News from the Continuum

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Staff Wish List Recommendations - Agenda at 41

HRAP has made it to the top of the staff recommendations for the Budget Committee's Wish List.

The sobering station came in at #9 and the Homeless Initiatives Coordinator position came in at #12, each with a "do not include" recommendation.

The main reason given for the "do not include" was those project proposals' lack of "specificity", leaving open the possibility that they will be funded some time in the future. 

Mayor Bennett announced his intention to establish a sobering station in Salem at his State of the City speech last February.
 

Mayor Bennett made sure a sobering station was one of the recommendations of the Affordable Housing, Social Services and Homelessness work group.

Sobering stations are generally considered a less costly way to administer emergency services, the alternative being the emergency room, or sometimes jail.  Salem Health staff told us recently that 10 to 12 emergency room beds are occupied by intoxicated individuals at any given time.  Grants Pass, Portland, Eugene and Medford have sobering services of one sort or another.  It's not likely that the need for these services is any less in Salem.  The issue is who is going to pay for the services. 

Costs and administration tend to be ongoing issues.  Sobering stations are expensive ebdeavors and require the right balance of partners to remain viable.  The Mayor's been very candid about the difficulties he's had in "getting to yes" on this project, but he also seems determined, so it's likely the City Council will be revisiting this request in the coming months. 

1255 Broadway NE

On May 16, the Budget Committee voted unanimously to adopt the staff recommendation to include HRAP and not to include the Coordinator position in the 2017-2018 budget.


For a brief time, the Mid Willamette Valley Community Action Agency was planning to  move The ARCHES Project from the leased space long held on Madison Street to 1255 Broadway NE, formerly occupied by the YWCA, which went belly-up, as they say, in 2013-14, and is now occupied by Family Building Blocks and the misnomered Center for Community Innovation.  However, the upstairs tenants did not care for the prospect of having a homeless day shelter downstairs and, more importantly, had the right to prevent that use. So, as of June 1, MWVCAA is again on the lookout for new digs for The ARCHES Project.