6 Questions for New Narrative’s Will Allen

Will Allen (back row, second from right) and the rest of New Narrative’s leadership team. A new emphasis on advocacy is “resulting in a strong, positive, mission-minded culture that you can really feel when you walk into a room,” Allen says.

HDC is working with Tigard-based housing and mental health treatment provider New Narrative to develop the Douglas Fir Apartments, which will provide fifteen affordable rental homes to people experiencing serious mental health symptoms in East Portland. We sat down with Will Allen, vice president of operations at New Narrative, to hear his thoughts on housing, community, and making a paradigm shift in mental health.

Your organization changed its name from Luke Dorf to New Narrative in 2020. What does the name change reflect about your organization’s evolving philosophy and approach to mental health care?

In the last two to three years, we've been transforming how we see ourselves as a mental health nonprofit that exists within Oregon and the United States, and within the history of the mental health and the medical system. We’ve been looking at who we are in the system—are we an agent of the system and perpetuating its current problems, or are we challenging the oppression in the system and pushing for better outcomes?

Our new brand is exploring how to challenge a traditional medical model within mental health care that looks at people from a deficit-based perspective and instead shift to a person-first way of approaching and partnering with people. Traditional medical model policy drivers at the federal and state level have come from the perspective of “people with mental health issues are a problem, and they need to be contained.” This is a really degrading and inhuman way of looking at it; and if you look at the last 50 or 60 years of mental health, it’s an approach that simply isn’t producing results.

“How do you center a peer voice within the discussion, and return power back to the people who are experiencing the issues themselves?”

We knew we needed to reflect first on how we showed up as an organization and as individuals doing this work. How do you center a peer voice within the discussion, and return power back to the people who are experiencing the issues themselves? How do you partner with them around what they want to see in a community, what they want to see in their recovery, and how do we advocate for that at the policy level and within our wider community?

The realization was that peers are not represented as well as they should be in leadership at our agency, in policy dynamics and structures, and in how nonprofits think strategically within our field. We are determined to change that, as we believe that is a core way to see better outcomes in the community.

These questions and discussions have resulted in a totally new direction and strategic plan, which will continue to guide us in creating communities and programs that empower, center, and resource the people we work with to thrive and live their best lives.

What does this look like on the ground—taking a person-first approach with a client who is struggling with something that may be misunderstood?

There’s a guy I worked with, when I was working in property management, who had been houseless for a long time. When you are houseless, you have to defend yourself; it's a very unsafe position to be in on a regular basis. People can steal from you, people can assault you physically and sexually. So, his adaptive way of dealing with that, which is very understandable, was, “I’m going to be as scary as possible to people who threaten me.”

Being on the streets for ten years, that approach kept him alive. When he moved into our housing, it immediately became maladaptive. If he had a broken pipe in his apartment and wasn’t getting a quick response, his only tool was to start yelling at people and scaring them.

“We’re moving towards an approach that involves partnering with people, meeting them where they are at.”

I realized that being a person in the position of power, who has control over his housing, the onus is on me to create an environment where this guy doesn't feel like he has to be afraid of me—that I am there to partner with him. So, we decided to take a more empathic and supportive approach.

For someone who reacts to that pattern of experience, everything won’t change in one conversation, right? It's going to be lots of conversations. We worked through it together, and we were able to take the time to change how we interacted and how he communicated the needs he was trying to get met. That guy, six years later, is still in our housing.

That's a good example of mission-based property management and our paradigm shift. We're moving away from an approach that says, “Here are the rules, if you don't fit within the system that's your problem, and we’re going to be punitive regardless of what you’ve been through.” We’re moving towards an approach that involves partnering with people, meeting them where they are at, and reflecting on how we can alter our approach to see the best outcomes for our community and the people we work with.

New Narrative started, in 1977, as a residential home for adults with mental illness exiting the state mental hospital. What role does housing play in mental health and in your service model today?

Our founder opened his own home to people who were transitioning directly out of the state mental health hospital. This was during a period when the hospital system was being deinstitutionalized and people were being put onto the streets with no supports—financial, mental health, anything. And providing housing is still an important part of our work.

“A house is more than just four walls and a roof. It’s community. We know that when people have a sense of community, it plays a huge part in their recovery. ”

Housing is core to what we do in two specific ways. The first one is the pragmatic fact that if you have housing, you have massively reduced barriers in every part of life, whether it be employment, benefits, or healthcare. For us, to be able to engage with you, it’s super useful to have you in a stable physical location, because outreach teams have a hard time tracking people as they move.

