Cowlitz County commissioners debate accepting $11M state homelessness grant

County Commissioner Rick Dahl argued at a July 28 meeting that the county should refuse the $11 million Consolidated Homeless Grant because spending money to address homelessness will draw more homeless people to the county. 

"I'm about done enabling this," he said. "The more we spend on it, the bigger problem we have."

The grant comes from the Washington State Department of Commerce. It is funded in part by document recording fees sent to the state, but is separate from county housing and homelessness programs funded by locally collected document recording fees, said Gena James, deputy director of Cowlitz County Health and Human Services. 

Once the county accepts the funding, local organizations can apply to receive part of it. If the Board of Commissioners votes not to accept it, the state will designate a nonprofit in the county to administer it instead, James said.

Dahl said at the meeting that his suggestion was inspired by the Lewis County Board of Commissioners, which also considered refusing its $6.5 million portion of the grant. The board ended up voting 2-1 to accept the funding Aug. 5, The Chronicle reported. 

The Cowlitz County commissioners did not vote on the grant, but said they would discuss the issue again at a future meeting.

Local need

HOPE Village is among the Cowlitz County programs aiming to get part of the grant funding, Longview City Councilmember Ruth Kendall said. 

The city of Longview is looking for a new operator for HOPE Village that can be licensed as a behavioral health agency, which would allow it to bill the state or Medicaid for the services it provides.

The Salvation Army, which has operated the site since 2022, opted not to apply. Its contract will expire in November. 

Billing Medicaid could allow HOPE Village to eventually become self-sustaining, Kendall said. In the meantime, however, its operating costs are about $1.5 million per year. 

Kendall said she is not sure how HOPE Village would cover those costs without help from the Consolidated Homeless Grant.

"We'd be in a real bind," she said.