Unity Shelter has announced they will close their Men’s Shelter in South Corvallis on Tuesday, June 20.
The Hygiene Center at that location, which provides food and services such as laundry and showers to people who are homeless, will continue operating with some reduction in hours and days of operation.
Some Men Will be Moved to a New Location: Some of the men who sleep at the Men’s Shelter will be moved to the Room at the Inn facility, located in Corvallis’ First United Methodist Church. This facility has been women only, but it has now been reworked to accommodate both women and men, although they will be segregated.
Capacity at other facilities that serve people who are homeless, such as Third Street Commons in South Corvallis and Safe Camp, at the First Congregational Church of Corvallis, will not be reduced.
Shelter Worker Layoffs: Unity Shelter will lay off 18 staff members, who have already been notified. The layoffs represent about a third of the nonprofit’s staff.
The organization’s board chair Virginia Lucker said, “The Unity Shelter staff are trained professionals who provide a vital service to our unhoused community members, providing not just physical shelter, but perhaps more importantly, a sense of stability. The cut in our operations deprives our very dedicated and capable staff of their livelihoods. We are hopeful that we will be able to resume our full operations by fall. In the meantime, we will see an even higher number of people in our community who have no place to legally exist. This is a tragic situation for our entire community.”
Why This is Happening: According to Unity Shelter staffers, even though the walkout in the Oregon Senate that had stalled the Legislature has ended, the uncertainty that has jeopardized funding for Unity Shelter’s programs remains, prompting changes in the Corvallis organization’s efforts to shelter people who are homeless.
In response to the uncertainty, the board and staff of Unity Shelter have been forced to take steps to cut expenses, while also working to maintain its programs to the extent possible.
Funding for Unity Shelter comes from a mix of state and federal grants, foundation awards and private donations. The bulk of its funding for the last three years has come from awards received by Community Services Consortium, the agency assigned to manage many of these funds. Unity Shelter relies on funding that usually is awarded in May or early June to support its operations for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
But the walkout by senators in the Legislature meant that funding opportunities that typically would have been announced in May by Community Services Consortium have not yet been announced, since the consortium’s budget hinges on the still-unapproved state budget. Even if the Legislature approves a budget by its June 25 adjournment, it might be a month or longer before money becomes available for Unity Shelter services.
“Unity Shelter has limited reserves,” said Shawn Collins, Unity Shelter’s executive director, “and without either new funding, or a shift in operations, we are at risk of running out of money to sustain staff and operations within the next few months.” With questions still swirling around funding, Collins said, Unity Shelter was forced to trim costs.
The steps Unity Shelter is taking should save about $90,000 a month, Collins said, which would allow the organization to continue operating through September in the absence of new state money.
“We are a nonprofit, dependent on funding streams which are never guaranteed, so there’s always risk when we enter grant season,” Collins said. “But we’ve never seen funding so completely at risk.”
Collins added: “This will impact many – those who will go without shelter, our staff and the broader community – and we will work diligently to minimize those impacts.”
People who want to donate to Unity Shelter can do so by going to the website unityshelter.org and clicking on the “Donate” button. People who want to volunteer for Unity Shelter can go to the Unity Shelter homepage and click on the “Volunteer” button.
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