Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home City Council passed a resolution last week to support the development of a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Linn County.
The effort is in response to direction from the federal government for states and counties nationwide to address the issue of homelessness, City Manager Craig Martin said during the council’s regular meeting on Aug. 26. “By adopting the resolution, the city of Sweet Home will be making a statement that we consider housing and homelessness to be important challenges in our community and express a willingness to keep the issues of homelessness and housing high on our agenda as well as to push for resources and solutions.”
Community Services Consortium has been selected by county commissioners to develop the plan, also including Benton and Lincoln counties. Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist and Albany City Councilor Sharon Konopa are heading up Linn County’s effort.
When he was first approached about this issue, Nyquist said, “I thought, ‘Yeah, right. What are you selling me next week?'”
Completely eliminating homelessness is not an achievable goal, he said, but as he learned the details of the idea, he became more interested. Further, grants are more available to communities who have plans in place.
“Having a plan in place will help us better use the resources that are available,” he said, and to get that plan rolling, the effort needs buy-in
“I was very surprised, positively surprised that we have so many people throughout the county working on this issue,” Nyquist said. He also was surprised by how much of an issue homelessness is in Linn County.
Konopa, who also attended the meeting, said the need is “dire” for Linn County. To address it, organizers are leaning toward a support services model to deal with homelessness rather than building new shelters and adding new programs that help maintain the lifestyle of homelessness.
Rather, it’s time to work with them in a case management style to help them get out and stay out of the homeless lifestyle, she said.
Homelessness will never be eliminated, she said. It’ll never stop situations where someone has a home one day and it’s gone the next, but it can deal with chronic homelessness, changing the things that keep chronically homeless people homeless in the first place.
She hopes to establish programs that teach a work ethic, money management, housecleaning, behavior management and a healthy lifestyle.
This won’t put any burden on the cities, Konopa said, but it will provide a new direction.
As part of the statewide effort, a database will be developed to track where and when the homeless use available services, Konopa said. The database will be able to track those who move from community to community seeking free services.
“I have a lot of mixed feelings about this resolution,” Councilor Greg Mahler told Konopa. He had the sense that the resolution focused more on developing shelters than on the support programs she was describing.
He supported what she was saying 100 percent, he said, but he just didn’t see that kind of explanation within the text of the resolution.
The resolution identifies a new focus on the problems of affordable housing and homelessness as well as recognizing that new approaches, including the “housing first” model, show great promise in ending homelessness.
Konopa said the reference to housing first was the key to the effort.
“It’s not to expand more shelters,” she said. It is meant to create a more support-driven, case management system.
The idea of housing first is to get people into housing and then help them turn their lifestyles around, she said.
Right now, the homeless can get vouchers for housing, she said, but no one is teaching them to be self-reliant.
“The real focus on our plan is to have them become more self-reliant,” she said.
About half of the homeless have a substance abuse problem, Nyquist said. Existing housing programs enable them to continue to feed those addictions rather than helping them solve those addictions.
“It costs a bundle of money, but what we’re doing now costs money,” Nyquist said. Under the new programs, those receiving assistance will be required to follow rules designed to end the lifestyles that keep them homeless.
Konopa likened the idea to the Oxford House program, in which residents dealing with drug addictions operate democratically and enforce the rules themselves, kicking out those who fail to follow the rules.
The council approved the resolution 3-1. Voting for it were Mayor Craig Fentiman and councilors Jim Gourley and Rich Rowley. Mahler voted against it.
In other business, the council:
– Approved a resolution to place a lien on property for the cost, $65, of cutting tall grass and vegetation at 1330 Hawthorne St.
– Adopted an ordinance updating city ordinances governing land divisions, including subdivisions, lot line adjustments and partitions.