About the Board ​

The 2022 Legislature passed HB 4123 to establish locally led, regional housing coordination through 8 pilots across the state. Each pilot received $1 million in state funding to operationalize coordinated offices, anchored by city-county partnerships, to strengthen their communities’ homeless response. These pilots are intended to leverage and coordinate existing work in the community and identify gaps in partnership with existing service providers.

The State of Oregon acting by and through its Department of Administrative Services (DAS) entered into a grant agreement with Lincoln County for the County to enter into agreements with the City of Lincoln City, the City of Newport, the City of Toledo and any other parties to create a coordinated homeless response system (the “System”)

HB4123 set the minimum standards for each pilot, including:

• Sign a formal agreement with regional partners to manage and facilitate the coordinated homeless response office;
• Establish an oversight board, consisting of members from each participating local government;
• Develop a 5-year strategic plan to identify gaps in their community’s homeless services, in coordination with community partners and existing efforts;
• Commit to continued, sustained funding beyond the first 2 years of state funding; and
• Report back to the legislature and OHCS on local progress, opportunities, and challenges to inform future state homeless funding and policy decisions.

To accomplish this, The Lincoln County Homeless Advisory Board was formally established, through an Intergovernmental Agreement, forming a regional entity composed of representatives from Lincoln County, the Cities of Depoe Bay, Lincoln City, Newport, Siletz, Toledo, Waldport, and Yachats, Community Services Consortium, and the Confederated Tribes.

Grant funding was utilized to hire a consultant to guide the Lincoln County Homeless Advisory Board in the creation of a five-year strategic plan to address regional homelessness. Lincoln County entered into an agreement with Morant McLeod to lead the strategic planning efforts. Additionally, funding was utilized to enter into agreement with the Housing Authority of Lincoln County to be the Administrative Office of the Homeless Advisory Board.

A Five-Year Strategic Plan was developed and approved by the Lincoln County Homeless Advisory Board. The goals of the Plan are:

Goal #1: LCHAB to remain a permanent body that focuses on homelessness.

This Goals seeks to financially sustain the work of the Board beyond the HB4123 grant funds. The strategy for this goal includes the Office identifying additional funding and determining how to sustain the Board during the operational phase of the Strategic Plan.

Goal #2: Reduce homelessness to emergency & voluntary levels.

LCHAB is not a direct service provider but it has a critical role in advocacy, information, and education. To reduce homelessness in Lincoln County, financial support is imperative. The strategies for this goal include the following:

• The Administrative Office will be the local partner to Community Services Consortium (our local Community Action Agency) to coordinate a successful Point in Time count.
• The Administrative Office will research and apply for opportunities to fund existing service delivery, with a priority given to gap filling projects.
• The Administrative Office will partner with service providers to implement a Resource Fair for the unhoused community.
•  Through the Service Provider relationships, the Administrative Office will develop a communication strategy for trauma-informed engagement of those with lived experience in cooperation with existing service providers and continue to keep the LCHAB representatives informed of the results of this engagement.

Goal #3: Coordinate policy and funding efforts at city, county, regional and state levels.

LCHAB is unique due to its Intergovernmental Agreement and active participation from all the area municipalities and the community action agency. To meet this goal LCHAB must “lean in” to existing relationships. The strategies for this goal include the following:

• Establish a workgroup consisting of municipality planning and development professionals to identify existing partnership opportunities.
• Identify and apply for sustainable grant opportunities at state, federal, or private to strengthen shelter, transitional, and/or permanent housing support services.
• Continue to participate in HB4123 and HB5019 convening meetings with regional partners.
• Invite State-level advocacy organizations to present at future LCHAB meetings to discuss ways the local municipalities can support the ongoing initiatives surrounding their work around housing and homelessness.
• Partner with the InterCommunity Health Network Coordinated Care Organization (IHN CCo) to fund supportive services positions that are culturally and linguistically appropriate (DST, SHARE, direct contract, etc.).
• Leverage tri-county continuum of care in pursuit of funding opportunities by facilitating collaborative competitive grant applications with local continuum partners.

Goal #4: Stand up and support a navigation system, with a priority to use or develop common data/reporting systems to track each network and community needs.

A navigation system (a comprehensive source of information that the community/service providers can refer to for up-to-date information) is one of the top priorities of the HB4123 grant agreement and was called out as a stand-alone goal in the strategic plan. The strategies for this goal include the following:

• The Administrative Office will expand the LCHAB website to include a resource directory of local, regional, and state resources.
• Establish a Lincoln County Service Integration Program
• Improve local data collection through expanding the use of HUD, OHCS and IHN CCO approved platforms (HMIS, Shelter Point, Unite Us) by local service providers.

Goal #5: Integrate local housing, community services, economic development, and transportation efforts to support and provide resources for community organizations.

Prior to integrating municipal efforts to support/provide resources, the LCHAB needs to be informed on what support those entities are seeking. The strategy for this goal includes the following:

• Identify the key gaps in service delivery to assist in strategically aligning funding and programs to those areas. Note: This strategy also aligns with Goal #2, strategy #3.