This homeless camp off the Cox Creek Path had a flag (upper right) but looked abandoned on Feb. 25.
Can Albany get any homeless people into housing with the one million dollars it is receiving from the state? The answer won’t be known until the money has been spent.
Last December the Oregon legislature, meeting in special session, allocated $14 million to 14 cities to “spend on programs or services to address housing insecurity, lack of affordable housing or homelessness.” Albany is one of the 14.
The phrasing leaves a lot of latitude on what the money is for. Homelessness is only one of the problems mentioned.
At a work session Monday afternoon, March 7, the city council is scheduled to vote on accepting the cash.
“At the Monday work session, staff will also seek council direction on allocation of the funds within the guidelines provided by the state,” City Manager Peter Troedsson told me in an email. “Some preparation for the allocation has already been conducted in the form of outreach to human services agencies to determine their most pressing needs.”
A staff memo to the council suggests that the council “consider soliciting letters of interest and/or presentations from area agencies about how they would propose to use these funds (or portion of the funds) to address housing insecurity, homelessness, or lack of affordable housing… Letters of interest could be compiled and brought to council for consideration.”
The letters, the memo says, “could, for example, assess the project outcomes, timeline, and ability to leverage other funding.”
In other words, this is going to take a while. Agencies are going to get involved. Timelines are going to be developed. Other funding is going to get explored. The legislature figured on that. It said the money doesn’t have to be spent until June 30, 2023.
So, don’t look for any impact of this money right away.
If an immediate impact were the goal, somebody might propose this: Suppose there are 200 people identified in Albany as being homeless because they can’t afford housing, Give each one $5,000 in vouchers for mid-valley hotels. That would allow them to have a roof over their heads for an average of 50 days.
It wouldn’t solve the underlying problem, but it would provide immediate help and allow each one, with the help of those agencies the city has in mind, time to find a solution for the long term. (hh)
The money process you’ve described just reinforces the notion that there is a homeless industrial complex, a network of folks & organizations who preside over the problem and suck up lots of taxpayer money.
A problem that has only gotten worse year after year.
It’s almost as if homeless people are viewed as potential sources of revenue.
This is not compassion in action.
The problem with “solving homelessness” is one key fault that nobody thinks about. That fault is that the homeless people would have to follow rules. This would include not doing drugs, clean up after themselves, responsibilities, etc. Sure, a small handful of them will want to better themselves and seek this help, but it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the remainder who like living without rules.
The state is dumping this problem on the cities to try to solve instead of coming up with a solution themselves.
As one person said at a local meeting here: “If you solve the problem for the 100 homeless people in your city, but then the 101st person shows up, you are out of compliance.”
Get the State working on solving this major statewide issue, not the local cities.
And these millions come from where???? If those Liberal Demos want to do something….Go down & take one home with you.. You feed, cloth, & house those deadbeats! NOT with my tax dollars!!!
Exactly!
No man is an island. No person is self-sufficient. Everyone relies on others somehow. We all need the support of others and society to survive. And life is chaos. Good luck and bad luck befalls everyone. Stuff happens and everything can be lost in a moment through no fault of your own.
EVERYONE self medicates in one way or another. What’s your poison?
When you meet someone who struggles with something that you don’t struggle with, be careful not to project yourself onto them as having a lack of self-control and all they need is a bit more discipline. You have not walked in their shoes and you know nothing of their; biology, weaknesses, family history, current struggles, and a thousand other factors in their life. You may not have experienced life as they have and you cannot decide what type of coping mechanism is appropriate for another person.
Glad this money has come to our town and I hope many minds come together in a healthy debate and shared mission that results in identifying homeless people who express the desire to accept help, commit to receiving whatever services they need, make a good-faith effort to cooperated in all steps of their plan and reach a new phase of life that is safely stabilized and with ongoing supports. This process needs to convey mercy, dignity, mutual respect, compassion and care.
I wonder how much of the $1million is sucked up by the state in giving out $1 million? So much for Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”.
Bravo, Hasso Hering. Many people are homeless because there are no affordable homes, not because they are “less than.” Give them a chance to stay warm and dry while they pull themselves together, find work and look for a better situation. Some will succeed, others will not. Any person who is able to find a job and become an asset to the community is a plus for us all.
“Any person who is able to find a job….” There are any number of NOW HIRING signs out and about town. Even some of those who are “warm and dry” and out of work won’t bother to apply because they won’t work for minimum wage until they can find something that pays more.
It’s called Self Respect and as I have heard “One who accepts gifts for an extended time looses their self respect and grows to hate those who gave it to them.” not an exact quote but it basically what was said.
One thing is guaranteed. The city of Albany staff will figure out a way of siphoning of monies from the 1 million dollars by charging for staff time it’s being done now. Yet I wonder if we didn’t have anything going on wouldn’t the general funding budget fund them anyway.
Just hand over the money to helping hands they have done a wonderful job on helping homelessness in Albany and $1 million dollars would help them achieve getting to their goal of raising funds for a 48 unit transitional housing complex. Come city bureaucrats let’s finally come together and spend all the grant money what it’s meant for, but you probably won’t
I like Mike quinn’s suggestion. No judgement. Helping Hands makes a difference. I have
seen it.