A low-barrier shelter in downtown Astoria is pushing back at how Clatsop County distributed state money meant to fund beds for unhoused people.
LiFEBoat operates the lowest barrier shelter in Clatsop County. Guests can’t use drugs or alcohol while inside the 22-bed shelter, but LiFEBoat does not require them to commit to sobriety and does not require a referral from another agency in order to get a bed. Guests come in the evening and leave in the morning. The shelter is — more or less — first come, first served.
“We are the only shelter in the county where a person can walk in off the street directly into a bed,” said Osarch Orak, executive director of LiFEBoat Services.
It’s a type of shelter that other providers have said is very much needed in the landscape of shelter options across the county.
This fall, Clatsop County received and distributed $1.8 million in funding from the state to operate the county-wide shelter system, allocating money to a handful of partners who provide shelter beds in a variety of ways, including LiFEBoat.
The money comes out of efforts by the state to create and maintain more shelter beds in communities across Oregon after Governor Tina Kotek directed state agencies in 2023 to prioritize reducing homelessness statewide. In the prior biennium, Clatsop County surpassed its shelter bed goals, creating 95 shelter beds, most of which were funded with the money from Oregon Housing and Community Services.
But the $1.8 million the county received this biennium represents a 6% decrease in this funding overall compared to the prior biennium. Even with this decrease, the state has mandated that established services should not decrease.
At a recent Clatsop County Board of Commissioners meeting, Orak and Erin Carlsen of LiFEBoat Services said they are being asked to shoulder a 27% decrease this biennium under the allocation formula Clatsop County developed, more than other county partners who also provide shelter to unhoused people.
Orak and Carlsen, speaking to KMUN, compared their situation with Columbia Inn, a 21-room emergency shelter managed by Clatsop Community Action that caters to families, people fleeing domestic violence, youth, people with mobility issues, people from underserved communities and veterans. Under the county’s distribution formula, they said Columbia Inn is receiving more money without being asked to increase the number of beds on offer.
LiFEBoat is set to receive $454,697 for this biennium — not enough, according to Carlsen and Orak, to maintain the services and beds they currently offer. In the previous biennium, they received $625,000.
Clatsop Community Action received $625,000 in the previous biennium for the Columbia Inn. This time around, the agency will receive $817,416 for operating a minimum of 58 beds at Columbia Inn.
Helping Hands received $286,304 last time and will receive $306,979 now.
The Harbor, which provides services to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault, is the only other partner besides LiFEBoat to see a decrease in funds — from $132,840 last time to $119,580 this time.
Orak and Carlsen told KMUN they have reached out to the state about their concerns with how Clatsop County distributed the money. They argue that the county’s approach is not true to the intent of the grant requirements.
Orak maintains that they had no formal conversations with the county before being presented with a funding agreement to sign this fall. He said that when they pushed back and said they would have to reduce services, the county threatened to take away the funding altogether.
Orak and Carlsen said they signed the agreement in order to maintain what services they could.
“I invite each of you down to LiFEBoat Services’ shelter so you can help us decide what staff to lay off, which services to cut, which meals to eliminate because this is the position we are in due to the county’s funding decision,” Orak said to the county commissioners.
The county stands by its funding allocation formula.
In response to questions from KMUN, Assistant County Manager Monica Steele wrote in an email that under the contract Clatsop County has with the state, the county has an obligation to ensure no net loss of beds.
According to Steele, under the formula the county developed, if LiFEBoat dropped the numbers of days and hours the shelter could operate, the county would need to allocate less to them and give those funds to another provider who could make up the difference in what beds are available.
Steele said beds at Columbia Inn meet the state definition for “low barrier,” since the “programs and services do not screen people out due to perceived barriers like lack of employment, income, or substance use.”
“The Columbia Inn provides low barrier beds,” Steele wrote. “LiFEBoat Services provides basic overnight shelter and because they require their participants to leave every day by 6 a.m. there are beds open on a first come first serve basis when they re-open at 6 p.m. The Columbia Inn provides low-barrier Housing Focused Shelter.”
A spokesperson for Oregon Housing and Community Services, which oversees the shelter funding for the state, confirmed with KMUN that LiFEBoat had reached out about concerns with Clatsop County’s allocation approach, but said the state had not yet received and reviewed the funding allocation methodology.
She said the state does not intervene in funding decisions unless the grantee — in this case Clatsop County — is not complying with program guidelines, intent or grant requirements.