Clatsop County will soon have two liaisons dedicated to connecting homeless people to social services, along with gathering data and addressing gaps in outreach.
The positions, funded by the county and Clatsop Community Action, grew out of an Astoria task force on homelessness. The liaisons will work under Clatsop Community Action and the agency is trying to secure continuous funding into the future.
The Astoria Warming Center is among the services available to the homeless.
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Viviana Matthews, the agency’s executive director, said about 20 people applied for what was initially one position.
The task force envisioned at least two people serving the homeless throughout the county, but limited the position to one due to funding constraints. After securing additional money, Clatsop Community Action hired two people.
During a task force meeting on Thursday, Matthews announced that Cheryl Paul, of Astoria, and Shannon Turner, of Texas, will begin in April.
Paul has worked at the Astoria Warming Center for the past several years. She also volunteers at the Beacon Clubhouse in Astoria, which does homeless and mental health outreach.
Turner has worked in social services for over four years, and most recently served at a coronavirus recovery shelter.
Paul and Turner will coordinate with law enforcement and social service agencies. Matthews hopes that in addition to connecting people to services, the work will result in fewer people visiting hospital emergency rooms.
Clatsop Community Action will reach out to local government leaders to be part of an advisory committee to help oversee the homeless liaisons’ mission.
Matthews reminded the task force that the root of homelessness is the housing crisis.
“I mean, we’ll do the best we can, but please remember, the housing inventory is extremely low — kind of nonexistent right now,” she said.
“Housing is our No. 1 issue.”
Police Chief Geoff Spalding, who chairs the task force and was part of the hiring process for the homeless liaisons, called the two positions a significant accomplishment. He said the advisory committee is still a work in progress.
“In addition to reaching out to cities and counties, as we grow this program and we add new financial partners, too, we will definitely be looking to add individuals to the advisory committee outside of the government entities,” Spalding said. “So I look forward to having more partners in this on many levels to make sure that we have as much input as possible.
“And I think this program will probably look very different two years from now than it will today, and we will learn from this. And also, we will track our progress and see how effective the program is in our community, which is what I think a lot of people will be looking for.”
Assistant County Manager Monica Steele, who also serves on the task force and was involved in the hiring process, thanked Matthews for securing the additional funding to hire two people.
“I think we all knew from the beginning that there’s more work than one person can handle,” Steele said. “And so from a funding perspective, Viviana really went out and tried to find additional funding so that when we had two good candidates come before us, that we were able to to hire both of them.”