The other piece, which is central for us strategically, is the concept that a house is more than just four walls and a roof. It’s community. We know that when people have a sense of community, it plays a huge part in their recovery, whether they are dealing with addiction issues, or a mental health crisis, or having a falling-out with their family and friends. Being part of a community—through your job, your hobbies, your spirituality, your family—is what gives most of us a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

When we can create stable housing, it's not just a place to live where we can deliver services. What's important is that people have a life of their choosing in a community that they can participate in.

HDC is working with New Narrative to develop the Douglas Fir Apartments. What is exciting to you about this project, and how does it reflect your approach to providing housing?

“For people who are experiencing mental health challenges, it can be hard to live in a crowded and busy apartment building. We have apartment projects as small as five units, and for some people that’s a better place for them to live. ”

This is probably a little counterintuitive, but one thing I like about the project is its small size, fifteen units. We need those sleek, exciting 120-unit projects; they give us volume, they’re better able to absorb costs and easier to fund than smaller projects. And, at the end of the day, not everyone wants to live in a giant apartment building. For people who are experiencing mental health challenges, it can be hard to live in a crowded and busy apartment building. We have apartment projects as small as five units, and for some people that's a better place for them to live. They're going to have less conflict with people and more privacy, and it's better for their mental health symptoms.

With the Douglas Fir project, we're also excited to be partnering with the Joint Office (of Homeless Services for Multnomah County). We’ve got project-based rental vouchers in all fifteen units. We're going to have a really strong relationship with (the county housing and shelter access/referral system) Coordinated Entry. We have a partnership with NARA (Native American Rehabilitation Association) to give preference to their program participants. We will hopefully get a contract with the Joint Office to put a twenty-four-hour support team on the site, using our new peer-integrated model. This reflects our goals around bringing really strong, unified, integrated team approaches to our mission and new programs.

How has working with HDC helped you further your goals for housing?

We’re a fairly large agency, but affordable housing construction, development, and acquisition is only about twenty percent of my job. Being able to work with HDC, and to have you guys seamlessly step in, has saved me so much time and headache, and also a little bit of blundering. To be able to bring a question or idea to Hasan and Lynn, and for them to say, “Let’s go talk to our colleagues, HDC is working on other similar projects, and we can take a temperature check on that”—that’s super, super valuable.

“A lot of what you guys bring are intangibles. It’s not just meeting deadlines and putting in applications. It’s being in touch with what our values are.”

A lot of what you guys bring are intangibles. It’s not just meeting deadlines and putting in applications. It’s being in touch with what our values are; it’s always reassuring to know a key partner aligns with our values and desired outcomes on a project. With any project, I’m balancing our ideals as a mental health advocate against current policy, plus what funders are willing to fund, plus the realities of building the structure and getting through closing. There are about 500 variables up in the air. So, having two or three people sitting next to me who have a concrete hold on about 150 of those variables—that makes it a lot easier.

It has been a really strong relationship over the last two years, and we're really excited to work with you all the future.

In addition to getting Douglas Fir off the ground, what are you excited about in your work ahead at New Narrative?

“We’re taking a new strategic approach to some age-old problems in mental health, such as turnover rates in frontline positions, burnout in staff, and compensation levels.”

There is so much exciting stuff going on. In the last two years or so, we've seen our budget grow by over forty percent and have deployed multiple new and exciting programs. We're growing incredibly quickly, we’ve developed strong relationships with funders at the local and state level, and we are seeing a lot of interest and excitement around some of our newer and bolder programs. We’re taking a new strategic approach to some age-old problems in mental health, such as turnover rates in frontline positions, burnout in staff, and compensation levels.

There's so much energy, internally and with our external partnerships, to keep on pushing our advocacy around a whole variety of programs, including housing opportunities, peer program opportunities, and supportive housing services. It’s resulting in a strong, positive, mission-minded culture that you can really feel when you walk into a room.

Ultimately, I’m excited about executing on our strategy—in particular, pushing the message you see in our branding: centering people with lived experience in our community and, frankly, being willing to stand up as external advocates and challenge the cultural stereotypes, biases, and discrimination that we see in or community.