By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
One of the major service providers to the homeless in Lincoln County is closing next month due to the poor health of its founder, money issues and a dwindling number of volunteers.
Grace Wins Haven, which operates out of a building on Northeast First Street in Newport, plans to close June 15.
The four-member board of the four-year-old nonprofit made the decision May 13 to shut down, treasurer Betty Kamikawa of Toldeo told YachatsNews on Saturday. The group announced the decision later that day on its Facebook page.
Grace Wins Haven was formed through the efforts of its founder, Traci Goff Flowers of Newport, who had been trying to help the homeless of the area for 15 years. For 10 years Flowers and the organization’s volunteers staffed an emergency cold-weather shelter at the county Commons in Newport until the Covid pandemic shut that down.
Six years ago Flowers started using a building on First Street owned by her mother, and the organization received federal nonprofit status in 2019.
While Grace Wins Haven is one of many organizations in Lincoln County that provide some sort of service to the homeless, it generally focuses on the immediate needs of people living on the street.
The building on First Street is not a shelter. Volunteers – many of them homeless or formerly homeless – use a small kitchen to prepare 50-60 sack lunches a day. A storage area holds clothing, tents, sleeping bags and other supplies, there’s a laundry room that anyone can use to wash clothes, and a cargo trailer with a shower is parked in the alley.
Volunteers also try to help people get connected to resources from other organizations.
Kamikawa said the decision to close was mostly due to Flowers’ declining health.
But the organization struggled with increasing demand for services, uncertain finances – including rent to building owner and Flowers’ mother, Diane Goff – and an inconsistent number of volunteers.
Flowers was hospitalized late last year and stepped away from day-to-day work. The board hired another director, but that didn’t work out, Kamikawa said.
Flowers returned to the organization two days a week this spring, Kamikawa said, but the effort was still jeopardizing her health.
“Everybody sees Traci as the face of Grace Wins,” Kamikawa said. “But we just needed to let it go for her health. It’s just too much for her right now.”
Other issues too
Kamikawa said the organization had revenue of about $120,000 in each of 2021 and 2022, including $30,000 for motel vouchers that it gave out this winter to the homeless during bad weather or emergencies. It received grants from the city of Newport, Lincoln County and other organizations and donations from supporters. Lincoln County officials said it gave the organization $13,170 in 2020 and $9,400 in 2022 and authorized up to $30,000 for hotel vouchers this winter, but those were not used.
It served about 1,000 people a year, she said, and “that gives you an idea of the demand.”
The board has an agreement with Goff to pay $1,500 a month for rent, but Kamikawa admitted it owes her “quite a bit of money.”
In turn, county records show Goff hasn’t paid taxes on the First Street property in two years and owes $8,100 in back taxes.
Kamikawa said a controversy over homeless camping around the First Street building last summer and fall “blew back on us,” resulting in a decline in donations and some volunteers.
And though nonprofit databases show Grace Wins Haven received its federal tax exempt status in 2019, the organization has yet to file three years of required forms that detail its finances. Not filing those can jeopardize state and federal nonprofit status.
A group of Newport-area individuals plans to meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 31 to see if there is enough interest to form another nonprofit to take over Grace Wins Haven’s operations.
But the federal nonprofit application process usually takes 6-10 months. And state and federal rules require that nonprofits ceasing operations must transfer any remaining assets to another tax-exempt organization or a government.
Someone to step up?
Lincoln County commissioner Claire Hall said Sunday that Grace Wins Haven “played a huge role” in helping the homeless of Lincoln County. But she said the transition from a one-person created- and inspired-operation to a staffed, more sustainable organization is always difficult.
Hall, who is chair of a new Lincoln County Homeless Advisory Board working to set up a long-term plan and likely a one-stop center for services and shelter, said she will approach other organizations to ask if they can pick up some of Grave Wins Haven’s work.
“I consider this an absolutely essential service and we need to try to find a way to keep it going through other organizations,” Hall told YachatsNews.
The city of Newport may have something in the works too.
Mayor Dean Sawyer, city manager Spencer Nebel, and a former Grace Wins Haven board member met with the pastors assigned to the Salvation Army church in Newport on Friday to see if it would be able to step in and handle some services. The church already provides some services, including weekly food boxes to the poor.
But no one else in Newport offers clothing, equipment supplies and access to laundry or showers, Sawyer said. The city of Newport picks up Grace Wins Haven’s monthly water bill, he said, at about $200 a month.
“There’s going to be a big hole in the community with Grace Wins Haven’s departure,” Sawyer said. “There’s a lot of variables and there could be a short-term lack of services, but we’ll try to fill those holes as best we can and I think we will be able to do that. These people are part of our community and we can’t just throw them to the wind.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
Good bye and good riddance to skid row on First Street.
Really? Dave.
How long will taxpayers, working people, kind souls, etc be expected to donate time and money for a cause/population that seemingly won’t help themselves? It might be time to let people work for what they are expecting and given. The audacity of some houseless reflect that they “expect” food, shelter, housing, health care and if they don’t get it, set up camp on city hall. Why should anyone work, if their basic needs are met for free? Most people expect the same, and are willing to work for it.
Anyone else, besides Dave, tired of this too?
Their basic needs are far from met and most of the homeless population are suffering from mental health disorders, addiction, or have some other disability, and can’t get ahead when the economy is suffering and the system is overwhelmed, not including the lack of resources in general in rural Lincoln County. I’m guessing you and Dave don’t volunteer or work in the field to have knowledge first hand, because if you did your response wouldn’t be so naive and judgmental. The way we treat our most vulnerable, most marginalized, members is how we should be judged. It’s called compassion for humanity. Do better.
Having volunteered to help feed the homeless in Portland for many years, the only thing I can say is that when you give free food, clothes, and vouchers to homeless people you continue to enable them to continue with their lifestyle. Not only that, but you attract more and more homeless people to your towns. Sorry to have to say this, but it’s a fact.
The lack of compassion in America is clogging us up like a steady diet of biscuits and sausage gravy. I can almost understand disdain for other humans who don’t have it as good as you do, but to churlishly feel delight when what little they have is ripped away from them? They don’t have a lot of energy left to jump through your hoops. I am blessed with a humble roof over my head, although my monthly income is low. When I was able to, I brought protein granola bars, warm clothing and other supplies to Grace Wins. Every time I was there, I saw people in desperate need who were being lifted up by simple loving souls. Bless you, Traci, and all the volunteers.