Washington County Approves funding to Create and Maintain at least 317 Shelter Beds!

After meeting the ambitious goal to provide 100 new year-round shelter beds as of June 2022, Washington County Homeless Services program turns towards the future with recent competitive process to award $10 million in Supportive Housing Services funding to seven different shelter locations.

Affordable and stable housing is the crucial ingredient to address housing instability, and often the first step is a warm and safe place for unsheltered people to come inside and connect to services. Emergency shelters are a critical piece of our community’s work to end homelessness.

This award will fund maintenance and renovation needs at existing shelter locations, as well as create new shelter capacity through rehabilitation of existing sites and acquisition and redevelopment of new sites. In total, this Shelter Capital Fund Award is projected to fund the preservation and development of 317 to 347 units/beds.

Washington County Board of Commissioners Chair Kathryn Harrington says, “It wasn’t long ago that Washington County had no year-round shelter solutions for homeless adults and couples, and very few for families with children. I am so proud of the work we have done to dramatically expand our shelter capacity and I am looking forward to a future shelter system providing a robust range of solutions to meet the needs here in our Washington County.”

Rose Money, Executive Director of the Family Promise of Tualatin Valley shares, “This funding provides us with the much needed resources to provide shelter to the most vulnerable members of our community. It really takes a village and thanks to Project Turnkey state funding, our partnership with the City of Tigard, and Supportive Housing Services funding, Family Promise can do what we do best and stabilize our community members dealing with housing instability and set them up for success.”

Shelter Capacity maintained

• Centro Cultural, Casa Amparo with 20 units: Provides motel style shelter with culturally specific services aimed towards families and the Latine community.
• Salvation Army, Veterans & Family Center Beaverton with 22 units: Provides individual room shelter for veterans.

NEW Shelter Capacity

• City of Beaverton with 60-70 beds: recently purchased by the City of Beaverton; renovations funded will ensure the space provides low-barrier shared space shelter to adults experiencing homelessness.
• Open Door with 30 units: acquisition funded to provide alternative shelter (i.e. “pod village” or “Conestoga hut” style) for adults.
• Family Promise of Tualatin Valley with 70 units: acquisition funded to provide motel style shelter to adults, medically fragile individuals, and families.
• City of Hillsboro with 40 beds and 35 pod village units: new construction funded will ready the space to provide shelter to adults experiencing homelessness using a shared space indoor model and additional capacity provided through pod village style structures.
• Just Compassion with 40-60 beds: new construction funded will ready the space to provide shelter to adults experiencing homelessness using a shared space model.

Now that these locations have been officially identified and awarded funding, community engagement activities will get underway in each locale, in partnership with the respective city and community partners involved in each shelter project, and local residents and businesses.

ABOUT WASHINGTON COUNTY SHELTER PROGRAM

Washington County currently provides 367 shelter beds across our community including year-round shelter programs, winter shelter (operates from November 1-May 31), and temporary shelter utilizing space as available. Shelter services are operated by community-based providers, in coordination with their housing programs to support guests as they transition into stable housing.

Our long-term goal is to add 250 year-round shelter beds at permanent shelter sites using a variety of shelter models to meet the diverse needs of our most vulnerable community members. Thus far, we have added 170 year-round shelter beds and with newly approved Shelter Capital Fund award Washington County is on-track to exceed this goal! Shelters are funded by Supportive Housing Services and Continuum of Care federal program.

ABOUT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING SERVICES (SHS):

The Supportive Housing Services program is funded by the voter-approved 2020 Supportive Housing Services measure to address the needs of people experiencing and at risk of homelessness in our region. Supportive Housing is a demonstrated approach to ending homelessness with wrap around supports tailored to meet the needs of people with complex disabilities who have experienced prolonged homelessness.