Emergency Cold Weather Sheltering: Early this year Benton County contracted with FHC Faith, Hope & Charity Inc. to establish an inclement weather shelter program for houseless individuals.
At the July 17 Corvallis City Meeting, April Holland, interim county Health Department director, gave an overview to the council on how the program worked.
“This program was triggered by severe weather and air quality. This is an overflow program and not for those that have established shelter or housing,” said Holland. “As a component for this program, we required coordination with other providers such as FHC.”
From January 28 to March 25, there were a total of 17 nights activated for emergency weather or freezing temperatures for the sheltering program. Each of those nights averaged 48 people who stayed at the 4 shelter locations.
“Initially it was hotel-based sheltering and there were three Corvallis hotels used, but they were unable to meet the demands. Through First Christian Church an additional site was added as a congregate site,” said Holland.
The startup cost of the project was $11,541 dollars, which Holland says was burned through fairly quickly. There was a $64,834 dollar activation fee totaling from each night making the total cost of this project $76,375. The average cost per night was $95 per person.
“This program was really eye opening to me and a good opportunity to establish future needs,” said Holland. “It wasn’t all unicorns and roses however, some of the rooms were smoked in and some damage occurred at the hotels. I don’t think this was easy for the FHC volunteers or those that participated.”
Throughout the 17 nights that the program was activated a total of 322 people stayed in hotels, and 154 stayed at the church.
Child Care Crisis: During an information sharing meeting, the Benton County Board of Commissioners will get an overview of the county’s childcare program on July 25.
Representatives from the Early Learning Hub of Linn, Benton and Lincoln Counties will talk about the impact the lack of childcare resources has on working families in these neighboring counties.
In May 2022, it was reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that the average Oregon salary was $$62,680. In Oregon, the standard cost for base-quality childcare is $13,000 per year, per child, according to supporting documents provided to the county.
Some of the solutions Hub will address include a business outreach initiative, that would convince employers, especially private business leaders, to invest in childcare. Secondly, a growing care program that would create an aggressive, professional, proactive recruitment campaign to find and license more home-based childcare providers.
Part of the presentation is how can the Benton County Board of Commissioners help?
- Lobbying: Support and promote childcare initiatives
- Influence: Help to promote childcare within the county, and help with networking to continue expanding partnerships
- Spreading the word: You know what we do now, you know the people of Benton. if childcare comes up in conversation, tell them about us and what we’re doing.
- Funding: Even if its change in the couch cushions, every bit helps
For more information and resources visit, https://lblearlylearninghub.org/home/
Deep Dive, Corvallis’ Child Care Desert: Last year, The Advocate conducted a Cityspeak town hall focused on the deeper drivers and impacts of our area’s child care crisis.
Our panelists included:
- Helen Higgins, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis
- Brenda Daigle, Director, Corvallis Community Children’s Centers
- Amy Luhn, Director, OSU Family Resource Center
- Megan Pratt, Coordinator, Oregon Child Care Research Partnership
To view the town hall: https://corvallisadvocate.com/2022/cityspeak-qa-livestream-corvalliss-childcare-shortage/
By Jennifer Warner
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