ACCESS, Jackson County’s community action agency, is overseeing the task of dividing up $8.8 million from the state to rapidly rehouse 133 households and set up 67 shelter beds.

On Monday, the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department announced grants totaling $79.2 million to Continuums of Care in seven regions the state has deemed “emergency areas” when it comes to homelessness.

An “emergency area” is a place that since 2017 has seen at least a 50% rise in the number of houseless individuals, the OHCS explained in a release.

In January, Gov. Tina Kotek, who has made tackling homelessness a focus of her administration, declared a state of emergency around the issue. By January 2024, the governor wants to put a dent in the state’s homelessness figures.

ACCESS is the lead agency for the region’s Continuum of Care (CoC), a collection of local organizations that address housing and homelessness. ACCESS will also serve as the fiscal sponsor in charge of the grant funds.

Multi-Agency Coordinating (MAC) groups in each CoC are working to carry out Kotek’s executive orders, along with the OHCS and the state Department of Emergency Management. Jackson County’s MAC group is a subset of its CoC agencies — such as the city of Medford, Rogue Retreat and Maslow Project — and others.

In the coming days, ACCESS will put out a request for applications from organizations that can create shelter beds and rapidly rehouse people.

The grant funds are expected to become available within weeks and need to be spent by Jan. 10, 2024.

The money will likely be distributed across a handful of organizations, each committed to taking on a portion of the new shelters and rapid rehousing effort.

A third-party organization will review the proposals.

“The idea is that those that are reviewing the proposals will pull together the most efficient kind of combination,” said Carrie Borgen, executive director of ACCESS.

Rapid rehousing puts houseless families and individuals into permanent housing to help them stabilize their lives and provides them with care — from rental assistance to wraparound services to case management — to keep them housed. People in these programs bypass shelters and transitional housing.

Melanie Doshier, support services director at ACCESS, foresees her agency and other community partners working with private landlords and property management companies, advocating on behalf of unsheltered individuals and explaining the supports in place once they move into a unit.

“We’re not making new housing with this money,” Doshier said. “We’re simply working with what we got.”

Though no commitments have been made, Borgen said there is talk of continuing funding to keep the rapid rehousing program going. “That is a high priority for us,” she said.

Rehousing 133 households and adding 67 beds to the existing sheltering system is a good start, but far short of meeting the full need.

“The complexities of homelessness and housing instability, and what needs to exist in those spaces to get over those barriers and gain stability, are very huge parts of the puzzle,” Doshier said. “And without ability to address, holistically, individuals, challenges arise … which is why it takes a community.”

On Thursday, ACCESS put out a separate request for applications for project concepts around homelessness prevention. The agency has been allocated about $1.4 million to help 385 households. The submission deadline is April 27.