By KENNETH LIPP/YachatsNews
Lincoln County commissioners and coastal legislators are urging Oregon’s new governor to reconsider the exclusion of rural areas from her emergency declaration on homelessness.
Gov. Tina Kotek signed three executive orders Jan. 10. Along with a $130 million funding request she’ll make to the 2023 Legislature, the new governor said the orders are the first step in addressing her core campaign focus of addressing the homelessness crisis in Oregon. The state has the fourth highest homelessness rate in the United States.
One order is an emergency declaration promised during her campaign. It directs Oregon Housing and Community Services to spend $40 million in the Bend, Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford areas, and also authorizes the Oregon Department of Emergency Management to coordinate other agencies and equipment more quickly to respond to homelessness in those areas.
In omitting rural parts of Oregon, the declaration misses about 4,000 of the estimated 18,000 homeless people in the state.
The governor later said county governing bodies could apply to be individually included in the state of emergency.
Why skip the coast?
The governor’s order uses Housing and Urban Development’s “continuums of care” to divide Oregon into eight sections. Seven of those sections are centered on main urban areas, while the eighth comprises everything else – 25 counties – including Lincoln County and all but Lane County along the coast.
HUD relies on its annual point-in-time counts to estimate the number of people who are homeless. These occur during winter and consist of people in shelters and anyone observed on the streets. Advocates and academics have long said they underestimate the true figures.
Using HUD’s statistics and continuums of care, Lincoln County’s sheltered and visibly homeless counts during the winter are averaged with those in places like Wheeler, Sherman and Gilliam counties. All three of those counties have populations of about 2,000 or less, no homeless shelters and frigid temperatures from November to April.
Officials protest
In a Jan. 11 letter to Kotek, a group of coastal legislators said it was a mistake to make a distinction for a continuum of care with 25 counties when all other continuums are made up of a county or two.
“Doing so will statistically invalidate unique local circumstances which are not lost in more compact continuums and likely result in outcomes that under-represent homelessness in western regions,” wrote members of the Coastal Caucus. The caucus is chaired by Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, and vice chaired by Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City.
Lincoln County commissioners also broached the topic during their regular meeting last week.
“Essentially, we’re penalized because we’ve had a high level of homelessness for years,” commissioner Claire Hall said. “Structurally, I don’t think the community can absorb any more folks than we’ve got on the streets right now.”
Chair Kaety Jacobson noted Lincoln County’s HUD count was also lumped in with two neighboring counties and it was hard to get separate data.
“Additionally, it does not take into account homeless students,” Jacobson said, an issue also mentioned in the Coastal Caucus letter. “We have one of the highest populations of homeless students.”
The Lincoln County School District estimates 20 percent of its students are experiencing some state of homelessness — unsheltered, in a shelter, motel or living with friends or family.
The HUD count misses the largest portion — kids staying in a friend or relatives home. Last’s year’s point-in-time count for Lincoln County included only sheltered individuals and those counted in a “windshield survey” conducted by volunteers driving up and down U.S. Highway 101.
Commissioners agreed by consensus to draft a letter to the governor asking her to reconsider the state of emergency’s terms and add more locations. It cites the rate of homeless youth and their belief that the county’s homeless population peaked before 2017.
“Homelessness is not an urban problem, it is, unfortunately, an Oregon problem, and the more counties that can be included in this important endeavor the more deep and systematic changes we can make in our state to address this issue,” the letter sent Friday to Kotek reads.
In addition to asking her to broaden her emergency, commissioners also suggested Kotek initiate a legislative amendment setting aside 25 percent of tax increment financing districts’ collections toward addressing homelessness.
Kotek responded Tuesday to the Coastal Caucus’ letter.
“First and foremost, I want to assure you that I am absolutely committed to addressing homelessness in every corner of our state and look forward to working with all of you to bring forward solutions to this crisis,” the governor wrote to the legislators. She said counties in the rural continuum have a path to seek an emergency declaration.
“My initial executive order was based on the best information available at the time, but as you noted, this data under-represents the need,” Kotek wrote. “A county governing body may request to be included in the emergency declaration by submitting a request to the Office of Emergency Management.”
The governor said she would review such requests to ensure she remains in the boundaries of her emergency powers.
- Kenneth Lipp is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at KenLipp@YachatsNews.com
Another example of why most of those 25 counties would prefer to be a part of Idaho. The government cherry picks where they are going to spend money.
Of course she is ignoring us. That is a slap on the hands for not voting for her as governor. This is why I didn’t vote for her. She wears blinders and ear plugs. We only exist when she wants the tax dollars for her pet projects.
Any plans or proposals should include all concerned. The condition should be resolved everywhere it exists. Otherwise it will always exist somewhere.
Six of the 36 counties in Oregon voted this governor in. Sad to say Lincoln County was one of them. How is that working out for you Kotek supporters?
Any plans and proposals in the state of Oregon should include all of Oregon. There has been too much of this “attitude” in Oregon by past governors. “Rural Oregon, Southern Oregon, South Western Oregon and Eastern Oregon” have been excluded or exempted too long. This issue needs to be rectified immediately.
This biased attitude by the governor is so so unfair. She needs to come down to Lincoln County and look for herself. It’s so inhumane to not do anything about this situation here.
The Democrats in Salem show Oregonians just how much they dislike the people that don’t live in their triangle. People were warned about this fraud and now we are headed to 40 years under these Democrats. When will the people wake up and vote theses radical idiots out?
Might be a good thing. Those areas receiving state funding will become a magnet for the homeless. Let’s propose to the local politicos to help the homeless out with transportation to Portland or those area receiving your tax dollars to help the homeless.