The Yamhill Community Action Partnership has reached “functional zero” for unsheltered families with children. That means more people in that group are exiting homelessness than are entering it in Yamhill County.
The organization has invested in a liaison who works with landlords and clients to get people into rentals and stay housed. It also expanded emergency shelter capacity in Newberg and has focused on getting vulnerable populations into homes. Alexandra Ball is the executive director of YCAP. Amber Hansen-Moore is the organization’s deputy director. They join us to share more about how YCAP is addressing homelessness.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Five years ago, an annual point-in-time count found that 79 children were living unsheltered with their families in Yamhill County. This past January, the Yamhill Community Action Partnership did its latest count and found that the number was zero. So we’re going to focus right now on what worked and what lessons the agency’s efforts hold for other counties, rural and urban, in Oregon. Alexandra Ball is the executive director of the Yamhill Community Action Partnership. Amber Hansen-Moore is the deputy director. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.
Alexandra Ball: Thank you for having us, Dave.
Miller: Alexandra, first, can you give us a sense for just the variety, the range of situations that those 79 children who were found to be living unsheltered in that point-in-time count five years ago, how they were living?
Ball: Yeah that’s a great question, Dave. When we were starting our point-in-time count back in 2020 and looking at those 79 children, these children were literally living in tents, cars, they were in RVs on the side of the road. And what we were seeing was they were exposed to trauma on a daily basis. And it wasn’t something as an agency that we were watching from afar. It was really personal for YCAP because one of the largest encampments was at our front door on our street. So it was very personal and we wanted to have a conversation of what more could be done, how we could change this reality.
Miller: Amber, is it fair to say that your agency just decided to make a very specific focus on this particular population?
Amber Hansen-Moore: Yes, I think when you… we made a decision to prioritize specific populations, families was one of them. Medically fragile individuals were another and so were elderly. But by making that decision, pairing it with the investment from the state in particular, especially more recently with the executive order that has come out and the additional funding to expand shelter beds and things of that sort, we were able to really move the needle on that in a significant way.
Miller: What was your first step, Alexandra? So you mean you had these priority groups. Where did you start?
Ball: When we started our conversation, we started that internally at YCAP across community members, local service providers, and at the end of the day we realized we needed to focus on programs that were quality versus quantity. That was how we were gonna make real and lasting change in our community. As a community action agency, we are very familiar with braiding services and sources of support to meet local family needs. And this did start with eviction prevention. We wanted to see less children entering into homeless in a new capacity that we were already seeing in front of us. So, this is where the governor’s office and the legislators’ investments were key for us to begin that work.
At the same time, we said shelter needs to change. Shelter is not meeting the needs of these families enough to create that pathway for them to get to stable housing. So we reevaluated our internal programs and said, ‘okay, we need higher resource shelter programs, shelter programs that involve intensive case management.’ Along with that, that means we’re talking about health, we’re talking about income, we’re talking about housing plans.
And we started that journey by using motel rooms. That was a stable place where someone could have a longer stay and begin that case management, and it led to us taking on a grant for Project Turnkey. For those who aren’t familiar with Turnkey, that’s where we were able to purchase a motel to create a transitional shelter. And eventually we were able to add two additional sites of a similar fashion in Yamhill County.
So it was a different approach, but we really recognized that we’re not going to move the needle in a real way for unhoused families until they have these safe and stable places, and dedicated case management, to address their individual barriers.
One example was that we ended up sunsetting a mobile shower program. We found a community partner who was able to run that, but we took all the staffing and resources from that mobile shower program and invested it into this more structured approach to shelter.
Miller: Amber, what difference did Project Turnkey itself make?
Hansen-Moore: It was really instrumental. One of the gaps that we identified in our community, and I think is probably true for many others, is sort of more of a transitional type of program. If you think of housing on a continuum from someone who’s literally on the streets, to following low barrier shelter rules and guidelines, to someone who can manage a motel stay with a little bit more structure, a slightly longer term, that preps people for stable housing in a more traditional sense. So that was really the missing piece for us for a long time. Once we got that up, we’ve had like an 80-85% success rate moving people out of that motel Turnkey Program into stable housing, and most of them remain stably housed because further along that spectrum we continue to provide wraparound services and supports so that they don’t continue the cycle of homelessness and fall back into fall back onto the streets.
Miller: That’s fascinating. Am I right in understanding what you’re saying, that as a kind of step towards more independent living, having these retrofitted motels, it’s more effective than just trying to go straight from say an old-fashioned congregate shelter to your own apartment?
