10-23-17 City Council Agenda Packet

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• St. Mary's Episcopal • Jesco Club • Lane Transit District (LTD) These are not the only organizations who worked with rest stop and OVE residents, as many program residents also have their own working relationships and seek out assistance on their own with other service providers. Accomplishments • In 2016, rest stops and OVE provided the safety and stability needed to help 81 formerly homeless individuals find permanent housing. Combined with the numbers reported in 2015, OVE and rest stops have assisted 136 people in achieving stable, permanent housing in the last two-year reporting period. • A total of 636 hours of community service in City parks were contributed by OVE and rest stop residents. OVE volunteers contributed 432 hours cleaning and painting over graffiti at the Sladden Park restroom. This encompasses 212 straight days, without a break, from April to November. NHS volunteers contributed 108 hours in three projects. And CSS volunteers contributed 96 hours during four projects. • CSS opened a fourth Safe Spot at NW Expressway and Chambers, utilizing volunteers from existing Safe Spots to build and set up the new site that prioritizes women in need of safe shelter. • OVE hired a Village Coordinator through a grant from Oregon Community Foundation who is working ten hours a week providing administrative support to the village. A Social Work intern from PSU also temporarily assisted residents with their transition plans. • OVE acquired a new gazebo, built by a group of college students from Northern Idaho College who spent their spring break constructing the gazebo and doing a clean-up of the site. • Senator Jeff Merkley toured OVE in September. • OVE created a new Oversight Committee to take on more of the supervisory tasks at the site, allowing the Executive Director more capacity to expand the work of the nonprofit SquareOne Villages. • A new Food for Lane County food pantry was established at the main CSS office on Grant St. • CSS installed grey -water collection tanks at the rest stops at NW Expressway, as well as two solar charging station systems and gravel pathways at two rest stops. They also updated kitchen facilities at the Veterans Safe Spot; updated common space facilities at all of its rest stops with hard -shelled, movable buildings, 12 volt lighting systems, cell phone charging areas, and wood burning stoves for heat; and established new weekly Communication Meetings designed to help promote healthy communication between camp residents. • Both rest stops and OVE benefited from significant in-kind donations of items as well as time from community members with skills such as a health nurse, mediation counselors, a group facilitator, a baker, and many more. Challenges The City and NHS continue to face challenges in identifying a long-term location for an NHS rest stop. Finding new potential sites, particularly in areas of the city outside of the industrial area, is challenging, due to both the availability of sites that meet criteria for a rest stop and the need to engage sufficiently with neighbors before establishing a new site. It is a struggle for the rest stop programs to maintain stable funding and secure the resources needed for general operations, program expansion, and more adequate staff pay. Operators hope to achieve more stable and developed financial foundations that will allow them to grow their programs.