Portland's Freedom House ministry finds possible new home

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
    VANCOUVER, Wash. — The answer to a Portland-based ministry’s prayers may have been found here, just across the Columbia River.
Freedom House, a faith-based residential recovery program helping to restore men dealing with substance abuse problems, hopes to acquire and move to what is now the Rose Ranch Retirement Inn, 8613 N.E. St. Johns Road.
    A campaign is on to raise the $92,000 down payment needed on the total $725,000 asking price for the 3.14-acre property with six buildings; already more than $35,000 has been pledged.
    The staff, friends and clients of Freedom House, founded in 2005 by Pastor Jim Cottrell, have been prayerfully looking for a new home for the ministry since being notified earlier this year that it would have to move from Portland hotel properties owned at that time by Eastside Foursquare Church.
    That’s because the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the church’s parent organization, this summer sold the hotel to a secular company.
    Eastside Foursquare has since relocated its offices to an interim location in northeast Portland and is temporarily holding services at Open Arms Seventh-day Adventist Church.
    Freedom House moved out of the hotel last month and is temporarily housed at the Multnomah Holiness Association campground, 10801 S.E Holgate in Portland.
    Cottrell said Rose Ranch (www.roseranch.org) opened in 1950 and is still operating as a retirement facility, but that the owner is facing health challenges and has decided to sell. “He was praying for a Christian use” for the property, Cottrell said.
    Cottrell said one of his staff learned about the property’s availability through Craiglist.com, “It’s a real genuine, 11th hour and 59th minute open door for us,” he said.
    Indications from Clark County officials are that Freedom House could operate there under a conditional use permit, said Cottrell.
    He noted that the site is only 12 miles from Freedom House’s former location, and is “still very much in the Portland metro area” even though on the other side of the river.
    Cottrell said it has been a tough search for a new home, but that the Rose Ranch property may indeed prove to be God’s answer.
   “If it hadn’t been for our long history of watching God work, the pressure could have easily buckled our knees,” he said. “But we have that confidence that when you are doing something that pleases Him, God will make a way.”
    Cottrell said that if the purchase of the property goes through, state law would require 90 days notification to Rose Ranch’s current residents of their need to relocate. “Other care facilities would gladly accept them,” he said.
    In the meantime, the interim stay at the Multnomah Holiness campground is proving to be a “win-win” for both the ministry and the camp, said Cottrell.    He said Freedom House’s 10 current clients are “loving it,” and that they are doing clean-up and repair work at the camp facilities. “They (the camp) have been very gracious to us,” he said..
    Cottrell said the $725,000 total asking price for the Vancouver site is “a great buy” when you consider the size of the property and the facilities it holds.
    Those wanting to donate toward the purchase should contact Freedom House at 503-347-9966.
    For more on the ministry, go to freedomhouseministries.net.