Hansen-Moore: For some households, yes. I mean, every family can be a little bit different in their readiness and stability and their ability to to be more acclimated into a traditional housing sense. So for some of those who have been homeless for a lot longer or chronically homeless, especially those who would have mental health issues, maybe pair that with substance use disorders, having a more stepped process is more effective than just jumping straight, literally from the streets into an apartment where we end up having challenges that were not really addressed fully and have not been overcome.
Miller: Alexandra, it’s one thing to look at these numbers and to say that the point in time count was zero in January compared to 79 in 2020. That should be celebrated. But as you noted, there could always be new people who are coming to you with eviction, or debt from medical bills, or whatever, and now facing homelessness either for the first time or once again. If someone comes to you now or you find out that there’s a family in McMinnville who is sleeping in their car, what is the response now and how is the current response different from what might have happened in 2019?
Ball: I think what’s different in 2019 is that we’ve built out, as Amber already referenced slightly, a continuum of supports that are available. They have been built, they do exist. There are staff there, there are partners there. We have two navigation centers, one in Newburgh, one in McMinnville that are open. And we have the Turkey Program. And we continue to do moteling, but because we’ve moved the needle on unhoused, families with children, that opened up critical shelter beds for more to step into.
So while those were utilized, now they’re open and those case managers are ready to look at each household and address those specific barriers. And for some folks that may take two or three weeks. They may be eligible for a housing voucher or a private market of placement, they may already have work. And for some who have more barriers, we have the space still and the time to address them over a longer period. If they need work, if they need to stabilize health, we can bring in additional partners and YCAP housing supports.
Miller: Amber, can you explain what a landlord liaison is and what they do?
Hansen-Moore: Yeah,that was a very essential component of our success, I would say, is recognizing that landlords are an important partner in the success of stabilizing households who have experienced homelessness. So what we did internally is decided to invest in a single point of contact, a staff person who could act as a landlord liaison, someone who goes into the community, builds partnerships with landlords and property owners, and can also be the one that the property manager contacts if they’re having an issue with the client that we have put in their units. If maybe they’re experiencing some obstacle or barrier, we can intervene and try to help the client navigate that.
For example, we had a property owner that was building Baker Street Lofts, which was a new apartment unit in town, and we sent them an email when we learned about it. One of our staff reached out and it turned into a great success story. The landlord said, yes, we want your clients to apply for our services… or for our housing, and we continue to provide those clients with services. So they’re still in our programs getting rental assistance and case management wraparound support, but by doing that, we were able to house 19 formerly homeless families, most of which were veterans and families with young children, and that’s just been a huge success. It was a great partnership for us with that property manager who feels very grateful for the fact that we were able to help fill their units, but also that they were able to give back to the community in this way.
Miller: Alexandra, I think most of our listeners would understand the arguments for how you’ve chosen to prioritize what are always going to be limited resources. And families with kids, I think it’s maybe self-explanatory why that would be near the top of your list in terms of the urgency of using your resources, but I am wondering how you think about the groups that are not prioritized.
Ball: Yeah, the history on this is YCAP had to make difficult decisions on where programs would identify priority populations and expedite placements. And again, we did do that through listening to our community, looking at data, and talking to local service providers, but that doesn’t mean that everybody has been served yet because we know that there’s more work to do. We already referenced the Turkey Project, but for example, in the last year, 82% of 182 individuals reached stable housing. So now we’re opening up those rooms, as I already said, to invite other populations experiencing homelessness. So it can be someone experiencing DV [domestic violence], it can be a veteran, it can be an individual. We’re opening up Turnkey and our navigation centers to those who might have been chronically homeless and have those more intensive needs.
YCAP recognizes us can’t do this work alone. So specifically with the navigation centers, we created this to be multifunctional and have partners with extensive specialties such as physical health, mental health and behavioral health, job support more to come on and start continuing to move this needle for those who still need to find housing and stability.
Miller: Can you continue to do everything you’ve been talking about without, say, one-time pandemic-error relief funds and with the possibility of funding cuts at the federal level?
Ball: YCAP does not want to lose the momentum that we have here and we hope that through our sharing, we’re clear that we’ve made important and life changing progress. But the bottom line is any cuts to programs at the federal level are going to impact our progress. So our state and federal leaders have come through in the last couple of years to really support this critical work. We do depend on that combination of public dollars in addition to private contributions to make this possible. So our encouragement is that we keep our eyes on this at the federal level, at the state level and with our local funders, because any change will impact what we’re able to do.
Miller: Alexander Ball and Amber Hansen-Moore, thanks very much.
Ball: Thank you.
Hansen-Moore: Thank you very much.
Miller: Alexander Ball is the executive director of the Yamhill Community Action Partnership. Amber Hansen-Moore is the deputy director of the agency.
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