This week, the Department of Housing Services launched the Housing Case Management Services program in partnership with 14 community-based organizations to help connect people experiencing homelessness to stable housing and wrap around supports. These organizations will hire up to 40 new case managers that will work throughout Washington County to engage folks wherever they are at in the community, help people connect to basic resources, and begin searching for available housing. Once housing is secured, case managers will continue to help participants adjust to life in housing and make connections to healthcare, employment and wrap around services.
Gabrielle Logan with Family Promise of Tualatin Valley, an organization serving families experiencing homelessness, shared, “We are both honored and excited to be a part of bringing in additional and much needed intensive case management services not only to house the most vulnerable in our community but to encourage housing stabilization with long-term, sustainable planning and support. The opportunities SHS is offering truly help solve houselessness and will save many lives in the process.”
Washington County also launched the new Regional Long-term Rent Assistance program that will ensure each participant in the program is able to afford housing with a voucher that offsets market-rate rent prices. Most program participants get by on a monthly disability benefits or Social Security retirement pensions with less than $1000 a month. People who live with fixed and low incomes struggle to find housing in a tight market where the average 1-bedroom apartment costs $1200 a month. The regional rent assistance program will allow participants with disabling conditions to pay 28.5% of their income towards the rent, with the voucher making up the difference.
Together these two programs, funded by the voter approved regional measure, are expected to help 500 households achieve and maintain stable housing in the first year, with a goal of achieving a rate of “functional zero” chronic homelessness over the next several years.
Jeremy Toev, the director of Open Door HousingWorks, shared, “There are many reasons for homelessness, that require complex solutions. It is exciting for Open Door to be a part of Washington County’s SHS team establishing a system built to get our community to functional zero. It will take a lot of compassionate hard work, and we are here to help our friends experiencing homelessness every step of the way to achieve and maintain stable housing!”
The following partners have agreed to participate in this new housing program and will soon be hiring new housing case manager staff to begin helping people find stable housing solutions throughout Washington County. These new case managers will be specialized in working with youth, seniors, families, as well as providing culturally responsive services:
