Scrutiny of funding for local housing and homelessness programs continues in Lewis County as the Board of Lewis County Commissioners takes a closer look at the programs sustained by state grant dollars.
During a directors update on Wednesday, Aug. 27, the commissioners held a workshop to hear from the many nonprofits that provide a range of housing and homelessness services in the county. The grant from the state goes to many counties and nonprofits to fund what the state calls “homeless crisis response systems.”
In Lewis County, those dollars go to the housing and essential needs program, the local night-by-night shelter and other programs designed to prevent or address homelessness.
The workshop to take a closer look at how the money is actually spent came at the request of the Lewis County commissioners amid a push for increased accountability over the funds. The county recently accepted its largest ever allocation from the state under the Consolidated Homeless Grant, totaling more than $6 million.
When the contract for those funds was originally proposed by the state, it drew the ire of Lewis County Commissioners Scott Brummer and Sean Swope, who called the jump in spending "unconscionable." The two raised concerns of the rising funding increasing services in Lewis County and potentially attracting people from other areas seeking services.
As a result, the commissioners put off renewing contracts with its service providers in pursuit of securing a new contract with the state that would commit less funds. However, despite securing a new contract proposal that would reduce funding from the state under the grant by $1.4 million, the county commissioners instead opted to accept the full amount but exercise deeper scrutiny at the county level. That decision came from a rare 2-1 vote with Brummer and Commissioner Lindsey Pollock voting in favor and Swope dissenting.
During the meeting Wednesday, commissioners asked some occasional questions and Swope voiced similar concerns as in the past, showing frustration at the restrictions placed on the grant funding that comes from the state that limits which programs it can help fund. He additionally aired frustration at Lewis County’s numbers with respect to how many individuals are being put into long-term housing.
In response, Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Director Meja Handlen stood by the value of the programs the county already provides and testified to their need for funding, but also added that she believes more funding for focused programs that are medium or even high barrier would also serve the county well.
Each of the six nonprofits that provide services within Lewis County got a chance to give a brief overview of their services and testify to their value. The six providers consisted of the Coastal Community Action Program, The Salvation Army, the Housing Resource Center, Hope Alliance of Lewis County, Reliable Enterprises and Comunicativo.
Coastal Community Action Program
The Coastal Community Action Program (CCAP) is based in Aberdeen, but serves as the housing and essential needs (HEN) provider for Lewis County. During the meeting, the nonprofit was represented by its chief financial officer, Lucy Machowek, and its program manager, Steevie Johnson.
The duo began their presentation speaking to the nonprofit’s role as the community's housing and essential needs provider. That program is a form of state-funded financial assistance. Those who are eligible for housing and essential needs can receive money to help them pay for rent, groceries and prescriptions. Many who receive housing and essential needs funding are in fact eligible for other financial assistance programs such as Social Security, but access the program while waiting to be approved and receive support from the federal government.
During the meeting, Johnson presented statistics to the commissioners to show the money that the program uses and who it serves. According to Johnson, CCAP received $874,028 from Lewis County and with that money served 112 Lewis County residents with referrals to the housing and essential needs program. The manager also added that, according to a state database, the provider had 41 positive exits from its housing and essential needs program signaling that 41 of the program's clients stopped needing the assistance because they could manage without it.
“Coastal Community Action Program is headquartered in Grays Harbor County, but we are very excited and happy to be here providing HEN services,” Machowek said. “The folks that are on the housing essential need program, they're about 80 to 90% permanent residents here in the county … So, we are directly serving the county residents here in your area.”
Salvation Army
Captains Gin and Steven Pack with the Salvation Army presented to the board on the Lewis County chapter’s services funded with grant funds.
According to Gin Pack, the funds help pay for night-by-night shelter operations, coordinated entry program outreach and eviction prevention. Pack included that the Salvation Army as an organization also provides additional funding of its own for the night-by-night shelter to cover costs that are not covered by the Consolidated Homeless Grant.
Coordinated entry is designed to connect individuals with resources and can provide referrals for individuals to apply for shelter housing and rental assistance of their programs.
During Gin Pack’s time speaking, Swope asked details about the provider's outreach to areas of Lewis County outside of the Centralia and Chehalis area, especially services provided to East Lewis County.
Gin Pack responded that the Salvation Army reaches out to other parts of the county in a number of different ways. Most significantly, the service provider does weekly outreach on Mondays in Morton and added that they recently conducted outreach in the Randle and Packwood areas as well.
“In Lewis County, and anytime someone mentions ‘hey, we saw someone that looks like they might be homeless,’ we actually have a team that goes out and then we also have a couple of options,” Gin Pack said. “People can email, they can call in. We also have a QR code that's on a business card.”
Housing Resource Center
The Housing Resource Center is based in Centralia and operates a transitional shelter for individuals as well as a family shelter. The nonprofit was represented by Executive Director Ruth Gutierrez and Program Manager Michael Manning.
The transitional housing shelter offers housing to 14 individuals who are referred to the program by the Salvation Army or other Lewis County providers through the coordinated entry program. The housing is designed to get people off the streets and produces shelter as well as other household goods, but does not feed its residents. Operated in a similar way, the family shelter offers housing to five families — up to 24 individuals — and currently has three families.
During the meeting, the provider added that because of funding challenges the organization has decided to switch its transitional shelter to low income housing units that will be rented out significantly below the average market value in the area.
“My board has decided to make that move in order to make it kind of pencil out, because it wasn't penciling out before,” Gutierrez said. “But we want to keep the family shelter and maintain that because it is the only family shelter in our community.”
Gutierrez said they have been in a sort of limbo pending the approval of their contracts, leading to them giving most of their residents a 90-day notice of vacation and putting a pause on accepting any new clients into the shelter.
Comunicativo
Comunicativo, represented during the meeting by its director, Dianna Torres, is the smallest recipient of the Consolidated Homeless Grant funds among the service providers in Lewis County and helps with outreach to individuals in the county who speak English as a second or third language — or possibly even more.
Torres highlighted some of the programs the provider runs helping individuals apply for entry-level jobs, find educational opportunities or apply for financial assistance programs.
During the presentation, Swope questioned why the funding to Comunicativo was so small, wondering if programs that Comunicativo is capable of could be funded with the Consolidated Homeless Grant. Handlen added context to the situation, reminding the commissioners that the Consolidated Homeless Grant is limited in what it can fund.
Hope Alliance
Kris Camenzind, executive director of Hope Alliance of Lewis County, presented her organization's services over Zoom during the Wednesday meeting. Hope Alliance is a local domestic violence resource that provides 24-hour support to abuse victims.
According to Camenzind, the Hope Alliance uses the grant funds it receives from the county to help fund in a small part the organization's shelter and also support the group’s eviction prevention program to help women who experience domestic violence to stay even if they have lost income due to a partner being removed.
The group operates a six-person shelter and, according to Camenzind, in July 2025 helped 145 clients. She added that the program is particularly in need of funding as it recently lost $200,000 from the Housing and Urban Development grant program.
Reliable Enterprises
Andy Skinner, executive director of Reliable Enterprises, presented on his organization's needs and uses for the grant funds it receives from the county and by extension the state.
According to Skinner, his organization uses the funds primarily to pay for case management and rental subsidies. The organization provides case management for many individuals who live in one of its affordable housing facilities. According to Skinner, the nonprofit currently has between 140 and 145 units of affordable housing and is developing a third building for affordable housing units.
Skinner added that many of the units the nonprofit manages are targeted at serving individuals with disabilities or families with children in local school districts.
For the family housing for school-age children, families have to prove that they have a child enrolled in a local school.
