"We Need Many More Resources"

Jones at MWVCAA's October "Meet and Greet"

By Jimmy Jones

Posted to A.P. Walther's FB page on November 10, 2018.  Minor edits have been made, and links have been added.


My name is Jimmy Jones and I am the director of the Community Action Agency here in Salem. I know that there has been some concern about the resignation of Ali Treichel, so I wanted to update everyone on what's being done in our community to serve our homeless population.

Ali's position was designed to help integrate the social service providers and coordinate the local government responses, while mapping out system resources. That work will continue with her replacement, but it's also going on on a daily basis in Marion and Polk, even now. The leadership at the City, Salem Housing Authority, Community Action, Salvation Army, Northwest Human Services, Union Gospel Mission and many other groups meet frequently to help find better ways to integrate and coordinate our services. In the past year, these agencies have opened a new day center near Marion Square Park (ARCHES) for high needs homeless clients, made plans to open a new and desperately needed men's shelter (UGM) [see here and here], initiated the City's bold and innovate Homeless Rental Assistance Program (Salem Housing Authority), acquired a desperately needed overnight shelter for minors (HOME) [and United Way of the Mid Willamette Valley], and employed new warming center model. On top of all that, the ARCHES Project houses about 375 households a year, with plans to do more in the coming year. There are literally dozens and dozens of additional services being provided beyond housing, including employment services (Work [Source Oregon], Voc[ational] Rehab[ilitation]), access to health services and crisis hotlines (Marion County Health Department and [Northwest Human Services programs:] HOAP...West Salem Clinic and crisis [and information] hotline), four day centers (HOME, HOST, ARCHES, HOAP), and an increasing outreach presence that sees many different local agencies working with one another. Ali's departure changes none of that, and that work will continue through the hiring of the next coordinator.

But what I would like to address in particular is the Homeless Rental Assistance Program. That program is funded by the City of Salem [and Salem Housing Authority] and costs about $1.4M per year. It is absolutely the single most critical and necessary housing program in the history of Salem, because it targets a subset of the chronically homeless population that we refer to as tri-morbid (people with a chronic physical health problem, chronic substance problem, and a mental health condition). For too many years this subset was not effectively housed, which is why we have such a large and visible chronically homeless population in Salem today. This group of people were never, ever going to rehouse on their own. They were going to die outside. In the last year alone we have lost at least ten of them [12 as of 11/10/18], with an average age of death of about 52.

The Salem Housing Authority (SHA) designed and runs this program. ARCHES contracts with SHA to provide the clients to the program. These clients are placed through a coordinated entry process that insures that only those mostly likely to be victimized outside, and most likely to die outside, are prioritized for housing. There is a small group of us (10 total, from ARCHES, HOST and HOAP) that meet which each one of these clients, evaluate their needs, and refer about 15 a month to Salem Housing Authority for placement. To date, SHA has housed 109 HRAP clients, and after more than a year there are 100 of them still in housing. That's a success ratio of about 92%, about 10% higher than the expected success rate for a similar program. The program is a simple, cost effective (compared to the community cost of leaving people outside), proven model for reducing chronic homelessness in the community. Between this program, ARCHES, and others, we have drawn down the chronically homeless population of Salem almost by 200 souls since June of 2017.

You may not see much of a change, because our Coordinated Entry program has proven that there are about 1,800 homeless clients in the urban growth boundary, about 2/3rds of them unsheltered. So even significant improvement can be hidden behind the massive number of folks suffering under these conditions. I know it may not seem like much is being done, but every day dozens of people in this community go to work to serve the homeless through housing programs, overnight sheltering, warming stations, domestic violence centers, day sheltering, transitional housing, veterans services, employment navigation, meal services, SOAR work, and literally dozens of other services. Most of it is hidden from public view. And honestly, we need many more resources if we are ever going to end homelessness for everyone in this community, which is the only goal I measure our work by. I just want to reassure folks that a great deal of work is being done, by the agencies and local government. We are all working closely with one another, and will continue to do so in the future. Because there is much more work to do.

By the way, our [assessment] system (which is designed to go out and find, document, and assess for vulnerability every homeless person in Marion and Polk) now has more than half a million data points on the homeless population in the community. I'd be happy to answer any questions about the homeless population in Marion-Polk or what's being done to serve them.