Community must step up to address area homeless problems
A political stumbling block needs to become a stepping stone for efforts to address ongoing housing security issues in Taylor County.
Last week members of the Taylor County board voted to withdraw from being the conduit for a state and federal grant program for a planned homeless shelter in the city of Medford.
The nonprofit group, Taylor County Supportive Housing, had been working for more than a year to secure a location and get a facility opened to address ongoing housing security needs in the community. Currently, emergency motel room vouchers are issued through funding from such agencies as the Salvation Army. While this gives people a roof over their heads and a bed to sleep in for a night or two, it is a band-aid approach which does little to address the underlying issues which lead to homelessness among individuals and families.
TCSH has the goal of opening Taylor House to serve as a stable place for people to regain a sense of housing security, secure and maintain employment, save money for a deposit and transition into permanent housing in the community. TCSH appeared well on their way to bringing this vision into a reality tapping into community development block grant (CDBG) funds to purchase and rehabilitate an existing building. Under the grant rules, the county had to be the one to apply for the funds with costs reimbursed from the state and federal funds as they were spent.
As anyone who has worked with grants knows, there are strings attached to every project to the point where it becomes a challenge not to get tangled up in those strings. That is exactly what happened to the Taylor House project with the strings dictating the need for more than a half-million dollars in building renovations and a tight timeline for the work to be done. There is also the threat that if the project isn’t done on time, all the funds spent would have to be repaid. This was simply too much potential risk for members of the county board to take on, let alone expanding the perceived risk with seeking additional state and federal grant dollars.
Rather than allowing this setback to sink the Taylor House project, members of the TCSH and the community instead must view it as a potential springboard. Unencumbered by unrealistic requirements and timelines, TCSH can move forward with a renovation project that makes sense for Medford and addresses the needs here and not the mandates from Madison or Washington D.C.
Now is the time for community groups, businesses and individuals to rally and support TCSH and the Taylor House project. It is time to ensure that all people have a warm bed to sleep in, a secure roof over their heads and an opportunity for a fresh start to get them back on their feet.
