Local officials said the money should start to roll over the next few weeks.
Since declaring a homeless state of emergency on her first day in office Governor Tina Kotek has been working on an investment package to address homelessness.
She said this $200 million package will help fund more shelter beds and affordable housing.
$130 million will go toward implementing Governor Kotek’s state of emergency plan.
The other $70 million will go towards youth homelessness programming and a modular housing investment fund.
Medford’s Deputy City Manager Kelly Madding said, “the statistic is we’ve had in Jackson County higher than a 50% increase in homelessness from 2017 to 2022, so there is a significant need for this.”
Madding said funding from the bill will be distributed to organizations to make sure all parts of the governors state of emergency are covered.
Madding said the state will also be setting performance benchmarks for each area that receives money.
She said that will likely include increasing the amount of shelter beds available in Jackson County.
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