A rehousing program in Benton County says it's helped more than a hundred people out of homelessness in the past year.
The Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool program is a county-run service that launched last July. It offers rental assistance, case management, and other navigation services for people experiencing homelessness.
Rebecca Taylor, the Program Manager for Benton County's Coordinated Homeless Response Office, said the goal is to have rehoused 51 households by the end of the next month.
The effort is backed by two state bills, HB 5019 and SB 5701, which together provided more than $2 million in funding.
As of May 15, Taylor said the county had already rehoused 47 of the 51 households.
“Parents have been able to be reunited with their children," said Taylor. "We have single parents who are pursuing long term education goals that they've had for many years, and now have the stability to pursue that.”
Taylor said there's now efforts in the City of Corvallis to open up more housing for the program. And in April, the state awarded Benton County's Coordinated Homeless Response Office another $900,000, as part of the pilot program Housing 360.
"We are currently evaluating what our capacity is—given our current funding—to understand how we could potentially add additional households," said Taylor. "Our hope is that we will continue to find ways to increase the capacity of our programs here in Benton County."
Benton County's 2025 Point-in-Time Count hasn't yet been released, but Taylor said it's estimated that around 570 households are now experiencing homelessness.
