The Coastal Community Action Program appeared in front of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, March 26, to present a one-year update on their time as the county's Housing and Essential Needs Referral Program (HEN) provider.
The presentation showed that in 2024 the program ensured that 102 Lewis County residents obtained or retained housing. That includes helping 58 residents stay in their homes through rental assistance and rapidly rehousing another 44 residents who needed a new housing arrangement.
The Housing and Essential Needs Referral Program was created by the State of Washington in 2011. The program is funded by the Washington State Department of Health and Social Services.
The Coastal Community Action Program is a nonprofit based in Aberdeen that serves as the mandated program for Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. But it also offers other social services, such as working as a HEN provider in other counties and cities across Washington.
The program calculates that they were able to provide $560,519.75 in rent and utility assistance to Lewis County residents in 2024 and estimate that that money helped to support 82 landlords in the community. The average rent cost of those receiving rental assistance was $606 a month.
The program takes a more involved approach to the Housing and Essential Needs Referral Program, which they call a “care-coordinated” model. Unlike many other providers who simply provide assistance funds or resources to HEN eligible community members, the Coastal Community Action Program regularly meets with the people who use their services.
“When things start to fall apart, they can go right to this person and say, ‘hey, things are starting to slip here,’” Housing and Community Services Program Manager Cache McCallum said. “They have someone they can go to regularly and freely to kind of dial in the process as they go.”
That enables the program to help people who need help with rent with other things, such as accessing mental health resources or looking for a new job.
In the presentation, the program boasted 154 behavioral health referrals for residents of Lewis County, which includes referrals for both mental health and substance use disorder. Twenty-seven of the referrals were for inpatient treatment while 127 were for outpatient treatment at faith-based organization programs.
In addition to accessing housing, the program helped people find new jobs, get an education, access medical insurance and establish a primary care provider.
