QuickTake:

But challenges remain as the county looks to serve people who are unhoused.

Lane County’s budget for homeless services won’t be facing an immediate $2.3 million shortfall after all.

But the county still has an $800,000 gap for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in July, for homeless shelter funding and related services. 

First, the good news: There will be fewer reductions and essentially a one-year reprieve that gives the county time to prepare for deeper cuts in future years. 

Much of the reduced gap is because the county’s allocation of statewide funding for shelters in the next fiscal year is $8.7 million — a $1.1 million increase from last year. 

The bad news: The county’s overall shortfall will remain, as other sources of one-time funds go down. The county’s shelter services rely upon a combination of state and federal dollars. 

The diminished resources come as the county and state face a weakening social safety net as programs like Medicaid and federal food benefits face cuts and restrictions from the federal administration.

“We continue to see a reduction in the overall amount of funding available to support both folks who are unhoused in our community, as well as those who are at risk of losing their housing, which is very challenging,” said Kate Budd, manager for Lane County’s Human Services Division.

Lane County staffers do not directly run shelters. Rather, the county distributes available funding to local privately run shelters and providers, often run by nonprofits. 

This fiscal year, the county is supporting 514 beds in shelters across the region. 

The county’s making a cut by 30 beds — but not across the board in every provider. The county is ending an agreement with Carry It Forward, a provider with 20 beds, over contract issues, officials said.

Separately from that issue, the county trimmed another 10 beds in the system through ShelterCare’s FUSE program, which stands for Frequent User Systems Engagement, county officials said.

There also will be less street outreach. 

County officials anticipate further advocacy with the state for increased shelter funding. 

“We tend to do more with less in Lane County than most counties, and the reason for that is we have a very strong network of local providers, and we have a great relationship with the city of Eugene and the city of Springfield, so we tend to do more than other providers are able to,” Commissioner Pat Farr said in an interview. “The compounding factor is that with much of our allocation we have, we serve people quite often with high acuity, that is to say, people who have greater health needs that coincide with their housing needs.”

In lean times, providers need to be adaptive and pivot to meet needs, said Bethany Cartledge, executive director at nonprofit St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County. 

“We all know that it’s in our collective best interest to continue to proactively reduce homelessness, help people get into housing,” Cartledge said. “I think that folks are rising to the occasion, but still, we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.