Oregon Public Broadcasting

Affordable housing advocates in Washington County are looking for money. They're appearing in front of their county commissioners Thursday to ask for money for a plan that's been months in the making.

An estimated 1200 people are homeless in Washington County at any one time.  And many of them are children.

The county has drafted a Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, inspired at least in part by the city of Portland's plan.

But as Rob Manning reports, whether or not the Washington County plan will get the funding it needs to succeed is an open question.

The stereotype of homeless people as single, middle-aged adults doesn’t really apply in Washington County. Out of hundreds of people without adequate shelter between Beaverton and the Coast Range, most of them are families.

At this shelter in Hillsboro, five families get a place to stay for a few weeks at a time.

Dave Neves is staying here with his girlfriend and her four kids. He says they needed to come here when he lost his job at the same time his girlfriend lost state assistance, when she went back to school.  

Dave Neves: “We ended up losing the apartment. Laurie had tried everything. She kept saying she wanted to go ahead and drop out of school, so she could help by getting a job. But ultimately, if she’d have dropped out of school, we wouldn’t be in as possible of a situation as we are in right now.”

Neves says his family may have a bright future in a few months, once his girlfriend gets a certificate for a healthcare job, and they get out of debt.  But it won’t be easy, with their now checkered housing history.

Jeralynn Ness is the executive director of Community Action – a housing non-profit based in Hillsboro. She says the problem facing families in Washington County is basic economics.

Jeralynn Ness: “Washington County does have very high housing costs, much like the Portland metropolitan area, but probably the highest in the state of Oregon. And until a family is making 15 or 16 dollars an hour, they’re not going to be able to afford a market-rate two-bedroom apartment in Washington County.”

Ness has been working to address homelessness for over 30 years. She says the problem can be invisible, until it affects you, or someone you know; or in the case of Nike officials, when the problem lands in your lap.

Jeralynn Ness: “They had purchased land that was woods called ‘Murray Woods’, and they discovered that they had homeless people camping on that property. So they engaged the Beaverton Police Department, and Beaverton police handled it by coming out and doing sweeps.”

But homeless people kept camping even after the sweeps. Ness says Nike responded by helping her agency start the first-ever shelter for single men, in Washington County.

There were already three shelters for families. But Patrick Rogers with the Hillsboro Family Shelter says there’s still not nearly enough room.

Patrick Rogers: “Right now, I just counted, we have about 30 families waiting to get into one of the three shelters. We’ve been as high, over the winter, we had up to about 55 families waiting.”

Washington County shelters can accommodate maybe 15 families at one time.  For David Neves, and his family, they have a space for now. But Neves says they wish they had been gotten help with the rent before they fell behind and had to give up their apartment.

David Neves: “It’s just a matter of – we had no help at the beginning. But when we finally got the courage to listen to people like the pastor at our church, he called us up, he said we’ve got funding that might help you keep your apartment, it was already too late.”

Stories like David Neves’ helped launch a five-month long effort to write a plan to end homelessness, much like Portland and other big cities have done. And focusing on preventing homelessness is a key aspect of the plan, according to Patrick Rogers – who helped come up with the Washington County plan.

Patrick Rogers: “Takes a lot of money to do that. But we know it’s cheaper to do that. Each family that gets evicted winds up with a series of barriers that they didn’t face before they became evicted.”

Rent assistance carries a $12 million price tag in the draft plan. And that’s just part of the plan’s nearly 80 million dollar cost over ten years. There’s money for less than half of it. Less than $100,000 is earmarked from the county's general fund.

Eric Canon: “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

Eric Canon is with the Interfaith Committee on Homelessness, and he’s a frustrated contributor to the Ten Year Plan.

Eric Canon: “If you don’t fund it, especially to that degree, it compromises the plan. I mean, it’ll be better than what we’re doing now.”

Susan Wilson with the county’s housing program says there is money to get things started.

Susan Wilson: “There is a level of rental assistance, and there is a level of housing available. The point is, that if we could have the best of all worlds, we would fully fund this plan, and that’s probably not realistic, but something we have to do over time.”

But advocates say finding money isn't likely to get any easier in the future.  For instance, private funders often look at what a government is investing before donating.

Michael Anderson is with a statewide coalition of affordable housing advocates. He says state and federal officials are also looking to see what local governments are spending.

Michael Anderson: “Washington County has done an excellent job at reprogramming and organizing their existing resources to better meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.  But until there’s local funds into a plan, it doesn’t allow them to be competitive in getting state and local dollars.”

In the end, homeless advocates worry about how shortfalls or delays in funding will affect people like David Neves and his family. Neves says he’s trying to keep the kids focused on the future.

David Neves: “We’re low, we’re almost on the bottom of the barrel as far as how our life is going, but we’re clawing our way out, and there is that top of the barrel to look for. We can see that light at the end of the tunnel, now.”

Washington County commissioners have a budget discussion today in Hillsboro. They’re expected to approve the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness next month.  But it's  unlikely the plan will have anything like the money it needs.