Sarah Brown
The Sweet Home Resource and Shelter sub-committee introduced a new director for the managed outreach and community resource facility during its meeting on Aug. 7.
Brock Byers, program manager for Family Assistance and Resource Center, introduced Kandyce Stirman as the shelter’s new director and women’s lead. Also a representative of the black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) community, Stirman comes to FAC with 14 years experience in the drug and alcohol field, and 11 years running shelters in Albany and Salem.
The committee also discussed funding sources and grants they’re working to acquire – including Linn County Multi-agency Coordination Group (MAC), Samaritan’s InterCommunity Health Network Care Coordination Organization (IHNCCO), and Rural Oregon Continuum of Care (ROCC)– to help sustain the work they do.
Byers informed the committee that ROCC represents organization members in 27 counties to gain and distribute federal funding, but many organizations in Benton, Lincoln and Linn counties voted to break away from ROCC to form its own “continuum of care” organization. The purpose, he said, is an effort to secure more control over the funding because they feel the distribution through ROCC is not sufficient.
“We’re always trying to get more funding because $15 an hour is not really adequate for shelter staffing,” Byers said.
Operating the shelter costs approximately $30,000 a month, he said. To date, the facility has provided almost 12,000 bed nights, and staff is seeing an increase of residents who are victims of domestic violence or have a mental illness. These issues drive a need to hire people with more specialized skills to assist those folks, he said.
The CIty of Sweet Home pays for overnight security, while FAC covers the cost for daytime security. Also, FAC is looking into installing an ADA hut for disabled individuals and is in the process of acquiring a wheelchair ramp it purchased for $3,000.