People experiencing homelessness in Astoria will have to abide by new camping codes going into effect Wednesday, July 15.
The changes to the camping codes make it illegal for people to camp knowingly on public property if they have access to “reasonable shelter,” which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. The code also provides exemptions depending on someone’s circumstances.
At the same time, Clatsop County budget and funding formula changes mean one of the city’s low-barrier shelters, LiFEBoat, will face major cuts that could lead to a reduction in services and even closure.
Osarch Orak is the executive director of the shelter. He joins us to share more on what these camping code changes mean for the nonprofit and the people they serve.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. New rules regarding homelessness in Astoria took effect today. They include changes to camping codes. It’s now illegal to camp on public property if you have access to reasonable shelter. That will be determined on a case-by-case basis. The city will also hire a new homeless liaison position and do more regional coordination on homelessness response. But at the same time, Clatsop County budget changes mean one of the city’s low barrier shelters, LiFEBoat, will be seeing major cuts that will lead to a reduction in services or even possibly closure.
Osarch Orak is the executive director of the shelter. He joins us now. Welcome back to the show.
Osarch Orak: Thank you.
Miller: So we last talked in 2022, four years ago. That was when you were providing various support services and food for people experiencing homelessness, but before you’d opened your shelter. Can you give us a sense for what LiFEBoat has become, what you’ve been doing in downtown Astoria since 2024?
Orak: Since moving into the 1040 Commercial space, which we provided day shelter services to our unhoused populations here in Astoria the last we spoke, we have begun shelter operations at that same location at 1040 Commercial. We discontinued our day services and replaced those with 22 shelter beds. We were awarded funding through the state, HB 5019, 2023. And that allowed us to gear up to open our shelter in early ‘24. Twenty-two beds, seven days a week, first come, first served. The only true low barrier shelter here in our county: walk-in, no referrals required, pets, men, women, children and all others.
Miller: And when you say the only true low barrier shelter there, what do you mean? What are the other options, or who are the populations that you serve that nobody else is serving?
Orak: Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say that no one else is serving. But we are the ground floor. We’re basically the touch point for our unhoused population. So, almost every unhoused person who has been housed through, for instance, Clatsop Community Action, who is the largest houser here in Clatsop County, first came through us. We helped to stabilize them, giving them meals and a place to sleep, while they waited for the higher barrier shelters like Columbia Inn and Helping Hands that require referrals, and up until recently, required coordinated entry, you have to live in the county six months – all the barriers. I get that style of shelter is necessary. But ours is the touch point.
Miller: You noted that you were able to start up with state funding from a bill that passed in the legislature in 2023. But my understanding is that as state budgets have gotten tighter in the last two years or so, you were hit in the last biennium with a drop in funding from the state. How big a drop was that already, and what did that mean for your services?
Orak: Last year, we were awarded roughly $450,000, a drop from the $625,000 that we had been operating on. We were able to continue on operations by laying off a couple of people and we got an emergency grant of $75,000 from a foundation. So we were able to go ahead with our full-time shelter services.
However, with this last funding allocation by the county, with their formula, initially they offered us $112,000 with no warning. There were no conversations beforehand. There was nothing until an email that we received last month with the subrecipient agreement, basically. “Go ahead and shut down” is how it felt to us, because there had been no prior conversations. And they know full well that $112,000 is not going to allow us to operate our shelter for 12 months. And in the subrecipient agreement, it stated that we had to continue operations as normal for $112,000, we had to basically guarantee that, or they would take the money back and redistribute it among the other providers.
Miller: So that’s something like a three quarters percent drop in your already cut budget. You’d already gotten from the state $620,000, down to $450,000, and now down to $112,000. And the only way you can get that money is if you can guarantee the same level of service that you’ve been providing after having gotten much more money. Do I understand that correctly?
Orak: Absolutely. And they never reached out to say, “this is likely what’s going to be happening,” there was no prior warning whatsoever. We didn’t have a seat at the table over the funding formula that the county unilaterally imposed upon us. There’s a lack of transparency and collaboration. And that’s basically what we’re demanding right now is transparency.
The multi-agency coordination group, which was formed as a mandate by the state during the first round of funding to create collaboration, has not been utilized to do so. Funding formula created by the county and real conversations about the system were never had in any meaningful way in these meetings like they were supposed to be. LiFEBoat wasn’t made aware, like I said, of the county’s plan to distribute this year’s funding until we were emailed the subrecipient agreement.
It’s not equitable. We don’t feel it’s ethical the manner in which the county has operated.
Miller: I should say that we did reach out to the Clatsop County chair who was unable to join us today. We may be able to talk to somebody from the county in the coming days. But I want to turn to what options you see right now going forward?
Orak: Right now, we are lobbying the state. We have many, many supporters who have done the same, lobbied the state and the county commission to do something different, which they did. They were going to vote in the $112,000 subrecipient agreement with the extremely skewed funding formula that they created, which largely supports the two largest providers in our county with the most resources. Now they changed it to where it’s “even,” so they’re funding each bed at the same amount across all of the shelters.
But they’re not taking into account the, I believe it’s around 70% that the state is requiring be low barrier. And they scrambled when we brought that up after they handed out the $112,000 subrecipient agreement. We reached out to the state and we reached out to the county, and then they scrambled all of a sudden. The other two major shelters, Helping Hands and CCA, scrambled to change their operations so that it more closely matched the state’s requirement of 70% low barrier, but still not quite getting there. Because up until recently, like I said, they were doing coordinated entry. You had to make an appointment that was sometimes six weeks out. So, someone who’s unhoused, doesn’t have a phone or a way to keep track of time, is supposed to keep an appointment six weeks out?
Then when they get to the appointment, they did a coordinated entry, and then they weren’t even guaranteed to get placed on a list. They utilize metrics to decide whether those people even got on a list. And then they didn’t keep track of the list. There was no way for them to get a hold of individuals because they never reached out to us, because most of those individuals utilize our services, and they could have very easily.
This whole process has just not been equitable. We need low barrier services like we provide. If they continue on with what they’re doing, they’re going to shut us out, and I believe that that’s been the plan from the beginning.
Miller: I want to turn briefly to the other issue that I mentioned, which is the new city codes which are just taking effect today, now saying that it’s illegal for people to camp on public property knowingly if they have access to “reasonable alternative shelter.” And the specifics are going to be determined on a case-by-case basis. What’s your best understanding of what that’s going to mean in practice, what that will actually mean for people who are currently sleeping outside in Astoria?
Orak: It’s going to make it extremely stressful for them. The fact of the matter is that even without our potential closure, we don’t have enough beds across the system for all the people who are out in tents and on the street in Astoria and in Clatsop County. We do not have enough beds. So for them to impose that, in my opinion, rides the line of legality and opens the city up to litigation. We simply do not have enough beds, and we are the only walk-in.
The fact of the matter is the county did not apprise the city council of what they were doing, likely because they didn’t want it to get back to us. But they didn’t tell the city council that they were planning on basically defunding us by offering us a ridiculous amount of money to operate our shelter. And we were a major piece in the city’s plan at that time, this plan that they’re rolling out now – “shelter first” or whatever they’re calling it. We were the major piece because we were gonna be where they’re gonna send everyone who’s in tents.
But now, we are likely gonna be closing by the end of the week, at least until we hear back a final decision from the state. It’s just gonna leave our participants with even less than they already had.
Miller: Osarch, thanks very much.
Orak: Thank you.
Miller: Osarch Orak is the executive director of LiFEBoat Services in Astoria.
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