By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
The first all-weather emergency shelter for the homeless in Lincoln County will open at 6 p.m. Tuesday – alternating between two Newport churches until a permanent site is up in running in late December or early January.
A second shelter planned by Lincoln County is expected to open Nov. 1 in Lincoln City. But it will operate for the winter out of a large tent on county-owned property along U.S. Highway 101 at the north edge of that city.
The county has hired a manager and staff of eight to oversee and begin operating the shelter Tuesday at St. Stephens Episcopal Church at Southwest Ninth and Hurlbert streets. The next week – and for alternating weeks until the permanent site is ready – the shelter will be at First Presbyterian Church on Northeast 12thth Street.
The county is still seeking volunteers to help during the day or night with everything from washing dishes, cleaning up, to observing and helping people who come to the shelter late each afternoon.
There are no walk-in emergency shelters for the homeless in Lincoln County that are open seven days a week regardless of the weather. This is the county’s first effort at a six-month shelter program not pegged to bad weather or relying solely on volunteers to run it.
The Newport shelter – and the one in Lincoln City when it is ready — will be open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week through March 31.
According to its planning documents, the effort should cost $600,000 a year to run. The county has committed $200,000 a year for two years from federal pandemic relief funds to help operate the shelters. Its health department has committed another $125,000 – leaving it $168,000 short of amount needed to run two shelters for six months this fall and winter, according to a new, more detailed business plan.
The county has asked seven cities to contribute a total of $133,221 based on a population formula – and got commitments for $108,000. Two cities – Waldport and Toledo – declined to contribute and Siletz contributed $500 of the county’s $5,500 request. But Newport ($46,152), Yachats ($4,473), Depoe Bay ($6,817) and Lincoln City ($44,167) approved their portions – with the Lincoln City city council Monday adding $6,000 to the county’s suggested amount to help make up for those that didn’t contribute.
Building ready soon
Using the two Newport churches is a temporary solution – likely three-month stopgap — to opening a permanent shelter.
The Housing Authority of Lincoln County has purchased the former Crossroads NonViolent Education building at 351 S.W. Seventh St. in Newport and will prepare it to serve as the permanent emergency shelter beginning in late December or early January.
The county has been unable to find a building in Lincoln City to serve as a shelter, so plans to erect a large weather-resistant tent on property it owns at 4225 U.S. Highway 101 and have it open by Nov. 1.
“This is a Plan B,” health and human services director Jayne Romero told the Lincoln City council on Monday. “We see this as the beginning, not the end goal.”
The county is scheduled to start work next April on a 28-unit mental health housing project on the property, which is east of the Lighthouse Square Mall in north Lincoln City.
New shelter manager
The county hired Chantelle Estess, who had been a program manager in northern California’s Trinity County, to oversee its shelter program. Since starting Sept. 12 she has been busying hiring staff, finding volunteers and working with the churches to open next week.
On Thursday she was conducting interviews for positions in Lincoln City. The eight part-time employees to work in Newport have been hired, she said.
“We’ve had a good response to the applications,” she said, with 30 overall so far. “The turnout has been good.”
All the new hires – like Estess — have been homeless at one time in their lives.
Estess knew she had finally made it when she bought a house and five acres on the same banks of the Sacramento River she used to sleep on when she was homeless.
Estess was placed in the foster care system when she was young and eventually camped on the Sacramento River in Colusa County. Every day, she’d walk past a riverfront house to her sleeping area on the river and tell herself that one day, she would own that house.
“In 2007, I was able to buy that property,” she said in a news release from the county. “It was a goal. These folks need hope, they need goals, and I’m never going to forget that because every life matters.”
The county said Estess’ job will be to help bridge the gap between agencies around the county, which may offer some services to those on the streets or facing housing issues but cannot offer a complete cycle of services to help with the myriad challenges of getting and keeping someone completely stable and housed.
“So, my role is to coordinate with all agencies, including nonprofits, food banks, churches, sheriff’s departments, the Housing Authority, Health and Human Services, Behavioral Health, Public Health, Probation, and the cities of Newport and Lincoln City …” she said. “We all have different separations of jobs, but we will have at least a referral system where they can go.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
I love my town of Waldport, but the choice by the city councilors to not contribute to the emergency homeless shelters in Lincoln County is offensive. Greg Holland was the only one to vote “Yes” to contribute while the others chose to hang on to the money. Lincoln City and Newport are hosting shelters and contributing money to them, based on population. Two towns are doing nothing, and one is contributing a nominal amount. It would make a good follow up story to have YachatsNews interview the commissioners as to why they voted as they did. As a great teacher once told me, “You have to be public to be accountable.”
I agree with you about the accountability of the city council members. Citizens of Waldport need to know and they deserve to know. Yes, I know I live in Yachats but I feel the same about the Yachats council members. Frankly, I am surprised that they have not yet explained why they voted as they did. Government accountability is at a premium to me at this point in history.
I applaud Toledo and Waldport for not giving them money. It’s not their problem and they should hang on to the money for their community. I think it’s the churches responsibility to help the homeless not the government’s job.
George, who do you think the “church” is? I am curious if you are a member of a church and donate money earmarked for helping the homeless and secondly why you think only people who are members of a church should be responsible for taking care of the poor?
Well said.
This is exactly why these communities deserve what they get. Homelessness is a societal problem. The fixes have to be implemented in each area were the issues exist. If you simply allow “Humans” to freeze on your streets you have failed as a community. Yes we are all responsible for the failure of our capitalist society.
Do you really believe there is no homeless population in those two towns? I help administer the Stone Soup Supper program at St. Stephens each Monday evening. There are a number of unhoused folks from there who come each week for the hot meal. I know this because when we have bus tickets available, we ask what their destination is so we can provide the proper amount.
Also, churches do not have the capacity to serve the number of unhoused people in this county. They don’t have the space for them to sleep. The largest space in a church is the nave, where services are held. The fire marshall will not allow that area to be used for the guests, which restricts the number that can be served. And they don’t have the funds to hire staff to oversee such a program.