Gin Pack, left, lieutenant with the Salvation Army in Centralia, talks about the shelter at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds in June.
Lewis County will receive additional funding from the state and allocate more funds to an existing agreement with The Salvation Army to assist with combating the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic in the county’s homeless population.
At the Board of County Commissioners’ weekly business meeting on Monday, the BOCC unanimously approved an agreement with the state Department of Commerce to provide $198,017 to the county to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic among individuals and families who are homeless or receiving homeless assistance in Lewis County.”
“The intent of these funds is to help mitigate the spread of COVID by providing outreach services directly into the community,” said Meja Handlen, the county’s housing coordinator. “We are specifically targeting service providers that will go into the community and will reach people in the east end of the community, the west end and the Twin Cities.”
The funding from the Department of Commerce is for a two-year period, going from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022, according to the resolution proposal.
The BOCC also unanimously approved an amendment to an existing contract with The Salvation Army that extends the duration of the contract and also adds an additional $41,334 in funding.
The contract, which is for homeless prevention services in the county through The Salvation Army, was initially intended to last from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, but was extended to October 31, 2020.
“The largest majority (of the funds) is in prevention and retention,” said J.P. Anderson, director of Lewis County Public Health and Social Services. “That is where they are working with individuals in the community who are at risk of becoming homeless.”
