Street Roots •
News
Dec. 30, 2016-Jan. 5, 2017
MENTAL HEALTH, fro m page 4
"This is a very
small percent-
population —
part of the 1
percent who
have the most
serious mental
illnesses In ear
population»"
EXEC UTIVE DIRECTOR OF
provider in Eugene, received $43,125 to
fund two units of supported housing in an
apartment complex: Luke-Dorf Inc.
received $417,531, which makes up about
a quarter of the budget needed to build a
15-unit apartment building in Portland’s .
Lents neighborhood, which will include
four units of supported housing.
That there is such a small fraction of
units reserved for
people with mental
illnesses is actually a
requirement.
Supported housing can
make upno more than
25 percent of the units
in a,housing project
“The Department of
Justice had an issue
with housing (that)
clustered everyone
who has a disability in
BOB BECKETT, one area,” Luke-Dorf
C O L U M B IA CARE
SERVICES INC. Executive Director
John Trinh said. “They
want more scatter sites in the
community.”
For rural communities, the housing and
the investment is a breakthrough for
people with mental health issues. <
Columbia Care Services received
$800,000 to fund two projects in Jackson
County.
The Jackson Cr isisResolution Center
will have 12 beds available for people
who suffer an acute-or psychotic episode.
They may stay at the Resolution Center
for up to 30 days. Beckett said it will be
the only respite center of its kind in
Jackson County and will divert people
away from local hospitals or the Oregon
State Hospital “to a facility that only
does psychiatric careso that it can dp it
less expensively, but with the same
quality.”
’The second project, Swing Lane
Supportive Housing, will be an eight-unit
apartment building expected to open by
the end of.2017. One unit will be reserved
for staff, and the other seven will be
Page 5
reserved for people with mental illnesses
who have been discharged from the
Oregon State Hospital. There will be staff
onsite all times of the day.
Swing Lane will be the first supportive
housing building of its kind in Jackson
County and, like the four units of housing
Luke Dorf will operate, will offer a
certain level of independence. Residents
will live in their own apartments and will
have a lease agreement with Columbia
Care or Luke-Dorf. But they will receive
daily support, mental health care, skills
training and other supportive services-as
needed.
“We work with them to build their skills
in terms of managing money, cooking,
cleaning (and) shopping so they can move
out on their own,” Trinh said.
The largest chunk of funding, $2.5
million, was given to Central City
Concern, the Portland social service
agency that provides health care, drug
treatment andhousing to help fund its
Eastside Campus. The campus will be a
six-story building, at Southeast122nd
Avenue and Burnside Street, which will
include two floors of clinic spate, modeled
after the agency’s Old Town Clinic, as well
as 175 units of housing for those in
recuperative, care or in recovery from an
addiction. The campus is expected to
open in 2018,
The Oregon Housing and Community
Services agency had expected to receive
more applications and award all of the $20
million. The small number of applications
and the requirement by the Legislature
that the $20 million be spent in this
biennium had the agency scrambling in ?
late fall to figure out what impeded
providers from applying.
“The original (application) was too
complex for applicants,” said Ariel Nelson,
an Oregon Housing and Community
Services spokesperson. “A lot of
applicants were not familiar with OHCS’s
application process.”
The agency is not where one might
expect to turn for funding to build housing
for mentally ill people, Bouneff said.
On the flip side, affordable housing , ’
Did you serve in the
Armed Forces
developers were unfamiliar with
requirements that mental health providers
who build housing are used to in their
funding applications, such as including a
letter of support from the local mental
.health authority.
Oregon’s housing market also played a
role in reducing applications. Increased
property values have made it difficult for
providers to buy vacant lots or buildings.
“It was not economically feasible,”
Beckett said.
Columbia Care, Luke-Dorf and Central
City Concern already owned their vacant
lots and buildings when they applied for
funding.
New application requirements were
approved in mid-December, and OHCS
expects to accept a second round of
applications for the remaining $16.7
million in January.
In addition to simplifying the
application, OHCS is also changing how
much money an applicant can receive. In
the first round of applications, the amount
of funding a developer could receive was
limited to 25 percent of the total project
cost That, Nelson said, was the biggest
deterrent to applications; they could not
necessarily prove that they had, or would
receive, other funds to fully pay for the
project.
Now, applicants can ask for a subsidy of
up to $50,000 per unit of affordable
housing. T hat Bouneff said, is a method
of funding that mental health providers
are used to applying for.
OHCS will also host a training session
and offer moretechnical assistance for u;
potential applicants, essentially walking
applicants through how to craft a
persuasive application for funding.
Beckett described the application
process for Swing Lane Supportive
Housing and the Jackson Crisis Resolution
Center as “difficult,” and he said he hoped
the new application would be less
restrictive.
Bouneff said the units that are already
funded will “not make such a huge, dent”
in addressing the need to build affordable
housing reserved for people with serious
re n ie s
£
FARMERS’ MARKET
WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM
■
experiencing
or at risk of
and are
becoming
homeless?
Transition
Projects
Please call 855.425.5544
or visit 650 NW Irving Street
f
■
f i
UP TO $10 MATCH WITH EBT CARD
We're passionate about helping our community
access healthy food that they can trust. By shopping
at our market, you'll get extra food dollars while
supporting local farmers and community.
3029 SE 21st Ave. btwn Powell & Division