The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) is sifting through applications of those looking to receive funding from the $200 million Governor Tina Kotek authorized to fight homelessness.
Central Oregon has been awarded nearly $14 million of that. Nonprofits and city governments are among those making requests.
“A project in Madras, a project in Redmond, a project in Bend. Really, a good group of projects that out of the gate will give a sharing of that funding across the region,” said COIC Executive Director Tammy Baney.
So many projects, in fact, that it would cost $21 million. That’s $7 million more than the governor is allocating for the High Desert.
COIC is picking seven projects to move forward with at this point.
“We know we need to serve veterans. We need to serve out medically fragile. We also need to serve LGBTQ+ youth,” said Baney.
>>> Central Oregon Daily News is on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and share our videos.
One of the biggest allocations of funds is going to the City of Madras.
“This will be a 29 bed facility. It’ll be a shelter that’ll have a congregate kitchen area facility as well. They intend to do some affordable housing in that area too,” said Baney.
RELATED: Homeless village for women, families begins building in SE Bend
RELATED: Construction begins on Redmond’s first low-barrier homeless shelter
Eleven other projects are in the works, but the council needs more information about their proposals.
“We will be working with those projects to get the questions answered and then we are coming up with a mechanism in which we might be able to fund them before we do another funding allocation,” said Baney.
She says Crook County has not filled out an application for any of the state money.
“We’re working closely with that community to make sure that they are represented and funded with the funding, too, to support their needs,” said Baney.
While the money does not have to be spent all at once, it does need to be committed to projects by January 2024.
