Gov. Tina Kotek announced this month the recipients of over $98 million to fund homelessness emergency plans as part of her “Homeless State of Emergency.” The legislature funded the project with Senate Bill 5019, and entrusted the Governor’s office to distribute money. Central Oregon got $13.9 million to help rehouse 161 households and create 111 shelter beds. The investment boosts homeless funds by over 50%, according to the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, the grant’s recipients. COIC estimates nonprofits and governments spend a little more than $20 million a year on homelessness services in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties.
COIC formed the budget after accounting for existing services and searching for gaps in coverage. It originally submitted a plan that would include homeless prevention services covering things like rental application fees, security deposits and moving costs for low-income people, but scaled its proposal back to targets on shelter bed creation and rapid rehousing — which gets people immediately into longer-term shelter.
“You’re not getting people into a sort of congregate shelter; you’re actually getting them into maybe an apartment, you might be getting them into transitional housing, where it may not be an actual apartment, but it’s more than a type of congregate shelter,” said Tammy Baney, executive director of COIC.
Rapid rehousing support may come in the form of financial assistance like rent waivers, security deposit assistance and utility subsidies, but often it’s more nuanced. About a third of the $6.1 million Central Oregon will get for rapid rehousing is spent on things like case management, substance abuse treatments and mental health services.
“If I were out camping, and then got into housing, had a life experience, then I could probably use some assistance,” Baney said. “[Moving into housing ] may seem simple, but we know that in terms of people being successful being moved in that manner, we will need some support services.”
Over $5.2 million of the budget is dedicated to increasing shelter capacity, and Baney said the projects it’ll support are likely already underway. A shelter likely couldn’t get through the permitting process by Jan. 10, 2024, when the funds must be dispersed, but that new funding from the state can’t supplant funding for already operational shelters.
“It has to be something that is not currently operating. Unless it’s the expansion. Let’s say that in Prineville, that Redemption House wants to add five beds, then we could pay for the additional five beds, but we couldn’t pay for whatever exists today,” Baney said.
Baney said most partner organizations who would apply for the funding are already in what’s called the Multi-Agency Coordination Group. The 24-member group is made up of service providers and local governments, which met regularly throughout March to create the $13.9 million proposal. That same committee will approve or disapprove projects, barring a disagreement on funding decisions, at which point it’ll be decided by a smaller advisory committee. The MAC Group will have to move fast to reach the January deadline next year. It expects to begin taking applications by April 21.
“This is a very unique grant process. We want people to succeed. Yes, it will be competitive, but not everyone will be able to meet the needs of shelter capacity or rapid rehousing,” Baney said.
There are still a handful of questions on how the state will manage it. Baney said she’s not sure what will happen if COIC learns it can’t fulfill a certain obligation, or what will happen come January once funds are processed.
“We have not seen a contract from the state, yet. So not only do we not have money, we don’t have a contract to respond to either. And so we may need to negotiate a contract with the state first, then we receive the funds,” Baney said.
The MAC Group identified people that are BIPOC, LGBTQ, children, families and veterans as priority populations. Members of the group span across the tri-county area, so different geographic regions are represented in talks as well. Baney said COIC will track progress by holding people to contractual obligations to deliver results.
“Part of the money is reimbursement, part of the money is up front. So we’re not just handing the money and saying, ‘let us know how it goes,'” Baney said. “We are prepared to monitor that just like any other program that we run. We will identify the benchmarks, and then if they’re running into barriers, we’d find ways that we can remove those barriers with them.”
Baney said she believes money could be sent as soon as the second week of May, after getting a contract with the state and giving agencies a two-week period to submit applications.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 20, 2023.
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I take some hope in learning that Gov. Kotek plans to ask the State legislature to approve an additional $1.3 billion in the 2023 session to address Oregon’s crisis of homelessness, because the allocation reported here simply is not enough. The full extent of the local crisis will be revealed in the soon-to-be-published 2023 Point-In-Time Homeless count.
I appreciate our indispensable Tammy Baney’s candor: Largesse from the Governor’s program may not necessarily go into creation of the NEW shelter space we so urgently need. One third of the allocation for “Rapid Re-housing” may not go to actual housing.
Gov. Kotek has been amazing on this issue, but it is time to begin anew a Federal response, now that the Covid funds are running dry.
For the couple hundred people whose lives will be bettered by this worthy initiative we owe much to our elected officials. However, for the thousand or so in our region who will be left out in the heat and cold, we need to rededicate ourselves to their protection. Thanks, still again, to the fine staff of the Source for great reporting.