “We are working to make these hard transitions more comfortable, thoughtful and peaceful and we are ready for people to contact us about coming here.”
Sacks added that continuing operations is especially important with the current “silver tsunami” of the baby boomer generation.
This time around, Hopewell House has adopted a collaborative care model from Celia’s House in Medford, Oregon. The new model will help the hospice house maintain financial stability by partnering with local hospital health systems.
According to the hospice house, the cost to stay at the re-opened facility could be a mere 10% of what would be spent if someone were to die in an acute care hospital.