By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews
After extensive behind-the-scenes planning, money is now ready to roll out to help Lincoln County homeless youth and their families find suitable shelter.
Nearly $1 million in state and federal funds will ultimately flow to 10 so-called “sub-grantees” under a program overseen by the Housing Authority of Lincoln County.
A portion of that money will enable two Newport churches, for instance, to provide direct financial assistance to families either facing eviction or in need of finding shelter.
The bulk of the funds — $380,000 — will target homeless youth and their families in an effort led by the Lincoln County School District’s Homeless Education Literacy Project, or HELP.
While public encampments of adults may be the way much of the public perceives homelessness, the number of youth in that same situation may surprise most people, said Woody Crobar, the HELP program’s coordinator.
“We have one of the highest homeless student populations in Oregon,” he said. “I think that statistic may surprise a lot of people.”
Last year, 842 students, representing fully 15 percent of the school district’s population, were considered homeless at some point. But it’s not only students living in cars or tents with their families that constitute the problem, Crobar said. It’s also students having to “double-up” in homes occupied by other friends or family.
“Of our students who fall into this larger category of being unhoused, two-thirds fall into the ‘doubled-up’ number,” he said. “There’s a lot of shock from members of the public when they hear that figure.”
The grants are coming at a particularly opportune time for HELP and the county’s other recipients. That’s largely because prior grants from the federal, Covid-focused American Rescue Plan ran out Sept. 30.
“We provided a lot of services with that money,” Crobar said. “But the timing here is critical in that we can now continue to move on with that work.”
Follow the money
The financing Lincoln County is relying on is part of $5 million appropriated by the Oregon Legislature to increase services and assistance to school-aged children or their families who are experiencing homelessness.
Housing-related services under the program include preventing people from losing their housing, support aimed at providing placement assistance in community emergency-housing facilities and quickly connecting people without shelter to housing assistance and services.
Oregon Housing and Community Services, working with the governor’s office, earlier this year set about identifying local partners to help actually deliver services. The Housing Authority of Lincoln County was charged with leading the effort locally.
“There weren’t any earmarks, but we got a strong suggestion from the governor’s office to look closely at Woody’s program, which at the time was at risk of being defunded,” said Karen Rockwell, the housing authority’s executive director. “There was lots of back and forth in terms of finalizing the contracts, but we are now in the process of kicking out subgrantee agreements.”
In addition to the school district, the subgrantees are:
- $75,000 to the Community Services Consortium to provide outreach to homeless or at-risk homeless youth and their families;
- $21,250 to the county’s Health and Human Services department to add flexible funding dedicated to youth and families;
- $103,233 to Northwest Coastal Housing to block six rooms for 18 months for referred homeless families with children;
- $105,873 to Reconnections Counseling to add two family rooms to Nate’s Place, a transitional shelter in Newport;
- $74,300 to Safe Families for Children for host home and mentorship programs;
- $100,000 to Samaritan House Family Shelter to block two rooms for eligible families in its transitional housing program;
- $50,000 to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Waldport and $30,000 to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Newport to provide direct financial assistance for rent deposits and eviction prevention; and
- $151,100 to Youth Tides to provide services including housing assistance and operational support.
In all, the subgrantees have pledged to serve an estimated 644 families under the program.
Doubled up
Rockwell, asked about the doubling up phenomena affecting so many of Crobar’s school district population, said it can be far worse than it may initially sound.
“These kids aren’t the most visible, absolutely,” she said. “But the misconception is that a child in a house, even if overcrowded, is better off than someone who is lacking a roof shelter. Statistically, that’s not necessarily the case.”
It’s not at all unheard of, she said, to have conditions so overcrowded that some children end up sleeping under a kitchen table just to have a space of their own. Other situations have played out where 12 people are sharing a single bathroom.
As a result, Crobar added, many of those students end up graduating at rates lower than their housed counterparts.
“They tend to be absent more and face difficult transportation issues,” he said. “The problems they have consistently end up taking longer to address.”
He and Rockwell said they are both confident that the new funding can help make a difference.
“Having this level of state funding addressing this population is really notable and pretty unique,” Crobar said. “In terms of what we can do with this money, it’s really quite a bit.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com