Porn shop morphs into nonprofit

Building that used to house The Pink Palace now set to help ex-convicts

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Apr 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Matthew Ginn / The Outlook

Workers watch Monday morning, April 16, as the sign comes down outside a former adult video store on 181st Avenue.

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After 20 years of “adult business,” a porn-shop – known by locals as “The Pink Palace” – is becoming a center dedicated to making better parents out of former jail inmates.

It’s the second Center for Family Success location in the Portland-metro area, said Glenna Hayes, director of the non-profit organization. The other site is located in St. Johns in a building purchased by the same developer who bought the Rockwood shop and leased it to the center.

When the Rockwood location opens in late May, it will offer parenting classes, support groups and family-violence prevention designed to help prevent ex-cons from re-offending and ending up back behind bars.

“There are so many barriers to success,” Hayes said. People recently released from jail often have no housing, no jobs. “No hope,” she said. And their friends are still part of the lifestyle they are trying to break away from.

The Rockwood center, located at 229 S.E. 181st Ave. between Stark Street and Burnside Road, will provide access to services such as child care, life and workplace skills, addiction support groups, health care, counseling, even general equivalency diploma classes.

Programs for children of inmates and ex-cons also will be available to help break the intergenerational cycle of crime and imprisonment, Hayes added.

“We want to improve outcomes for children whose families are in the criminal justice system,” she said.

On Monday, April 16, an inmate work crew from Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail took rollers and paintbrushes in hand to transform the building’s hot pink exterior.

Crews from SkillPoint Human Services, a firm that employees former inmates, took down the yellow ‘Adult Video Only’ sign boasting 1,500 titles, booths and viewing rooms.

Law enforcement officials are thrilled with the building’s new use.

“Bringing community resources to East County is always a benefit,” said Capt. Tim Gerkman of the Gresham Police Department. Especially as urban renewal efforts to fight crime and poverty begin changing the look and perception of Rockwood, he added.

Neighbors have mixed reaction.

“Right on,” said Charles Harris, driving down Southeast Pine Street to visit his grandmother. “That’s real good for the community.”

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