Despite glitches with facilities, Lincoln County began second year of homeless shelter operations Friday

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

Last year Chantelle Estess had two weeks to get Lincoln County’s winter shelter program for the homeless up and running.

Despite fits and starts and trials and errors, by the time the lone shelter in downtown Newport closed for the summer after six months, it provided respite for 230 people during 5,133 overnight stays.

This year, Estess, her staff and community partners have had more time to prepare for another winter shelter season that was moved back a month to operate Nov. 1 through April 30 to account for typically harsher weather.

Yet the challenges remain daunting. These include:

• Remodeling the original shelter on Southwest Seventh Street in Newport has been extended for at least another two months because contractors found asbestos in the building. Instead, the county will use First Presbyterian Church in Newport until sometime in January except for Nov. 19-23 and Dec. 3-7 when the church is not available and the shelter moves to the Ocean Spray Family Center in the Nye Beach area.
• The county changed locations for its new shelter in Lincoln City, deciding not to remodel a warehouse-like building it purchased in the Oceanlake area and instead buying a building in a commercial zone at 2125 N.W. Highway 101. But renovation delays means the shelter will not open until Nov. 8. Until then, the county will use a van to take people to the Newport shelter each evening and back again in the morning.

Estess said the new Lincoln City shelter is in a much better location near a day-use center, mental health and transition services and just blocks from where the county will be moving its medical clinic late this year.

“We’re still remodeling the airplane while we fly it,” Estess said in an interview with YachatsNews. “But we have a much better foundation to land on.”

Info from last year

Last year the county had the daunting task to find facilities, staff, volunteers and partner organizations just months after commissioners directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch it. The “low-barrier” shelter opened in a Newport church last October, then moved into a building on Southwest Seventh Street purchased by the Housing Authority of Lincoln County.

The county kept very close track of the October-to-March numbers for the Newport shelter and a motel voucher program it started in January in Lincoln City. This included:

• Nights: Open 180 nights in Newport and 90 nights in Lincoln City with an average of 26 people per night in Newport and 13 per night in Lincoln City;
• Ages: Two younger than 5; two were older than 80; 42 percent were 50 years old or older;
• Number served: 230 different people;
• Sex: 142 men, 75 women, eight transgender; five non-binary;
• Hometowns: Newport, 58; Lincoln City, 50; Waldport, 18; Siletz, 10; Yachats, 6; Toledo, 5; Depoe Bay, 5; Eugene, 8; Portland 2; rest of Oregon, 37; and, out of state, 26.

In addition to providing an overnight bed, meals and laundry, Estess said, the operation was able to find permanent housing for 33 people and put 24 others into transition housing through programs such as Helping Hands in Lincoln City and Nate’s Place in Newport.

Estess believes the demand for shelter and services will be just as great this winter. That’s because after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this summer that local governments could restrict homeless camping on public land, many in Lincoln County began clearing longtime camps.

“Once that changed, we saw people moving out of camps where they had been for a long time and into the community,” she said. “Those people will add to the number who are using the shelter.”

But shelter organizers and partners have been able to add new services – and have since adopted the new name of Community Shelter and Resource Center.

A retired doctor has volunteered to visit the Newport and Lincoln City sites once a week each to provide immediate care and make referrals for more complicated health issues. The program is also working with Easter Seals to find paid work for seniors not yet able to collect their Social Security, Estess said, and with the regional Senior and Disability Services agency to connect the surprising number of older homeless with help. Other workers will try to connect homeless with mental health and housing agencies or simply sign up for medical insurance or Social Security.

“This is why being a resource center is important,” she said. “We just don’t want people using it as a hotel. The goal is to build up to our name – we are the Community Shelter and Resource Center.”

Gathering financial support

None of this is cheap. But the county, especially its Health and Human Resources director Jayne Romero, has stitched revenue together to operate for another year.

Some costs include:

• The shelter building in Lincoln City cost the county $695,000 but that expense will be partially offset by the sale of the Oceanlake building;
• The Housing Authority estimates remodeling the Newport shelter will cost it $500,000 to $600,000 after removing the asbestos and installing a fire sprinkler system;
• Health and Human Services has hired a full-time assistant to help Estess, who is the only resource center employee paid out of the county’s general fund. The county has hired 17 temporary, part-time workers to staff the two shelters seven days a week, bringing total personnel costs to $760,000; and
• Operating costs are expected to be $200,000, Romero said, and one-time startup and equipment costs this year to be another $135,000;

Much of the county’s contributions to the program come out of the $47 million budget of its Health and Human Services department, Romero said.

“We are in health care,” Romero told YachatsNews. “We earn money that doesn’t go into the general fund. Once we earn those funds, if they are not required elsewhere, then it becomes unrestricted money we can use for programs like this.”

Also, Romero said, grants from outside sources can also be “blended together, unlike a lot of grants to Health and Human Services.”

Her department has also received substantial outside financial support, some of which includes $228,000 from Oregon Housing and Community Services; $350,000 over two years from Samaritan Health Services’ three-county InterCommunity Health Network; $100,000 each from the cities of Newport and Lincoln City; $25,000 from Depoe Bay, and $5,000 from Toledo.

“Samaritan has done a lot of heavy lifting for us and so have the cities,” Romero said. “We are grateful.”

The center also has 18 volunteers – including 10 returning from last year – who have committed to helping at least one night a week to check in people each evening, prepare meals and do other chores.

In addition to nine county departments who helped with the shelter’s operation last winter, it also received help from 39 organizations or people. Estess wants to encourage more community involvement and volunteers and asked that people interested in helping go to the center’s web page to submit a form.

While county officials are sensitive to criticism that it might be spending too much energy and money dealing with the homeless, they point out that the issue remains high on the priority list of county residents and Oregonians. And, after getting the shelters properly remodeled its operating costs should stabilize.

“I’m proud of this county stepping up and to run this type of high-risk shelter,” Estess said. “We are one of the first counties to take this under our service umbrella. We run a tight ship with clear rules and guidelines. We save lives one night at a time.”

• Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com

To see how you can help or volunteer go to this Lincoln County web page