The Oregon Place is not a homeless shelter, but it does offer apartments to homeless people who might otherwise be sleeping in the woods. The apartment rent is income based. Tenants must earn less than 50 percent of the area median income, which is $26,250.00 for a family of four, to qualify.

Developer William Richardson of Jackson spent a lot of time on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. At the request of his friend, Gov. Haley Barbour, Richardson oversaw distribution of a Katrina recovery fund to nonprofit organizations and became interested in securing a homeless shelter to replace one the Salvation Army lost to the storm in Gulfport.