By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Lincoln County plans to use Newport churches for the first three months to get its fledgling emergency winter shelter program off the ground in October and then hopes to have a permanent site up and running in January.
But finding a place to operate a shelter in Lincoln City has been unsuccessful so far, says Jayne Romero, director of the county’s health and human resources department, which is leading the shelter effort.
County officials are also embarking on another potentially sensitive issue – asking the seven cities in the county to help pay for shelter operations they plan to begin Oct. 1. The county has already allocated $400,000 in one-time federal pandemic relief funds for the program and plans to have a full-time shelter manager on board next week who will be paid out of its general fund.
Now it is asking the cities to contribute $4.50 per resident based on their 2020 populations. That means Newport would contribute $46,152; Lincoln City, $44,167; Toledo, $15,957; Waldport, $10,120, Depoe Bay, $6,817; Siletz, $5,535 and Yachats, $4,473 for a total municipal contribution of $133,221.
The various city councils are expected to respond to the request – made to them in an Aug, 21 letter from commission chair Kaety Jacobson – during their meetings this month.
In her original memo to commissioners outlining the proposal, Romero estimated the cost of establishing one facility serving 50 individuals per night would be $344,000 and the cost of two facilities was $580,000.
“We hope the cities will be supportive,” Romero told YachatsNews. “The county really stepped up with funding and we hope they will too. It’s a community problem, so there needs to be a community solution.”
No Lincoln City location, yet
The plan for the county’s first winter shelter program first came together in late March. Commissioners then allocated $400,000 from its share of America Rescue Plan Act grants in June. Its first full-time shelter manager is expected to start Monday.
It 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. In addition to the shelter program manager, there will be up to eight people under part-time county contracts to staff the shelters when they are open 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. seven days a week.
Romero and Housing Authority of Lincoln County executive director Karen Rockwell are coordinating efforts with more than a dozen other government and nonprofit organizations to provide meal preparation, cleaning, transit, mental health and other services. Volunteers will also be needed to help with meals, showers, recreation and other activities.
The Housing Authority has a purchase agreement for a building in Newport to house a permanent shelter, Romero said, but the sale won’t close for 6-8 weeks and the facility won’t be ready until early next year. So two Newport churches have offered to serve as shelters in October, November and December, she said.
“We gratified with all the people and organizations stepping up,” Romero said. “I think in Newport we’ll hit the Oct. 1 mark.”
But establishing a shelter in Lincoln City is harder. The county is looking for a building or even a parking lot “where we can set up an operation,” Romero said.
Rockwell said previously that finding property in Lincoln City is more difficult because a shelter operation should not impact tourist or residential areas. Alternatives to a stand-alone building could be a smaller intake building with so-called “pallet shelters” nearby like those in use in Yachats and Florence.
“We still do not have a site identified there,” Romero said. “We just haven’t had the level of community engagement there compared with Newport. But we’re going to keep looking. The goal has always been to have two sites.”
The winter shelter plan is different and separate from a longer-term approach that a county-led homeless and housing advisory committee has been working on all year. That $1 million planning effort hopes to tap into state grants to set up a year-round navigation center to provide services – and shelter – for the homeless and other residents struggling with finding housing.
“Ours is still a work in progress,” Romero told YachatsNews. “Right now the goal is to bring a consistent emergency shelter to the county. At this point it’s a beginning. But there is certainly a need.”