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City commission gives $100,000 to housing authority to help the homeless in county
CASSIDY RITTER
@CassidyRitter
An increase in the 2016 city budget could mean fewer families living at the Lawrence Community Shelter and more living in their own home.
On Aug.4, Stuart Boley, a city commissioner, and Shannon Oury, a representative for the Lawrence Housing Authority, requested an increase to the 2016 budget to assist homeless families in Lawrence.
City commissioners approved a $100,000 increase in city contributions to the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority. This money will come from the city's general operating fund, according to Assistant City Manager Casey Toomay.
"The idea is that because the shelter has come to us and asked for emergency funds from this year, I think one of the ways we could help out would be to allocate some money for 2016 to try to reduce some of the population at the shelter," Boley said at the Aug. 4 City Commission meeting.
With this increase, Boley and Oury have proposed a program for families in the Lawrence Community Shelter. The proposed program is similar to the transitional housing program, but would focus on helping families rather than individuals.
The transitional housing program would pay part of the individual or family's rent based on their income for two years, Oury said during the meeting. At the end of two years, the person is responsible for rent without the voucher program. According to Oury, there are currently 48 people on the waiting list for the program.
"It is going to enable us to get folks into housing more quickly" said Trey Meyer, director of operations at the Lawrence Community Shelter. "And once the program has been in
place for a while I do think it will help decrease the homeless population in Lawrence."
Meyer said the transitional housing program currently in place was one of the primary options for getting people out of the shelter.
The budget increase could allow the shelter to help more individuals and families, meaning University students who volunteer there can also help more people. On average, the Lawrence Community Shelter has four students volunteering each week during the summer. That number increases when classes start, Meyer said.
Justice Matters has also requested $100,000 from the city housing fund to address affordable housing. The money requested from Justice Matters will not affect the 2016 budget because the housing fund had been set aside for Justice Matters until the group was ready to address affordable living.
Toomay said there were two groups working to assist the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority: Boley and Oury are one, the other is Justice Matters.
The request from Boley and Oury will be taken from the city's general operating funds which comes from property taxes, sales taxes, franchise fees, charges for service, licenses, permits and fines, according to Toomay.
The two groups will be working toward affordable housing in Lawrence and Douglas County with a total of $200,000 from two different funds, Toomay said.
The city housing fund has a little over $100,000 and has been set aside for the Justice Matters group, Toomay said. Justice Matters does not yet have a plan for how the money would be used to change affordable housing in Lawrence and Douglas County, Toomay said.
Edited by Scott Chasen
IAN TERRY/THE HERALD
Brandon Gardner, a firefighter with Snohomish County Fire District 7, pulls a water hose into position while helping prevent a wildfire from spreading to a nearby homeowner's property near Okanogan, Wash., on Saturday.
As air quality improves in Washington state officials say wildfires may become erratic
DONNA BLANKINSHIP
BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press
OKANOGAN, Wash. — The massive cloud of smoke is expected to lift over Washington wildfires on Sunday. But as air quality improves, the fire's behavior could become more erratic and intense, fire officials said.
"It's like a flue opening in a fireplace," said Susanne Flory, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team. "Smoke serves as a cap on the fire."
The Okanogan Complex of wildfires was measured at 374 square miles Sunday morning, after growing more than 100 miles larger Saturday in what fire officials said was a relatively calm fire day.
Sunday was expected to be a different story. Once the smoke lifts, humidity drops, heat rises and fires flare up.
The complex of fires was estimated to be about 10 percent contained as of Sunday morning, fire spokesman Dan
Omdal said.
Containment does not mean the fire has stopped burning. It means it has run out of fuel to burn in that area, either because it has hit a man-made fire line, a drop from airplanes of fire retardant, a road or a lake.
The good news for Sunday is that less smoke means restrictions on air travel will be lifted and more fire tankers can drop water and chemical retardant, Flory said.
Air quality, which has been dangerously bad, will also improve when the smoke cloud lifts, but firefighters won't be able to take a breather. "We tell firefighters, if you see blue sky, heads up," Flory said.
Some of the land within the fire lines is still burning, but other sections have burned out.
"We call it a wildfire, but much of the fire has been tamed," Omdal said. "We are making progress."
Meanwhile, local officials have downgraded some evacuation notices, allowing some people to return to their homes. Thousands remain under evacuation notices.
Sarah Miller, a spokeswoman with Okanogan County Emergency Management, said residents have been warned to stay ready to leave at any time and to not drive around looking at the fires.
Steve Surgeon, a mechanic and scrap-metal seller who lost everything he owns except for his home on the outskirts of Okanogan, said he was just happy to be alive.
"People driving around are getting in the way of fire operations." Miller said.
raced over a ridge and barreled down toward his home, flames lapping just feet from his back porch.
Heaps of twisted and charred metal litter his land where the fire burned through. Surgeon estimates he lost more than $100,000 worth of property, including his shop, his motorcycle, several cars, a travel trailer and all of his tools.
He stayed in place as the fire
"I'm alive," he said with a sigh Sunday. "I shouldn't be, but I am — and that's what matters."
"But I have my life and I have my home," he said. "Everything else can be replaced."
Surgeon didn't have any insurance to help cover the cost of what he lost and was hoping the federal government would eventually offer assistance.
"But all my titles to everything were in the shop, and that's burned to the ground," he said. "I guess I'm just going to stay and just try to slowly rebuild."
being set up at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane to help fight wildfires in Washington state. The base will be the staging area for 20 large fire engines and 10 water takers and will be run by a team from San Diego.
Meanwhile, a new firefighting mobilization center is
The new firefighting resources come one day after the Obama administration approved Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's request for a federal emergency declaration to help firefighting efforts in the eastern part of the state.
The new fire engines are coming from Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado, Inslee's office said.
Sixteen large wildfires are burning across central and eastern Washington, covering more than 920 square miles. More than 200 homes have been destroyed and more than 12,000 homes and thousands of other structures remain threatened.
More than 1,000 people were fighting just the Okanogan Complex of fires on Sunday.
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS Brad Craig, right, with firefighters who he said saved his home. out-of-control fires in Washington have destroyed homes, but the situation is so chaotic that authorities have "no idea" how many have been lost.