HOPE Community Engagement

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Update on Community Feedback

From April 1-15, 2021, the HOPE Board engaged the community for feedback on their draft recommendations to the City of Corvallis and Benton County in the following three ways:

• An online survey on the draft recommendations for the first two weeks of April 2021. 
• A virtual public forum on April 13, 2021 from 4-6pm for feedback and questions from the community. Click here to view the meeting recording.
• In-person focus groups with clients who have experienced homelessness at Corvallis Housing First, the Corvallis Daytime Drop-In Center, Community Outreach, Inc., and SafeCamp.

The HOPE Board incorporated public feedback into their final draft recommendations at their meeting on 4/28/21.

Overview of all Draft Recommendations to the City of Corvallis and Benton County

1. Facilitate and coordinate data improvement efforts with community partners.

2. Work with providers to create metrics to measure program success.

3. Adopt the Hub Model of care coordination as a framework for doing business that coordinates existing partners to provide the best possible service to individuals.

4. Full-time paid case managers are needed to support people transitioning out of homelessness. More case managers are needed who have commensurate experience and background that reflects the people they are serving from a cultural perspective and based on lived-experience.

5. Pursue the feasibility and implementation of a crisis response team.

6. Benton County needs a 24/7/365 Emergency Sheltering System for all populations with onsite resources at any shelter location to transition people out of homelessness.

7. Facilitate and support the creation of a Resource Center.

8. Establish referral pathways to transitional and permanent housing resources for serious criminal offenders (sex offenders, felony convictions, etc.). 

9. Routine communication, notice, and community involvement need to happen on the topic of homelessness services.

10. Increase development or acquisition of affordable housing units for permanent supportive housing (PSH) by 20 new units per year for the next eight years to add at a minimum 160 new units of PSH in Benton County. “New” can be new construction or conversion of existing units to PSH units.

11. Increase available rental/income assistance options.

12. Increase supportive services and stable funding streams to provide services to residents at more affordable housing locations.

The Board will not be doing community engagement on these last three recommendations to implement the policy recommendations.

13. Organizational capacity is needed to work on and implement these recommendations, and organizational capacity needs to be built within social service organizations to manage and provide the services.

14. Funding recommendations

15. Legislative Advocacy

See the final accepted HOPE Recommendations here

Previous Public Engagement

Survey responses for the first four priority topics closed on 1/1/2021. The full presentation of public feedback from surveys and community listening sessions was presented at the HOPE Board meeting on 1/27/21. The public feedback in 2020 shaped the policy recommendations above. Upcoming meeting information is listed on the HOPE Meetings Page.

Community Organizations Being Engaged

List of Benton County Community Organizations being engaged in providing feedback to the HOPE Advisory Board.