The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved a year of funding for certain homeless and housing programs this week as a push by some of the commissioners for deeper scrutiny continues.
During a Tuesday business meeting, Lewis County Commissioners Lindsey Pollock, Scott Brummer and Sean Swope voted unanimously to approve five contracts that will fund homeless and housing service providers in the county.
Four of the five contracts will fund service providers through the end of the fiscal year until June 30, 2026. The fifth will fill a gap in funding for Reliable Enterprises from the first of July to the end of September.
All together, the funding approved on Tuesday amounts to just over $1 million for four providers through the end of the year and reimburses Reliable Enterprises for some previous expenses. The back pay contract was the smallest sum approved this week in the amount of $51,300.
According to Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Director Meja Handlen, a similar contract extension with Reliable Enterprises is pending approval from the nonprofit.
“We are currently waiting for an amendment to be signed by Reliable Enterprises that would extend the contract to June 30, 2026,” Handlen said. “And add some funding, but this is to fill that gap from July 1 to Sep. 30.”
The four contract extensions are between Lewis County and a group of local service providers: Coastal Community Action Program (CAP), Housing Resource Center, The Salvation Army and Hope Alliance.
The largest portions of the funding were approved for Coastal CAP and the Hope Alliance. Between the short-term funding already approved since July and this week's increase, Coastal CAP will receive a total of $829,000 this fiscal year to fund two programs. The majority will go to the Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) program that provides financial assistance for housing or other essentials and homeless prevention, a form of rental assistance.
Hope Alliance will receive a total of $245,122 for its programs that provide housing, case management and other services for people fleeing domestic violence. The Housing Resource Center will receive $175,000 this fiscal year for rapid rehousing services and The Salvation Army will receive $125,000 for its coordinated entry program that provides case management, diversion, rapid rehousing and more.
The funding comes just over three months after the previous contracts between the county and the service providers expired. Ahead of the contracts’ expiration in June, Brummer and Swope aired concerns over growing funding from the state. The two argued that growing services may attract more people seeking services.
The contracts approved by the Board of Commissioners are between Lewis County and local providers. But the funding for the programs ultimately comes from the Washington state Department of Commerce. The money is part of the statewide Consolidated Homeless Grant (CHG), which gives money to local governments and providers across the state to support programs meant to fund homeless and housing programs.
Brummer and Swope originally pushed for the state to reduce the amount it would send to the county. Opposed to that course of action, Pollock advocated for accepting the full amount while providing more accountability at the county level and looking at not spending the full amount.
The board ultimately approved the full amount from the state — approximately $6.5 million in funding — with Brummer agreeing with Pollock’s suggestions. Since accepting the funding, the county has approved short-term funding while taking a closer look at the programs they are supporting. In September, service providers came to the Board of Commissioners to give presentations justifying their funding requests.
The scrutiny may continue into the future as the county looks to issue a request for proposals for its consolidated entry program currently operated by The Salvation Army. With that issue in mind, Brummer asked if the county could terminate the contracts before their official end date. The request for proposals would ask other providers to bid on the program to see if another organization could provide the same service for a lower cost.
According to Handlen, the county can terminate the contracts early if needed, but in that case would need to make preparations for the transition.
“All of our agreements have specific clauses related to that,” Handlen said. “We require a transition plan if we do change providers in the middle of a contract.”
