At its January meeting, the Development Council accepted a generous offer of support of $50,000 per year for three years from Jim Seymour on behalf of the Community, Business and Education Leaders’ Collaborative. The offer was made on the condition that annual contribution comprise no more than one-third of the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance (MWVHA)’s annual budget, and is contingent on satisfactory performance in the prior year.
On December 11, 2019, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the separation of the Marion/Polk region from the Rural Oregon Continuum of Care, re-establishing OR-504 COC for the 2-county area. On January 14, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) opened the 2020 Continuum of Care registration period, with a March 5, 2020 deadline to submit registration materials. Working with the HUD regional office to reassign projects and delineate data, the MWVHA anticipates meeting the March 5 deadline and registering MWVHA as the region’s Continuum of Care and the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments (MWVCOG) as the Collaborative Applicant. The Council agreed the January meeting would be its last. In February, members will reconvene with some additional representatives to serve as the Alliance’s Board of Directors. In preparation for that transition, the Council agreed to recommend to the Alliance’s Board of Directors the following committee assignments:
- Chair of the Coordinated Entry Committee: Ashley Hamilton with the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency (MWVCAA) ;
- Co-chairs of the HMIS Users Workgroup: Jimmy Jones with MWVCAA and Hunter Belgard with Oregon Housing and Community Services;
- Chair of the Point-in-Time Count Workgroup: Sara Webb with MWVCAA .
To make recommendations on the leadership of the Collaborative and Performance and Evaluation Committees, the Chair appointed a nominating committee consisting of herself (Cathy Clark), Lyle Mordhorst, Colm Willis, Chris Hoy and Dan Clem.
MWVCOG’s agreement to act as the Alliance’s Collaborative Applicant was conditioned on members adopting an agreement under Oregon Revised Statute 190, which authorizes local governments to form intergovernmental entities that are public bodies of the State of Oregon. The Council discussed the latest draft of an ORS 190 agreement and a five-year funding model. Once the form of the agreement has been cleared by all members’ legal counsel, it will be submitted to members’ governing bodies for approval.
Lastly, MWVCOG Executive Director Sean O’Day announced he was leaving to become Deputy Director of the Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs, and the Council approved a personal services contract between MWVCOG and Outsource Local, LLC (dba CSuite NW) for consulting services to the Alliance, bringing the total number of Alliance consultants to three (Janet Carlson, Jan Calvin and Carla Munns).
Featured photo: Development Council January 16 meeting from left: Jim Seymour, Cathy Clark, Colm Willis, Tom Pessemier.