PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners have deployed $1.15 million in state funds to local organizations working to solve the housing crisis.
Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to approve Homelessness Task Force spending recommendations for 15 programs and infrastructure projects for the 2021-23 funding cycle.
The county received a total of $1.63 million in grant funding requests. The money that was not deployed Tuesday will go into a reserve that can be used in the future.
Here are the state housing funds — 2163 housing programs funds and 2060 capital funds — as awarded Tuesday (with requests in parenthesis):
Housing programs
• $82,530 — Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula for life skills training and event programming for youth experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness ($82,530).
• $72,935 — Concerned Citizens of Clallam County for its “Foot Forward” program to provide housing and job support for homeless individuals and families ($114,000).
• $75,828 — Forks Abuse to provide shelter and housing support for domestic violence survivors ($75,915).
• $125,307 — Healthy Families of Clallam County for therapy, counseling, advocacy, crisis intervention, emergency housing and other services ($133,600).
• $124,535 — Lutheran Community Services Northwest for a project to provide triage, basic needs assistance, eviction mitigation, goal-setting and connections to community support ($200,000).
• $26,000 — Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) to support the Sequim Warming Center ($26,000).
• $81,618 — North Olympic Regional Veteran’s Housing Network to fund a case manager’s salary for Sarge’s Place in Forks ($81,618).
• $60,000 — Serenity House of Clallam County for a family shelter case manager ($84,000).
• $290,193 — Serenity House of Clallam County to support 24-hour shelter operations ($549,120).
• $39,534 — The Answer for Youth (TAFY) for operational costs ($86,848).
• $21,520 — TAFY for a transitional housing program for 20 men in early addiction recovery ($51,700).
Capital funds
• $25,000 — Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County for roofing two homes in the Maloney Heights neighborhood in Port Angeles ($25,000).
• $71,214 — Healthy Families of Clallam County for 65 percent of the cost of seven emergency housing apartment units ($71,214).
• $42,000 — North Olympic Regional Veteran’s Housing Network for utility assistance at shelters ($42,000).
• $11,410 — TAFY for two capital projects for safety and improved living conditions at a clean and sober house ($11,410).
Each organization that applied for funding received at least a portion of the request.
Commissioners last week had directed a Homelessness Task Force subcommittee to consider making additional spending recommendations.
The board approved the expenditures Tuesday as the subcommittee had originally proposed.
Commissioner Randy Johnson, who serves on the Homelessness Task Force, said the 2163 and 2060 state funds were previously dispersed on an annual basis, making it difficult to measure success.
“It was a perpetual cycle that didn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Johnson said in the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday.
“I don’t know, come 2023, where we’re going to be, or what we may think of. We may change the whole process, of course, but again, I’ve been pleased.”
Johnson said he attended a Monday meeting with housing officials from South King County, who shared his philosophy that providing shelter is the first step to address the housing crisis.
“You need to provide shelter first so someone has a dry place to sleep at night, and then we need to work on affordable housing and the ability to get people into those facilities,” Johnson said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
