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Report: Region spent $100 million last 12 months on services tied to homelessness

Nearly $a hundred million in public greenbacks changed into spent assisting homeless inside the final 12 months, according to a brand new file, and leaders say they want to make that money matter higher. There’s such a lot of sources devoted to this problem, and there’s so little coordination,” said Jimmy Jones, government director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency. “The impact of this dollar is probably much less right here than in a comparable-sized metropolis because there may be a lack of coordination and planning.

Services

The report is a replacement at the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Initiative. This is slated to head before Salem City Council on Monday. The town is one among a handful of our bodies working inside the initiative to resource the homeless. Documents released Thursday blanketed a “money map” tracing how governments, in addition to groups, spend cash in the direction of that aim. The money can originate from the local price range or various government presents. The map changed into finished through the Homeless Initiative Program Coordinator, a function once held by Ali Treichel, who left overdue final yr and currently maintained using former Marion County Commissioner Janet Carlson.

The report observed that roughly $49 million, in general, is spent on offerings like addiction treatment, jobs education, mental fitness outreach, and greater. Another $39 million pays for permanent housing. The map did now not draw any explicit conclusions, nor does it make any suggestions. Its aim is imparting an excessive altitude to examine the area’s spending, Carlson said. The aim changed into to have the ability to expose in which all of the cash changed into coming from,” said Carlson. “If we’re better coordinated inside the effects we’re looking to achieve, we would be more powerful. That’s the speculation.

Carlson said the map became finished final fall.

The map determined that most of the ten entities who use public money, Marion County spent $57 million final years, the city of Salem spent $24 million, and Polk County paid $4.Eight million. Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett said the map helps make clear where the entities overlap. What the map in reality indicates is the cities and counties on this place need to make a more coordinated application,” he said. “If you go through in a few elements, you may find where there’s a repetition of provider, disasters of the carrier to apply, all of those sorts of things want to be addressed so you can create a coordinated application.

The Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency spent $10.3 million, and the Mid-Valley Behavioral Care Network spent $6.6 million. The Salem-Keizer School District gave $739,000, followed using smaller earmarks from the Central School District and Keizer, Independence, and Monmouth.

Deborah Williams
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