Homeless plan gets $100K nod

Solidarity - Boosters jam county budget hearing to show support for plan to get people off streets

By Nancy Townsley

The Forest Grove News-Times, May 28, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (28 Reader comments)

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Following the lead of Commission Chair Tom Brian, a Washington County budget panel last week set aside $100,000 for a plan to end homelessness by 2018.

Eric Canon of Forest Grove, chairman of the Interfaith Committee on Homelessness, applauded the panel’s commitment to the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, which has yet to be adopted by commissioners.

Canon, who has spearheaded efforts to stem the tide of homelessness in western Washington County, said he hoped the “good faith money” could be leveraged toward further funding from the state Legislature.

“It is truly a new day,” Canon said.

The $79 million plan would establish temporary housing, build affordable housing and help about 1,200 people get off the streets by offering a range of mental health and job counseling programs.

“What we got is not a fully funded 10-year plan, but after approval, we will be launched,” said Canon, adding that he expected the board of commissioners to approve the plan, created this spring by a 100-member task force, by early June.

About 70 white-shirted supporters – from Forest Grove, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego and Portland – filled Shirley Huffman Auditorium in the county public services building May 22 to witness the committee’s 2009 funding deliberations.

The $100,000 is pegged as a line item in next year’s $664.9 million county budget, said Philip Bransford, county spokesman. The approved budget is due for adoption at a meeting June 17.

Brian had high praise for the plan’s authors. “This plan has come back exceeding my expectations as far as content and credibility,” he said. “This is just a terrific document, and I have no doubt our board will adopt it.”

Commissioner Andy Duyck, who represents Banks, Cornelius, Forest Grove and Gaston, voted yes on the allocation but said he would rather see the money pay for mental health services.

The Ten Year Plan is “a laudable goal, but I don’t think it’s achievable,” Duyck said Friday. “It’s the mental health issue that really gets to the heart of homelessness.”

He also threw cold water on the idea that seed money from the county would spur a large-scale state allocation for eradication of homelessness in Washington County. “The state’s not going to care that we put money in there,” Duyck said. “To them, $100,000 is nothing – it’s not even symbolic.”

Close to disaster

Karen Mossbarger, whose family was temporarily displaced after a fire ripped through their Forest Grove home two years ago, attended the hearing with her sons Ben, 6, and Caleb, 4.

“When we lost our home, we had friends who took us in,” said Mossbarger, a pastor at Refuge church in Forest Grove. “But if we hadn’t had that support network in place, we could’ve so easily been in that place of crisis and homelessness.

“All of us are closer than we realize to disaster.”

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