Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance
Serving Marion and Polk counties, Oregon
The lack of proper and stable housing puts people in physical danger. Not only are they more susceptible to diseases, but they’re also vulnerable to theft and assault from living on the streets. More importantly, mental illness, in addition to adverse childhood experiences and substance use, are risk factors for homelessness. Indeed, it’s estimated that…
Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States are experiencing homelessness living in shelters or on the streets — in tents, encampments or sheds. One way the federal government measures homelessness is by counting people who are sleeping on the streets or in shelters on a given night, an event known as the Point-in-Time…
A person experiencing chronic homelessness is generally defined as an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition, who has been homeless for more than one year. It’s more common for people experiencing chronic homelessness to also deal with a certain disability, mental health condition, addiction or other debilitating conditions that restrict their ability to escape…
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development released two Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for which the Alliance and other Marion-Polk region nonprofit organizations, governments, faith-based organizations, and tribal organizations are eligible to apply: the annual NOFO for the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program funding and a special NOFO for unsheltered homelessness. The Request…
The Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance is a Continuum of Care (CoC). You may have heard our name used synonymously with the “Alliance” or “CoC,” because we use these terms interchangeably to describe our organization. Our official name is Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance. To shorten it we use “the Alliance,” but are categorized as a CoC…
Every year, millions of people around the world honor the month of May as Mental Health Awareness Month. During this time, people fight the stigma against mental illness, educate the public, and advocate for change regarding various mental health conditions. How does mental health impact our local community members experiencing homelessness? Researchers agree that between…
This week the Alliance issued a Request for Proposals for local projects aimed at ending youth homelessness in the Marion-Polk region. Organizations can compete for approximately $3.4 million in HUD funding for programs designed to identify homeless youth, provide support services and establish or expand access to transitional housing and rapid re-housing so that the…
Collaborative Committee members looked back at their one-year anniversary and discussed how services for people experiencing homelessness have improved after working together through the Alliance. These highlights from their conversation prove that working together works.