Update, Aug. 2, 2023
The Marion County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved a plan to spend $2 million of federal money on services to create more affordable housing for Salem-area residents.
The 2023-24 plan will guide the county’s spending through next year of two federal grants given to local and state governments for programs providing housing and rental assistance, buying affordable housing or other social services. The budget includes $568,000 to provide loans for rehabilitating homes and $350,000 for Keizer-based Soaring Heights Recovery Homes to buy a new property, which would be used as transitional housing for people with substance use disorders.
The nonprofit allows residents to stay up to 18 months, according to its website.
Eric Rasor, executive director of Soaring Heights, said at the meeting that he attended “We See You” last Saturday, an event focused on homeless services and outreach. There he met a young woman who had been homeless for about two weeks, living in a car with her 11 year-old son. Soaring Heights got them into one of its homes the next day.
When the boy walked through the door for the first time, he looked around and asked, “Is this my home?” President Victoria Meredith recalled at the meeting. “He got his own bed and he was really happy. It was just a good feeling to be able to let him know he didn’t have to sleep in a van anymore.”
The plan also directs $250,000 to Habitat for Humanity to build two affordable homes on Northeast Bistrika Lane in east Salem, $234,000 for a down payment assistance program for people living outside Salem city limits and $112,000 for the Salem Boys & Girls Club’s Epping Homestead Branch, which opened in September 2022.
Commissioners also voted to transfer transfer $200,000 to Safe Sleep, a local women’s shelter run by United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley, from other country programs in the 2021-22 action plan.
The shelter in central Salem, which opened in 2019 and has never been able to house more than 19 women at a time, recently received a $620,000 state grant to expand its capacity to 50 residents. It is also adding two bathrooms, a shower and laundry room.
Commissioners approved moving $50,000 to the organization that was previously intended to start a project called Neighbors Sheltering Unsheltered Neighbors two years ago. “As it moved forward, it really never came to fruition. So, this money was sitting there being unused,” said Steve Dickey, the program manager who oversees the county’s federal housing grants, at the meeting.
The county will also pull $150,000 from the county’s homeowner rehabilitation project, which would still have $633,000 left for future projects, to be given to Safe Sleep.
”Since I’ve been a commissioner, I think one of the shocking things that I’ve learned is just the level of, unfortunately, sexual assault that takes place at homeless camps, not just in our community but across the state,” Board Chair Colm Willis said at the meeting. “I just think it’s a reflection of us as a community whether or not we do something about that, and making sure that there’s a safe place for women to stay who don’t have a house is just a fundamental thing that we need to step up and do something about.”
The board unanimously approved or advanced other agenda items, including temporary qualified medical professionals to fill county vacancies, construction to stop erosion at Abiqua Creek and continuing a contract for crime mapping analysis.
Original story below:
The Marion County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday will consider a plan for spending federal funding through next year on services intended to make local housing more affordable and accessible.
READ IT: AGENDA
Following a public hearing, the board will vote on the proposed 2023-24 Annual Action Plan for the Community Development Block Grant, given to local and state governments for programs that provide services such as housing assistance and social services, and HOME Investment Partnership Entitlement Programs, which pay for services like building or buying affordable housing and rental assistance.
The proposed budget totalling $2 million includes $568,000 to provide loans for rehabilitating homes, $350,000 to buy property for transitional housing run by Keizer-based Soaring Heights Recovery Homes, $250,000 to Habitat for Humanity to build two affordable homes on Northeast Bistrika Lane in east Salem, and $234,000 for a down payment assistance program for people living outside Salem city limits.
There will also be a public hearing to consider transferring $200,000 to Safe Sleep, a local women’s shelter run by United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley, from other country programs in the 2021-22 action plan.
The shelter in central Salem, which opened in 2019 and has never been able to house more than 19 women at a time, recently received a $620,000 state grant to expand its capacity to 50 residents. It is also adding two bathrooms, a shower and laundry room.
Commissioners will consider pulling $50,000 from Neighbors Sheltering Unsheltered Neighbors, a planned project which “did not come to fruition,” and $150,000 from the county’s homeowner rehabilitation project, which would still have $633,000 left for future projects, according to the agenda item.
To participate
The commissioners meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Senator Hearing Room at 555 Court Street N.E. Anyone can attend or sign up to give public comment in-person at the meeting. The meeting is streamed live on YouTube.
Public hearings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.
Health services
Commissioners will consider adding $3 million to a contract with LocumTenens.com, LLC to provide temporary qualified medical professionals to fill vacancies in Marion County’s Health and Human Services Department through September 2026.
The new funding is intended to expand the contract to all divisions within the department, bringing the contract total to $3.76 million.
The board will consider accepting $120,000 from Legacy Silverton Medical Center as compensation for crisis services provided by Marion County at the hospital.
The county’s Psychiatric Counseling Center would provide face-to-face screenings seven days a week through June 2026, according to the agenda.
Road work
Commissioners will consider two price agreements to buy asphalt concrete pavement and cement: $100,000 to Roy Houck Construction, LLC and $400,000 to Knife River Corporation.
The county’s public Works Department has $600,000 budgeted for such pavement in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The board will consider buying rock products for road maintenance from five companies: $50,000 each to Crabtree Crushing, Inc. (Dundee), North Santiam Paving Company (Lyons), RiverBend Materials (Keizer) and Silverton Hills Rock, LLC (Silverton), and $175,000 to Knife River Corporation, which has multiple locations in Marion County.
They will also consider approving a $251,000 construction contract with Salem-based K&E Excavating, Inc. to build a log and stone wall intended to stabilize an eroding creek.
Erosion has caused Abiqua Creek, located northwest of Silverton, to slowly advance toward Northeast Nusom Road for several years. “Heavy creek flows caused by above-average precipitation and snow melt during spring 2023 greatly accelerated the rate of scour,” according to the agenda item. Commissioners approved an emergency declaration about the matter on June 14.
Also on the agenda:
The board will consider appointing Marion County Sheriff Nick Hunter to the county’s Justice Reinvestment Council through 2024. Formed in 2009, the council advises government agencies on policies related to diversion from the criminal justice system and helping people leaving prison reenter the community without reoffending, according to the agenda item.
They will also consider reappointing Alton Hoover to the Marion County Parks Commission through June 2027. The commission has 11 citizen-at-large positions.
Commissioners will also consider adding $18.9 million to a contract with LexisNexis to continue providing crime mapping analysis for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office through August 2024. The new contract would total $108.9 million.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
SUPPORT OUR WORK – We depend on subscribers for resources to report on Salem with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Subscribe today to get our daily newsletters and more. Click I want to subscribe!
Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
