A Cowlitz County program providing homeless people a place to recover and help finding housing received a grant to improve accessibly and staff time.
The Lower Columbia CAP’s Care2Home program temporarily houses homeless people who have serious health conditions that make living on the street exceptionally dangerous. CAP and Family Health Center staff work with patients to help them recover and create plans for permanent housing, said Amanda Rasmussen, CAP program development director.
Last month, Kaiser Permanente Northwest awarded the program $250,000 to help with renovations, increase case management hours and support operations over the next three years. The program also received a $50,000 grant and technical assistance for a year through a national Kaiser initiative to support medical respite programs.
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“We know how important housing is to health, particularly for folks with the health care crisis they’re experiencing when they come to CAP,” said Jennifer Jordan, Kaiser Permanente Northwest community health housing lead.
“CAP was supporting the work on their own without outside funding, which is commendable. But we hope to provide more infrastructure and longer term resources to help with long-term sustainability.”
Lower Columbia CAP partnered with the Cowlitz Family Health Center and PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center to start the program in August 2020 using grants from PeaceHealth, the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, The Healthcare Foundation and private donors.
In the past year, from Sept. 1, 2021, to Sept. 1, the program has helped 23 people, nearly double the 12 from the previous year. While each person’s length of stay depends on their condition, once someone leaves, that bed is filled within hours, Rasmussen said.
“We are consistently full,” she said. “The reason we started was because there’s such a demand, but it’s disheartening to see so many people need this.”
CAP receives program referrals from the hospital, medical and mental health providers and other community organizations. People can also self-refer, Rasmussen said.
Everyone in the program needs housing, but finding an affordable place is a huge challenge amid the county’s tight housing market, Rasmussen said.
Many program clients have mobility issues that further limit their choices, she said. Apart from finding a new rental, housing could include reconnecting with safe family or identifying a roommate situation, Rasmussen said.
The program operates out of a five-bedroom, two-story home in Kelso. Each story has an entrance with a separate kitchen, bathroom and living room. Two of the bedrooms are fully American Disabilities Act accessible.
Rasmussen said the grant will allow CAP to renovate the house to make all five bedrooms accessible. The change will help cut down on wait time for clients with mobility issues, who may have been put on a waitlist if an accessible room isn’t open, she said.
“People coming to us have an immediate need and we need to have an immediate response available,” Rasmussen said.
The three rooms being remodeled may all need to close throughout the construction depending on if things like noise and dust will affect residents, Rasmussen said.
Currently day-to-day operations are funded exclusively by CAP, and the grant funding will help expand staff time, including additional case management and in-home supports for those who need them, Rasmussen said.
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The technical support provided by National Institute for Medical Respite Care will help ensure the program is on the right track, Rasmussen said.
“We’re one of the newer programs in the country and are uniquely structured compared to others, a lot of which are in large cities and function as a branch of large shelters or hospitals,” she said. “We’re doing things completely differently, so it helps us to get mentorship on what that looks like for us.”
Kaiser Permanente’s Jordan said the organization chose to provide the grants to programs that could use a lift to expand
“With all the help we’re getting, we’re strengthening,” Rasmussen said. “With stronger partnerships, more access to resources, we’re growing and maturing as a program.”