Commissioners support county’s five-year homeless housing plan

(Editor’s note: Details provided by notes from Okanogan County Watch, info@countywatch.org)

OKANOGAN – For those looking for homes to rent or purchase in the county it’s old news that affordable housing is in short supply. According to the state’s Office of Financial Management the county is 2,000 housing units behind and there are 600 homeless people in the county including those in RVs not hooked up to services.

That’s the message Rena Shawver, Executive Director of the Okanogan County Community Action Council (OCCAC) brought to the July 3 meeting of the Board of Okanogan County Commissioners (BOCC).

Shawver was there with Nancy Nash Mendez, executive Director of the Okanogan County Housing Coalition (OCHC) to discuss OCHC’s five-year homeless housing plan scheduled to update by Dec. 2024, and ask for BOCC’s permission to post a request for proposal (RFP) to find a consultant to help.

“We want the plan to be more comprehensive,” said Shawver. “We’ve looked at several other counties’ housing plans and some counties are working with consultants. We’d like the work to include a review of the mission and goals of the OCHC.”

Shawver said the groups’ tasks include:

1. Review of the mission and goals of the OCHC.

2. Assemble a project planning team.

3. Meet with design support.

4. Community event observation input

5. Community work groups.

6. Data analysis input and sorting.

7. Financial analysis and resource development. A plan to show how to achieve it financially.

8. An analysis of our social service systems, collaboration, duplication, and wrap-around support.

9. The actual written document.

“The whole idea is to get a consultant involved who would engage with a cross section of the community - business community, law enforcement, members of the housing coalition - and others interested in solving the homeless housing situation so we move forward collaboratively and also identify funding sources,” said Shawver. “We’ve been meeting with a federal interagency work group—HUD, USDA, Federal Reserve and others—about how to bring more affordable housing to the county.”

Shawver said the plan, required by the state and due by December 2024, will help identify what projects are attainable in the county.

“Today we are asking your permission to move forward, post the RFP and seek out a consultant to help us move forward,” Shawver said.

Shawver came with a list of consultants provided by the state Department of Commerce but added that a local one would be preferred.

Funding was discussed with a possible source for the recording fees mandated under the state’s Homeless Housing program (HB 2163) passed in 2005.

Commissioner Andy Hover’s motion that the BOCC clerk publish the RFP to satisfy the state requirement to update the five-year homeless housing plan for Okanogan County was approved.